Basti: The White Sari

One of the more ambiguous characters in Intizar Hussein’s Basti is the figure of Sabirah, who differentiates from the others not just as a Muslim exile in India but also as someone difficult to place in a single position. While the others are visibly displaced, Sabirah is difficult to label in the same way—one may argue that she has moved on while others remain caught in suspension, and for that she is the only heroic figure in an otherwise anti-heroic story. One may also say that she is indeed displaced and living in misery in Delhi. Overall, she possesses an elusive air that makes her own state of being open to interpretation.

With this in mind, we can consider her attire in terms of what it may represent as a motif in the story for her, for the displaced masses and for the newborn nation of Pakistan. Sabirah takes up a white sari which becomes tied to her identity as she dresses this way on a regular basis. The power of the sari is that it is different from her religion's attire—Muslim women don't usually don saris; it is a Hindu look.  This is the sari as a symbol of rebellion; as Sabirah rejects convention and social norms, so does she reject the burka in favor of the dress of the ‘enemy.’ It is not to say she is siding with the enemy for no such implication is made; however one cannot deny the rebel in her and how this ties in with her white sari.

The white sari is plain, without design or pattern to give its form a shape or symmetry; a sort of blank map or tabula rasa. This could serve to reflect that she is indeed displaced as she seems more withdrawn, more objective to the need for a home or ties—such as her evading old relations when she cuts off Zakir with a “Dekhaiye aap ne ghalat ilaaqay mei qadam rakh diya hai.” Her place is undefined; she does not mourn, but the displacement and loss she feels is evoked in her sari’s blank state. That it resembles a Hindu mourning dress only adds to this sense of loss.

The dress also ties in with the issue of religion. Religion could not serve as a dwelling place for the displaced characters in Basti, from the sceptic Zakir to his formerly devout-turned-doubtful father. It held a place and then was unable to retain it as it could not save its people from general displacement and in fact only added to their alienation (for partition held division on the basis of religion). The Muslims had to leave, or stay behind as displaced members. The sari is Hindu attire and may serve Sabirah as a way to distinguish herself from the religion that few can connect to at that point. It reflects a taking up of another identity to replace one’s own lost identity.

Finally, the white sari could serve to reflect the larger scheme of things-- something greater than herself, which yet is symbolised by her: as the elusive character that one cannot place, she reflects the present and impending future of an infant nation and a displaced people. As the sari is without pattern or design, so too is the case with the displaced people who cannot find themselves any form or outline, any solidity or order (such as a home or a basti) as this infant nation has yet to be thought of as a nation and not just a dissected portion of another land (because of which it too lacks form).

For the beautiful, elusive Sabirah, her white sari is her identity, her one defining factor that ties in with her own multitudinous nature as it captures her strength (rebellion and differentiation in religious status) and her likely weakness (lost identity and displacement). The sari represents a bittersweet state of being for all those displaced or ready to move on, and for that, it is a subtle yet powerful motif in Hussein’s modernist novel.