Basti - The endless chain of 'whens'

 The world seemed to be an endless chain of 'whens.' When and when and when –

In Basti, time is presented as a continuous, uncontrollable and  irresistible force - with both the powers of healing and destruction. Rather than revolving around a single, climatic event the story unravels into a series of events and fluidly manoeuvres between past and present. The thunderstorm that wreaks havoc is shown to subside with the effect of having washed and renewed the land, "just as the loaded, overflowing bullock-carts had gone away, so they came, loaded and overflowing, back again" to Rupnagar after the plague and the shaven head of the son of one of its victims, a proclamation of mourning, gradually grew hair again and the "and the gaps in the Small Bazaar began to be filled."

  

In the same way, just a day after the "brick-hurling, slogan-shouting procession," there was peace. "No scattered bricks, no fragments of glass. The flow of traffic moved evenly. Cars traveling at their ease, a second after the first, a third after the second." The roads, the college, social interactions at the Shiraz, all resumed as if nothing had happened.

This circularity of history and insurmountable power of time serves the important function of establishing the significance of identity. For while time is able to continually restore the earth and maintain a natural harmony and balance - it is unable to affect identity - it is neither able to change it or cause it to fade. Zakir is left "empty inside, indifferent outside," wandering the streets of the city. His walking lacks purpose and identity, and thus while the muslims like, "Rupnagar's monkeys [who] had learned to live in the age of electricity," had learned to live in this new divided India, they were unable to recover their "lost trees, lost birds, lost faces." 

"I'm on the run from my own history, and catching my breath in the present. Escapist. But the merciless present pushes us back again toward our history. The mind keeps talking."

The circularity of time thus in this one instance, as pertaining to the individual consciousness, becomes linear. Its cycle of destruction and revival fails to take place and what is lost is lost forever. Aware of this, Zakir is seen to cling on to his memories, to seek refuge there from time, and protect his identity from its forces of change. 

Furthermore this conception of the circularity of time is seen to result in both anxiety and indifference. The former, along with a great sense of uncertainty is depicted by the recurring questions "What's happening? What's going to happen?" that are continually asked by different characters in the novel. However, at the same time, these questions symbolize a kind of apathy or indifference. Tumultuous, major events such as revolutions and wars, are regarded as causal topics of conversation and are seen to become a normal part of daily interactions. Furthermore, the constant posing of questions such as these suggest a renunciation of any kind of power or control over the situation. 

Yes, the overturned car near the petrol pump was still lying there on its back. But now the pedestrians' eyes showed no anxiety or astonishment, as though the car had been overturned in some other age and by now, with the passage of time, had lost its power to surprise.