The Half Mother: A Review

Agony has a universal language. We as humans are implicated in each other’s sufferings. ‘The Half Mother”, Shahnaz Bashir’s debut novel is one of the few novels written by a Kashmiri himself that has successfully taken up the cause of depicting the anguish and sheer pain experienced by most of the mothers of the splendid valley in its true form. One of the purposes of the trend in Kashmiri writers of writing the book in English is obviously to reach extended audience. Additionally, they can portray before the same bigger audience the kind of traumas, affliction and sufferings that majority of Kashmiris have been facing till now at the hands of grossly immoral and barbaric Indian forces.

The novel circulates around the protagonist, Haleema, and her struggle to locate her only son Imran who was taken away by the relentless Indian Army. It may be mentioned here that the novel is a depiction of reality in Kashmir which is under illegal occupation of Indian forces since past several decades. So this is a story describing the plight of a Kashmiri family at the hands of cruel Indian forces i.e., a story of oppressed and the oppressors. There should be no question of neutrality on the part of any reader or reviewer. Our sympathies should be with the oppressed and not the oppressors.

The novel exquisitely narrates the story of Haleema who lost her mother at an early age. The setting of the novel is Natipora on the outskirts of Srinagar during 1990s when the war between Kashmiri freedom fighters and the Indian occupant forces started. This is the time when Haleema is living with her father Ghulam Rassol Joo (Ab Jan) and her only son Imran born out of her marriage that lasted only three months.

The Indian barbarians killed Ab Jan after which it was really hard for Haleema to make both ends meet while looking after Imran. The death of Ab Jan was not just the start of misery for Haleema. It was, in fact, the threshold of a painful journey into darkness with the forced disappearance of her only son, Imran, at the hands of Indians.

The disappearance of Imran was a significant blow to Haleema’s hopes for a better future. Imran was the only ray of hope for her. With his disappearance, she had been turned from ‘Mother’ into a ‘Half Mother’ – a mother with her son lost and with no knowledge as to if he was dead or alive. The uncertainty about the life of Imran was the real pain for her.

Every day she would move out in search of her lost son and visit jails and torture centers run by the Indians but to no avail. Cherishing her dear son’s memories, she would sing: “O crescent moon, why do you hide from me? Sulking as you are, why have you kept from me?” The writer has beautifully portrayed Haleema’s unending efforts to locate her son. In doing so, the writer has not only described the agony and sufferings of Haleema, but also has aptly exposed the brutalities, cruelty and indifference of Indian forces.

It was only hope of finding her son that kept Haleema alive. But her unsuccessful search at the end of every day was dealing a significant blow to her hopes and health. She continued to hope against hope of finding her son. She, in fact, live every day and died every day. With the passage of time, her physical and mental health kept on degrading.

She would constantly keep on looking towards the window with the hope that her son would just be come and knock at the door. But all her wishes and hopes kept on melting away. The writer has delicately described Haleema’s inner pains perhaps due to the fact that the writer himself belongs to Kashmir and must have observed many similar cases of sufferings at the hands of occupied forces.

This novel is a significant and successful effort to portray the extent of agonies of its protagonist, Haleema, to create wider awareness about Kashmiri struggle against illegitimate occupation. However, as I see, it does miss a passion of sacrifice for the Kashmiri struggle as a whole on the part of Haleema though both her father and son in reality died for the same cause.

If she had thought that her son was just one of many being martyred every day, she would not have gone through such trauma and would not have ended up her life as portrayed in novel. In fact, as we observe every day, most Kashmiris are out there for any sacrifice for their freedom. Such passion of sacrifice is totally absent in the character of the protagonist. A story parallel to this could have been written with message of sacrifice and hope for the freedom of Kashmir. But, perhaps, it is easier said than done. And Haleema was a ‘half mother’!

To sum up, the novel is an excellent effort to create wider awareness among the world community about the brutalities and relentlessness of Indian forces. The narrative and the story of the novel is such that one gets absorbed into it and is glued to it till the end. The language of the author is delicate. The author uses his own experience as a Kashmiri in creating the protagonist of this novel and has described the deep pain and suffering of the protagonist as if it is happening to him, and cruelties and inhumanity of the men in uniform.

However, the end of the novel does not seem to me as convincing. There could have been a better ending serving both to create awareness among the world community and to strengthen the struggle of Kashmiris for their freedom by giving a message to the Kashmiri audience that no matter what pain and suffering an individual Kashmiri might go through, he or she values his collective identity as Kashmiri more than anything else.

Pakistan: A People’s Republic or An Islamic Republic?

Yesterday, on Saturday, July 30th 2016, I got an opportunity to become part of a thought-provoking conference in Hyderabad, the second largest city in Sindh.  The conference was titled as Interfaith Youth Dialogue and Festival, arranged by a young social activist and past Pak-US exchange alumni, Dr. Rajesh Kumar. The session was led by some of the prominent personalities in the Sindh covering intellectuals, mystic poets, human right activists and academia.

The conference put lights on many important issues of religious intolerance and religious supremacy prevailing in the Sindh and Pakistan, in general.

During the conference, by listening to the panelists and with my own thought pattern, I summarized some of my thoughts on the issues and what I think we can do to curb them.

Here is a conflict now. If you pick a currency coin or any bill in Pakistan, it says the name of our country as “Islamic Republic of Pakistan”. This causes an inherent flaw in our so called democratic form of the government. The constitution of Pakistan which regards Islam as an official religion of the state portrays an inherent religious supremacy of one religion over all affairs of the state and other religions. The truth is that, a state has no religion. If I say it more clearly then I would say, the state is not run by any belief system.

It must be neutral from any particular belief system. The state can’t even be an atheist because that would still be treated as a belief system in where actually you don’t believe, actually. So a true democratic state would keep religion and the state affairs as two separate things. The problem in Pakistan and the reason why we are lacking behind in our collective social and moral uplift is that we have often seen state affairs with the lens of religious affairs. How can a country where people from other faiths are living and contributing their part since centuries can make sure that they own the state and buy into the decisions it imposes on them?

In Pakistan, a Hindu, a Christian, a Buddhist or any other faith in minority can’t run for the high level public offices like Presidency, Prime Ministership or Chief of Army Staff. How can we regard Pakistan as a democratic state where one faith is regarded as only doctrine by which everything will be measured?  The same constitution also proclaims to provide equal rights to the every citizen of Pakistan. This shows the double standards or ignorance of the public policy makers. Some of the people take pride while quoting that Pakistan is the only country in the world which was created on the name of Islam.

Are you trying to say, that all other religious groups are like unattended sheep in a jungle. Let it be clear that I am not against any religion of the world. I respect and in fact I follow every religion. Because, I see every religion as a teaching guide to live a prosperous and successful life. What I don’t like is narrow-mindedness of people in power who fail to understand that other faiths who are in minorities also regard themselves as Pakistanis. I am a Pakistani. FULL STOP. That should suffice for the state to get me qualified for the basic rights.


Every successful society has always been an interdependent society where people from different faiths are interdependent on each others’ skills and talents. I am dependent on a superstore to buy my groceries and the store is dependent on me to earn its business. So in the same way, every citizen of a society carries different identities with him/her self. Some are businessmen, doctors or engineers and some are artists or musicians.

The idea is to channelize these various identities and talents each participant of society has to offer to do collective good for the society and not to materialize the differences of individual religions or backgrounds and create an environment of a jungle where might is always right and everybody else is just there to exist on its own.

The term “minority” itself gives a fall sense of state. Where there is a minority, there also has to exist a majority. Like I said earlier, in a true democratic form of government, there is not such a term of minority or majority as everybody has equal rights and equally accountable before rule of law. In a state’s dictionary, these both terms should be deleted permanently as it will always create a division of rights and responsibilities.

The term “Secularism” is often misinterpreted in Pakistan as something which creates a perception of a religion-less society where people don’t follow their faiths. It is a very wrong interpretation. Secularism is the concept of the same principle I have been saying in upper part of this write-up which is simply to keep the government and its institutions separate from any religion and religious institutions. In my view, religion is a very personal dogma. It should always be between me and my Creator. Let it not become a public affair and let it always be a private thing.

So where are we heading now? It has been almost 70 years since we got free from British colonialism. 70 years was so enough and too much time for us to make Pakistan a prosperous and a true democratic society.  But due to many political and religious conflicts we have been put into by various political leaders in the past, this is very unfortunate that we are still talking about the issues of education, health, poverty, infrastructure and religious intolerance. There are many examples of countries in front of us who took the different path and turned around their economies and social fabric of their societies in a few decades.

In summary, what I learned from my observations in yesterday’s conference and especially after spending a wonderful time in the United States and seeing the level of religious intolerance there, I can say that as a society we have to fight with our own moral corruption first before fighting with the corruption in the government institutions.  Our collective level of morality has become so low that we can’t tolerate people from other faiths and still we are fine with the economic corruption. It is a need of the hour that we start becoming responsible for our own blunders.

I can tell you that this is much harder to fight with than any other type of corruption. It is like, we who have to change before changing our politics. The crime and corruption is inside us. Don’t find them inside political dorms. It is the time we revive the beautiful history of Sindh which was famous for its high caliber of hospitality and religious tolerance.

Let’s imagine and work towards for a Pakistan where we all live together with peace and harmony, where people don’t take religion as a point of fight but a point to think, understand and respect. Where our children are not educated to fight with other religions or to make them feel like all other religions are wrong and have no right to live. Instead, we should teach them to respect and understand every religion and to capitalize on the points which are similar to their own religion while still respecting the differences.

Pakistan Zindabad!

Pakistan: A People’s Republic or An Islamic Republic?

Yesterday, on Saturday, July 30th 2016, I got an opportunity to become part of a thought-provoking conference in Hyderabad, the second largest city in Sindh.  The conference was titled as Interfaith Youth Dialogue and Festival, arranged by a young social activist and past Pak-US exchange alumni, Dr. Rajesh Kumar. The session was led by some of the prominent personalities in the Sindh covering intellectuals, mystic poets, human right activists and academia.

The conference put lights on many important issues of religious intolerance and religious supremacy prevailing in the Sindh and Pakistan, in general.

During the conference, by listening to the panelists and with my own thought pattern, I summarized some of my thoughts on the issues and what I think we can do to curb them.

Here is a conflict now. If you pick a currency coin or any bill in Pakistan, it says the name of our country as “Islamic Republic of Pakistan”. This causes an inherent flaw in our so called democratic form of the government. The constitution of Pakistan which regards Islam as an official religion of the state portrays an inherent religious supremacy of one religion over all affairs of the state and other religions. The truth is that, a state has no religion. If I say it more clearly then I would say, the state is not run by any belief system.

It must be neutral from any particular belief system. The state can’t even be an atheist because that would still be treated as a belief system in where actually you don’t believe, actually. So a true democratic state would keep religion and the state affairs as two separate things. The problem in Pakistan and the reason why we are lacking behind in our collective social and moral uplift is that we have often seen state affairs with the lens of religious affairs. How can a country where people from other faiths are living and contributing their part since centuries can make sure that they own the state and buy into the decisions it imposes on them?

In Pakistan, a Hindu, a Christian, a Buddhist or any other faith in minority can’t run for the high level public offices like Presidency, Prime Ministership or Chief of Army Staff. How can we regard Pakistan as a democratic state where one faith is regarded as only doctrine by which everything will be measured?  The same constitution also proclaims to provide equal rights to the every citizen of Pakistan. This shows the double standards or ignorance of the public policy makers. Some of the people take pride while quoting that Pakistan is the only country in the world which was created on the name of Islam.

Are you trying to say, that all other religious groups are like unattended sheep in a jungle. Let it be clear that I am not against any religion of the world. I respect and in fact I follow every religion. Because, I see every religion as a teaching guide to live a prosperous and successful life. What I don’t like is narrow-mindedness of people in power who fail to understand that other faiths who are in minorities also regard themselves as Pakistanis. I am a Pakistani. FULL STOP. That should suffice for the state to get me qualified for the basic rights.

Every successful society has always been an interdependent society where people from different faiths are interdependent on each others’ skills and talents. I am dependent on a superstore to buy my groceries and the store is dependent on me to earn its business. So in the same way, every citizen of a society carries different identities with him/her self. Some are businessmen, doctors or engineers and some are artists or musicians.

The idea is to channelize these various identities and talents each participant of society has to offer to do collective good for the society and not to materialize the differences of individual religions or backgrounds and create an environment of a jungle where might is always right and everybody else is just there to exist on its own.

The term “minority” itself gives a fall sense of state. Where there is a minority, there also has to exist a majority. Like I said earlier, in a true democratic form of government, there is not such a term of minority or majority as everybody has equal rights and equally accountable before rule of law. In a state’s dictionary, these both terms should be deleted permanently as it will always create a division of rights and responsibilities.

The term “Secularism” is often misinterpreted in Pakistan as something which creates a perception of a religion-less society where people don’t follow their faiths. It is a very wrong interpretation. Secularism is the concept of the same principle I have been saying in upper part of this write-up which is simply to keep the government and its institutions separate from any religion and religious institutions. In my view, religion is a very personal dogma. It should always be between me and my Creator. Let it not become a public affair and let it always be a private thing.

So where are we heading now? It has been almost 70 years since we got free from British colonialism. 70 years was so enough and too much time for us to make Pakistan a prosperous and a true democratic society.  But due to many political and religious conflicts we have been put into by various political leaders in the past, this is very unfortunate that we are still talking about the issues of education, health, poverty, infrastructure and religious intolerance. There are many examples of countries in front of us who took the different path and turned around their economies and social fabric of their societies in a few decades.

In summary, what I learned from my observations in yesterday’s conference and especially after spending a wonderful time in the United States and seeing the level of religious intolerance there, I can say that as a society we have to fight with our own moral corruption first before fighting with the corruption in the government institutions.  Our collective level of morality has become so low that we can’t tolerate people from other faiths and still we are fine with the economic corruption. It is a need of the hour that we start becoming responsible for our own blunders.

I can tell you that this is much harder to fight with than any other type of corruption. It is like, we who have to change before changing our politics. The crime and corruption is inside us. Don’t find them inside political dorms. It is the time we revive the beautiful history of Sindh which was famous for its high caliber of hospitality and religious tolerance.

Let’s imagine and work towards for a Pakistan where we all live together with peace and harmony, where people don’t take religion as a point of fight but a point to think, understand and respect. Where our children are not educated to fight with other religions or to make them feel like all other religions are wrong and have no right to live. Instead, we should teach them to respect and understand every religion and to capitalize on the points which are similar to their own religion while still respecting the differences.