Abstract
Abstract Urdu fiction writers have employed diverse ways and techniques to register the theme of migration. Perhaps the most well-known literary voice to explore this theme is that of Intizar Hussain, one of the pioneers of modern Urdu short story, who migrated from Bulandshahr (UP) to Lahore. Surendra Prakash, who migrated from Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) to Delhi and is also considered a pioneer of modern Urdu short story, offers a contrasting approach to the theme. Born to a Hindu Punjabi family in 1930, Prakash learned Urdu—not Hindi. His experience of migration differed much from that of Intizar Hussain. While Hussain’s fiction about migration contains the traces of ideology, Prakash had to migrate to Delhi not because of any ideological leanings, but rather urgent necessity. We find the theme of migration lurking in all four collections of his short stories (Dūsre Ādmī kā Drawing Room, Barf par Mukālamah, Bāz-goʾī and Ḥāẓir, Ḥāl Jārī). His short stories seem to subvert the very idea of “one nation” which was based on the formula of “one language and one religion.” This study aims at how Prakash’s work juxtaposes the plural, synthetic culture of pre-Partition days to the monolithic, religious-nationalistic culture that took shape after Partition.
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