APOLITICALLY POLITICAL EPIC

Abstract

This article explores how the narrative Noor by Surrayya Khan presents a description of whole political scenario of before and after the 1971 war through the memories of Sajida and Ali, retrieved by the paintings of Noor, the down-syndrome daughter of Sajida. Khan has manipulated the aspect of memory as a tool to scratch the scars of political history of 1971 war. This article runs over the stance that under the guise of a domestic tragedy, Noor is a political document of the events which led to the outbreak of war of 1971 and of the atrocious events which were committed to the Eastern Muslims by the West Pakistan Muslims after the culmination of war. Noor is a political narrative narrated by khan apolitically. The characters in the novel don’t represent a family rather a political drama which was enacted historically during the war of 1971. My argument is premised on the concept that Noor’s paintings become the ‘sites of memories’ for both Sajida and Ali and convert the narrative into a type of ‘fictional site of memory’ in the domain of historical politics of West Pakistan related to East Pakistan. These simple paintings work as an impressionistic historical memorial of a political paranoia.