Qurratulain Hyder and the Crosscurrents of Culture, Class and Gender in her Fictional works

Abstract

Qurratulain Hyder’s literary oeuvre ranges from being the most significant and powerful novelist and short-story writer, an academic and a journalist. Her novels are a rich source of the cultural history of the subcontinent. She lived through the partition of India and like other significant writers of this phase, she was also moved by its traumatic history. Hyder’s personal experiences in both India and Pakistan, helped her in reflecting upon this phase in history with honesty and veracity, and she continued to uphold the values of the syncretic Indo-Muslim cultural heritage of the subcontinent. Critics have often accused her of nostalgically dwelling upon the travails of the upper classes of the society, but some of her most memorable characters come from the lower strata or margins of communities, like Rashke Qamar and Jamilan in ‘Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya na Kijo’, Peroja Dastoor in ‘Nazara Darmiyan Hai’ and Gulnar and Gulzar Bai in ‘Dilruba’. She along with the major writers of her time, i.e., Rashid Jahan and Ismat Chugtai, questioned the prescribed gender roles, and challenged the stereotypical representation of women in South Asia, and provided her readers with an insight into life behind the veil, and we often encounter strong female protagonists in her novels. Hyder’s works display her marvellous knowledge and experience, and her deep perception and understanding of human nature, her eclecticism and her humanism.

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