Abstract

The current research analyzes Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers and Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire in the light of the concept of ambivalence, hybridity, and mimicry, and the way these texts establish a connection with trans-culturalism, terrorism, and Islamophobia. If Shamsie’s novel Home Fire highlights the issue of fundamentalism and its effect on the distorted image of Muslim immigrants, similarly, Aslam's counsels cultural hybridity among diversity and heterogeneity for lasting peace and prosperity in diasporic societies. The present study not only explores the feelings of alienation, ambivalence and interdependency of trans-culturalism but also sheds impartial light on the clash of cultures and the subsequent issues, such as subjugation, exploitation, victimization, and injustice meted out to the Muslim Community across the globe on foreign soil. The researchers have adapted qualitative and descriptive methods while relying on the thorough reading of the selected British-Asian novels as well as the related critical reviews.

Key Words

Diaspora Identity, Nadeem Aslam, Map for Lost Lovers, Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire, Novels

Introduction

The problem of diaspora is said to have triggered multiple types of research carried out in the context of diaspora. These researchers (e.g., Bhatia, 2008; Arif & Parveen, 2014; Veyret, 2021) tried to analyze and interpret the basic criterion of the diaspora in Postcolonial studies. Emphasis on religion, ethnicity, and immigrants' nostalgia for foreign lands have always been the mainstay for researchers in the area of diaspora. The rise of Multiculturalism and Multinationalism has made the interpretations of the phenomenon of diaspora more complex for scholars to interpret. With the present web of complex interpretations of the phenomenon of the diaspora in mind, this study concentrates on the ideological dimension of the diaspora. Ilyas (2018) argued that the true understanding of diaspora is the study of a feeling of alienation during the process of inadvertent assimilation into a different culture. The 'Diaspora' is as old as religion itself, as its roots can be traced back to the translation of the Old Testament. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines the term diaspora as “the movement of people from any nation or group away from their own country”. The present study is an effort to explore and analyze the crisis of representation of diasporic identity in the literary works of Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers and Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire with a special focus on marginalization on the basis of social status, religion and gender along with identity crisis experienced by immigrants. The said novels are rich with the themes of identity crises, otherness, and cultural stereotypes. The researchers aimed at bringing to the fore the miseries of the protagonists and how they succeed and surmount all the odds in the story.   In Maps for Lost Lovers, the seedbed of conflict is religion, race and culture. The afflictions of love faced by immigrant lovers during hard times certainly arouse our sympathy for them. The novel opens with the epigram from Octavio Paz. “A human being is never what he is but the self he seeks”. This quotation highlights Aslam's quest for the exploration of identity crises to its extreme. Shamas, whose father is a Hindu but his mother a Muslim, remains in the spotlight throughout the story. He himself is not a firm believer and, with the passage of time, becomes a poet and it is the cultural format of being a Muslim within him that he finds himself drifting to Communism. He marries Koukab and leaves Pakistan for England to seek a handsome job. In England, he could not detach himself from his own culture, but, at the same time, his struggle to assimilate into the Western culture exposes him to the challenges of immigrant miseries on the basis of a clash between two different cultures and identities. In the novel, the term ‘othering’ as used by Aslam symbolizes the dilemmas caused by the West and its society.  

Shamsie’s Home Fire truly depicts a post-9/11 scenario in England. The laws England introduced after the incident speaks of intolerance and are, by and large, indicative of the miseries the Muslims have to face.  The changes to citizenship laws that England introduced after 9/11 speak of intolerance and bring more misery to the Muslim population living in the UK. The characters of Karamat Lone and Parvaiz Pasha colligate with each other, both representing extremes, i.e., Westoxification and Fundamentalism. The way the sad love affair between Aneeka, sister of Parvaiz Pasha, and Eammon, son of Karamat Lone, damage their destinies is simply inconsolable. 

At present, immigration from Asian countries to England is synonymous with success, and prosperity, and is considered to be a certificate to a ‘secure future’ not only for the migrating individual but his/her family, as well. Apparently, they, no doubt, achieve what they dream of, but at the cost of their identity and culture. In the new country, the immigrant has a hard time adapting and assimilating the culture, costumes and norms which sometimes are taboo in their own/previous culture. The manifestation of this dilemma can be seen throughout the South Asian diaspora fiction. For example, in The Namesake (2004), Ashima and Ashoke, struggle and achieve success in adopting and accommodating the new identity and culture for their prosperous and successful life by making a great sacrifice.

Diaspora

The study of the diaspora in the last decade has received a greater significance in the field of literature because of the drastic change in its interpretation and perception (Tölölyan, 1996). Theorists (e.g., Gilroy, 1993; Young, 2012; & Hall, 2014) have adopted different approaches which provide several interpretations which include implications of the term ‘diaspora’. It is proven by arguments that diaspora for immigrants is a physical encounter followed by adjustment after they are successful through the physical, social, and psychological traumas. Diaspora and immigration are constantly concomitant in a foreign land. It includes the settlement of people in unfamiliar places far away from their homeland. It is a dynamic phenomenon that has always affected the thoughts and lifestyles of immigrants. Different ideologies are developed in the spectrum of political, religious, and cultural influences that has a direct bearing on identity.




Diaspora after 9/11 

Tragic events like 9/11 and 11-M bombing,

 universally known and accepted as a terrorist attack by an extremist faction of the Muslim population, gave rise to inter-faith suspicion and thus altered the ideology of the world. Not only America but the entire Western countries including the UK, Canada, France, and Germany stocked the flames of Islamophobia and the result was the extreme reaction of hatred towards innocent Muslim communities living in the Western countries. Islamophobia stands for fear and rage for Islam, hostility and hatred for Muslims. The confirmed prejudiced practices against Muslim communities in the West are on the rise and stringent measures are required to save and protect the basic rights of Muslim communities (Green, 2019). The 21st century was welcomed by transnational terrorism and the word Islamophobia gained more fame in social, religious and political discourse as the Muslims residing in the West suffered on account of Islamophobic restriction and barriers in personal, civil, political and religious liberties. 

The incident of 9/11, which led to the War on Terror by the West against terrorists, gave birth to multiple questions on ambivalence, hybridity, Islamophobia and diaspora which now constitute major themes of Postcolonial literature (Jasen & Nayar, 2010). The Western countries further foment the divide on colonial boundaries by raising the slogan, ‘us’ and ‘them’ by manning their boundaries in an inhuman manner and hostile manner which never was the case in the past. According to Nayar Postcolonial ideology of terror and Islamophobia can be redefined, if Asian writers direct their works on Postcolonialism to the benefits of mutual coexistence and how a state of insecurity can be harmful to both "us" and "them" and also present Asia the "Other" as multicultural, adaptive and tolerant (p.p.203-204). Stierstorfer's (2014) in his study explains postcolonial Islamic fundamentalism by giving it the name of the socio-religious phenomenon and presenting it as writing back or striking back to Western legislation for the process of Westernization in the Postcolonial era.

Research Questions

This study will attempt to answer the stated questions: 

1. What are the reasons that lead to identity issues in various characters as portrayed by Aslam in Maps for Lost Lovers and Shamise’s Home Fire?

2. How do the characters make an effort to regain their identity in the selected texts?  

Literature Review

The radical changes in culture and identity have always intrigued researchers in the field of Postcolonial Studies. Bhabha's ideas of hybridity in culture and identity have been playing a prominent role in this area of investigation. The term "Hybridity" used by him effectively attracts researchers towards the questions related to the contemporary notions and institutions of polarity, hierarchy, binaries and symmetry with help of hybridity in the frame of transculturation, which was the result of putting together different languages, racial groups, cultures, religions, politics and social norms in Postcolonial epoch. Singh (2009) is of the view that Bhabha’s usage of the term “Hybridity” in Postcolonial literature is factual notwithstanding the impact of Jacques Lucan, Freud and Jacques Derrida on him. Bhabha (1994) argued that, 

“If the effect of colonial power is seen to be the production of hybridization rather than the noisy command of colonialist authority or the silent repression of native traditions, then an important change of perspective occurs. The ambivalence at the source of traditional discourses on authority enables a form of subversion, founded on the un-decidability that turns the discursive conditions of dominance into the grounds of intervention”. (p. 112)

Hybridity is capable to repudiate duality but is the idea and notion that can portray the accurate images of subaltern agencies, as well as it has the competence to modify and rearrange the power of dominating culture (Prabhu, 2007). Bhabha's concept about culture change is that an irresistible connection can be seen in cultural interchange, clash, amalgamation, modification and harmony as cultures change according to situation and time (Rutherford, 1990) and hybridity can be found in every culture (Jay, 1999) on this account, the statements and standings on the purity and essentiality of the status of any culture or identity are erroneous in the dubious scenario of Postcolonialism (Aschcroft, 1998). He claims the fragility of cultural identity and culture and argues that hybridity is the evidence that cultures are never detached from each other and it is the contact between them that led to the hybridity of culture and identity (Huddart, 2006) and that can be observed in the UK; the multicultural country in the shape of British-Afghani, British Pakistani, British-Indian and in a broader group British-Asian. 

According to Kraidy (2005), hybridity is the mandatory celebration that is the result of cultural and identical fusion and difference which resonates with the slogans of globalization and unrestrained exchange of economics and is supposed to be the unstoppable variation of different cultures (p.1). Nevertheless, different theorists of Postcolonial literature like Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, Paul Gilroy and Stuart Hall have different approaches towards the concept of identity and cultural hybridity through all their concepts share the associations with the belief of syncretism and this is why, sometimes, it brings difficulties in the theorization (Bardhan, 2012; Grossberg, 1996; Kraidy, 2002; Kraidy, 2005).  For instance, May (2009) explains a misconception about hybridity as the amalgamation of different nations and hence they are bounded to each other but they draw a superficial attitude toward the theory of hybridity that moulds to descriptive as it should have been analytical as well utilitarian as it must be critical. 

The notion of “third space” is presented as an important principle in Postcolonial studies by being considered as the meeting point of continuous interaction and involvement of the different cultures (Bhabha, 2012). He argues that it is the space where opportunity is given to a person to expand, find and elaborate oneself in the flux of cultural hybridity. A single identity cannot be partially or completely mutated into another but the collective and continuous process of adaptation, struggle and interaction of different identities results in the modification and adaptation of culture and identity (Ashcroft, Griffiths, & Tiffin, 1998). Bhabha (1994) stated that the “third space” is free from rigidness and simultaneity and it is a place where the exchange of cultures and identities takes place.

“Third Space” can exercise as a platform of distinction solemnised by the immigrant as they challenged the binarism statements of rejection versus assimilation that result in the experience of immigrants in terms of wholeness, homogeneity and sameness (Bhabha, 1994; Bardhan, 2012). Bardhan (2011), working on hybridity and diaspora claimed that hybridity and diaspora are able to deconstruct the existing binary notions of cultural hybridity and difference in the shape of Us/them and other negative notions that exist between the East and West. In the fullness of time, such a prototypic switch gives birth to new ways of placing identity in the unstable situation that always remain in the middle of two or more two cultures or worlds (Urban, 2007). For example, a transitional place can be adopted by the immigrants in order to act the difference as the guide for the purpose of interruption and showing their existence in daily life (Warren, 2008).  

Kamila Shamie’s Home Fire is a premonition to drive immigrants especially, Pakistani Muslim immigrants to isolation and subjugation by introducing harsher government policies of anti-terrorism and anti-immigration. Kamila Shamsie in her novel asserts that families having such background should be given more importance and preference by both the government and society in order to maintain unity in the nation instead of subjugating and victimizing them by the fundamentalist and terrorist actions of their family members. Subjugation and nullification of their citizenship is not the solution to decreasing fundamentalism but it highlights Western Islamophobia (Shaheen, Qamar, & Islam, 2018). (Green, 2019) argued examined that the exclusive and extreme steps by the government against terrorism and fundamentalism will stimulate islamophobia as well incite the marginalized group to more aggressive fundamentalist and terrorist actions. The government need to look after the fame of islamophobia instead of introducing strict immigration and terrorism laws after 7/7 and 9/11. Haynes (2017) and Palat (2017) think of Home Fire as the contemporary Antigone or the modern and contemporary re-narration of the famous classic Greek mythology. Weber (2017) points out the similarity of the dark legacy of the family as the theme shared by Shamsie’s Home Fire and Sophocles’ Antigone and stated that she used her novel’s source (Antigone) in a far distant way by giving it a more contemporaneous context.  Scholes (2017) and Akbar (2017) have the same opinions and state that Home Fire is the contemporary remaking of a famous Greek tragedy. Garner (2017) explores family love, jihad, immigration, terrorism, fundamentalism, hatred attitude of Western towards the Muslim community and introduces the harsh government policies towards terrorism, anti-immigration and fundamentalism as the main concern of Home Fire. Schaub (2017) observes that Home Fire is the uncertainty between the Muslim community and the Western government and people after the incident of 7/7 and 9/11, even though it places a contemporary whirl on the famous Greek Tragedy Antigone. Felsenthal (2017) argues that Home Fire troughs light on the harsh government policies of immigration and citizenship by abolishing the citizenship of naturalized citizens by suspecting them as having links or connections with terrorism and terrorist groups

Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers explores and analyzes the crisis of diasporic identity. Marginalization on the basis of social status, religion and gender along with the identity crisis experienced by immigrants in other countries will be analyzed in this research. The said novels are fully rich with the themes of identity crises, otherness and cultural stereotypes. Clair Chambers is a renowned author and critic in Postcolonial Studies. In her book British Muslim Fiction: Interviews with Contemporary Writers (2011), she considers Nadeem Aslam as the most prominent British-Muslim novelist. Clair has stated that "Nadeem Aslam is a lyrical chronicler of religious abuses both in his native Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan, and in South Asian communities in England” (p. 19) She further elaborates on the said novel as: “the most gorgeously written British novel of the year” While using the words of Boyd Tonkin, she proves that Aslam is strong and clear in his condemnation of superstitions associated with Islam, which harm many people, particularly women” (p. 137).  Besides this, Chambers (2011) further opined that this work is the reflection of the racism, necessity, identity crises and alienation of diasporic communities in England because of Islamophobia, which spread speedily after 9/11 and led to the emergence of 'the war on terror. 

Eckstein, Korte, Pirker, and Reinfandt (2008) highlight the expressions of racism that mould the creation of diasporic identities in Maps for Lost Lovers. The novel describes the racial stereotypes used by communities to protect themselves from cultural supremacy not only of the natives but of Asian diasporic communities settled in the UK. Furthermore, the economical, religious, social and identity crises cause depression in the life of immigrants. Riaz and Babaee (2015) argue that the unfamiliar faces around them stir up their consciousness. The feeling of being threatened regarding their identity, culture, religion, relationship and language always remains somewhere within their minds throughout their lives as immigrants. Waterman (2010) describes modernity in Maps for Lost Lovers by stating that the novelist has successfully created the requirement of remembering for the purpose of maintaining cultural identity and cohesion with the diasporic identity of Pakistani immigrants. For the success of cultural preservation and cohesion with diasporic identity, he recommends proffering Exemplary memory over literal memory, this recommendation of Exemplary memory relates to Bhabha's concept of “third space” for the determination of preserving cultural identity.

Theoretical Framework

In the textual analysis, understanding and exploration of identity, human behaviours and actions as portrayed in diaspora literature depend upon the immigrants’ socio-cultural, political, and religious transformation because of displacement. Bhabha’s concept of cultural hybridity provides a framework for the present study. Diasporic Identity in Postcolonial theory is the central issue that causes other problems, such as identity crises, otherness, stereotypes, mimicry, class, religion, ambivalence, geography, ethnicity, and hybridity. The prominent postcolonial theorist Bhabha's theory on identity crises highlights the conspicuous issues of identity crises, otherness, stereotypes, mimicry, class, religion, ambivalence, geography, ethnicity and hybridity. His main concern in this theory is the above-mentioned issues and their relation to post-colonialism. Bhabha’s theory of Postcolonialism and the concept of cultural hybridity provide the basic framework for this study, as these theories discuss various aspects and complexities related to identity.

Analysis and Discussion

Culture is a set of shared attitudes that includes the information that can influence an individual's behaviour that is acquired from other members of the community through imitation, teaching and other means of social, cultural and religious communication and transmission (Puttaiah, 2012). Tylor (1871) stated that Culture gives rise to the thoughts, beliefs, ideas, actions and social, religious and political practices of the community because it is a social phenomenon shared by specific members of the community. Culture is a phenomenon that is not inherited but is learnt. Culture is the phenomenon consisting of certain laws, art, beliefs, ideas, customs, morals and trends with the process of learning or acquisition.

The incidents of 9/11 and 7/7 affected not only British Muslim identity but the overall Muslim identity throughout the globe. The electronic media throughout the West played a vital role in portraying Muslims in an extremely disparaging way by avoiding recognizing and demarcating the Muslim mainstream and the groups that were involved in terrorist activities (Allen, 2010). The attitude of belittling Muslims’ identity gave rise to Islamophobia and encouraged attacks on Muslim communities residing in the UK, America, and other parts of the world (Sheridan, 2006). The changes brought by Western governments in their foreign policies with regard to terrorism and counterterrorism created discontent, disorientation and alienation among the Muslim youth, especially when the latter saw how the Muslim community around the world was being falsely targeted. (Mythen & Khan, 2009). The public and political debate on the threat and subject of 'homegrown terrorism' resulted in anxiety and depression in Western societies (Mullins, 2007). 

Shamsie in her novel Home Fire describes the consequences of immigration, Muslim identity and the crises of Muslim identity from the perspective of terrorism. Muslims around the world are labelled as terrorists and are considered a threat to the society and culture of Western countries. Throughout the world, specifically in Europe, Muslims are subjugated and victimized on the grounds of religious identity as their other social or cultural identities are given less or no importance. In the worst conditions of post-terrorism Muslim immigrants and communities in the West are extremely affected by their negative representation around the globe. They are ill-treated on the grounds of their appearances, dressing style, homeland and religion.

Home Fire (2017) unfolds the story of a Pakistani Pasha family living in the UK. The main conflict in the novel unfolds when the younger member of the Pasha family named Parvaiz deserts his family for the terrorist organization, named Daesh (ISIS). His joining the terrorist organization results in conflict between his two sisters Isma and Aneeka. Isma being the elder sister tried to expose his actions by reporting them to the police while his younger sister finds another way of bringing him back home by exploiting her relationship with the son of the Home Secretary in England, named Eamonn. As a result, Aneeka’s plan failed because her twin brother was shot dead by Farroq in front of the British embassy in Syria as he was trying to escape from them. The textual analysis of the novel in the present study describes Shamsie’s attempt of describing the problems and representation of Muslim diasporic issues with the help of the main characters in the novel.

In the novel, Shamsie criticizes the Muslim stereotypes by presenting them as a group that can never harmonize itself with the modernity of a globalized world. For the justification of her criticism, she portrays the character of Isma by representing her as the symbol of traditional and modern values. Isma is presented as a woman, who is always proud of being a Muslim. She always feels comfortable covering her head with a turban in a public place which portrays her identity as British-Pakistani Muslim. On the other hand, she always treated her hair with modern treatments of hair and fashion products privately (Shamsie, 2017). The change in Isma’s hairstyle from “texturized/frizzy” to “beachy waves” (p.45) refers to the name of Western hairstyle modern women as well as describes the self-confidence of Isma by her personification of Western modern women. By portraying the character of Isma, Shamsie highlights the modern woman who tries to maintain her traditional values and modern influences by treating her hair with modern fashion products both side by side.  

Instead of presenting Isma as the ideal Muslim character in the novel, Shamsie portrays irony within her character of her. Comparing her to her twin sister and brother, she always gave preference to the issues of economic class. Her struggle to pursue her higher education in America is actually her motif to build status in high-class society for the purpose of making a safe and better home for her family in England. The destructive legacy and traumatic memory given to her by her father have troubled her that made her play a double role; to earn and nurture her mother Zainab Pasha died after her graduation. Therefore, Isma always preferred showing loyalty to the policies of the state for the safeguard of her remaining members of the family in England: "We’re in no position to let the state question our loyalties” (p. 42). 

Unlike Isma, Anika the younger sister of Isma is presented as a firm believer in religion as she always prays to God but at the same time Shamsie in her novel has portrayed her stubborn character. She belongs to a middle-class Pakistani Muslim immigrant, who has received a scholarship for studying law. She is sceptical about the policies and people of the West as described in the scene where Isma sarcastically remarks on the question of loyalty to the Queen of England; "As an Asian, I have to admire her colour palette” (p. 6). Her answer to Isma shows the fact that for her the Queen of England is just a myth. 

The anti-terrorist and anti-immigration laws 

introduced in England by Karamt Lone, are termed as laws devoid of forgiveness and compassion. She presents a complicated situation by portraying the character of Karamat Lone as a person who has lost all his connection with his own people, culture and religion by strongly believing in Western culture and negating his own religion. She not only portrayed and highlighted the harsh attitude and reaction of the West but also presents the fact that such a reaction will not only give rise to Islamophobia and fundamentalism but it will also destroy the multicultural society as shown in the character of Parvaiz and Farooq who join the terrorist rank and file for the sack of seeking revenge.   

The Islamophobic context of the British government and society is vividly highlighted by Shamsie in Home Fire. Having the legacy of a terrorist brother and father, Isma has to expect harsh, discriminated and degraded treatment at the airport. The scene of spitting on Aneeka while wearing a hijab shows the feelings of Islamophobism and racism at their peak (p.9). The conversation of twin brother-sister about the achievements of Muslims in England; "not more than rendition, detention, spies and torture” (p.90), to shows the biased and racist attitude towards the Muslim community in England. The media's selection of words on the issue of Parvaiz’s burial too depicts the real picture of England as an Islamophobic state like “Hojabi! Pervy Pasha’s twin sister”; “Aneeka ‘knickers’ Pasha”; and “Muslim fanatic Parvaiz ‘pervy’ Pasha” (p.204). 

Maps For Lost Lovers (2004) is considered to be the epitome of British Muslim fiction that highlights the problems of Islam and the modern globalized life in England as well as explores the complicated representation of Muslim identity in a trifling way. Maps For Lost Lovers depicts the picture of a community in England, whose enthusiastic abidance to fictitious religious beliefs results in their complicated relationship with host culture and society. Furthermore, their so-called religious beliefs pave the way for Muslims' “Othering and Alienation” in the multicultural host country without having interaction with the culture of the host country, England. Nadeem Aslam in Maps For Lost Lovers depicts the picture of the Muslim Community in England and highlights the negotiated and claimed Muslim identity in a state which is dominated by Christians' secular and completely different religions. Nadeem Aslam in his novel describes the change in individual Muslim identity living in England from one person to another on the basis of negotiations and perception.      

Maps for Lost Lovers (2004) narrates the recital of a working-class community in the nameless town of England which was later on given the name of "Dasht-e- tanhaii” by the residents of the town. The name given to the town shows their feelings of belonging to their native place in an alien country. The process of renaming the town in England does not show their attempt at colonizing but is to create their imaginary identity and compensate for their loss during the migration. After some time, different communities with their different nationalities and religion enter "Dasht-e- tanhaii” on agreeing not to change the name because of the attachment one had with their fellows in this place of seclusion as the notorious name of the town signifies. In “Dasht-e- tanhaii, The Wilderness of Solitude, No one speaks. No one breathes” (p.45), is a setting that unfolds the novel's events and settings. The town consists of people, who mutually agree on the uplift of the few downtrodden immigrants from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan who are either unemployed or doing menial work or working in different restaurants or are underpaid (p.46). Bullying, burglaries and violence is something found very common in The Wilderness of Solitude which makes it not a worthwhile living place. 

The story of the novel is narrated by an omniscient narrator. Because of the multiple characters in the novel, the focus from one character to another is changed as they share a place where they participate in creating a collective diasporic identity in Dasht-e-Tanhaii by expressing their individual experiences in the diaspora. For example, Jugnu’s elder brother; a communist and social worker helps immigrants in negotiating with White people (Aslam, 2004, p. 15). Contrarily Kaukab, his wife is presented as an enthusiastic follower of religious beliefs that makes her cross all the limits like she weans her youngest child, Ujala in the month of Ramadan on account of her strict adherence to Islamic beliefs. Her love for religion turned her blind to the fact that keeping a child for a month or so on fasting can have a negative effect on a child's health and thus his health condition worsens but her mother could not help obey religious beliefs. Her extreme following of religion had made her approach to life irrational and she kept performing such religious rites which were against the spirit of Islam.  Islam allows breastfeeding women to skip fasting in the month of Ramadan so there is no question of letting the baby suffer but Kaukab has implemented such a harsh self-made religious practice on infant Ujala.

Maps For Lost Lovers (2004) describes the problems of second-generation British Muslim identity specifically by way of Kaukab and her children’s conflict, in which Shamas mostly shows a cold shoulder. The faith-driven attitude of Kaukab invites all the conflicts for her that force people to discuss and think of Muslim Identity as the ultimate truth and the liberal Western culture considers it as a threat to their culture and society. The first generation of British Muslims always long for their homeland and country while the second generation enjoys and considers themselves as one of them by adopting their liberal traditions and values. The adaptation of liberal Western culture and values is completely condemned by Kaukab in harsh words like “My religion is not the British legal system, it’s Islam” (p. 115). Kuakab’s family is broken into pieces due to her faith-driven attitude as Ujala did not contact his mother for more than seven years, Mah-Jabin contacts her once a month on a phone call and Charag came home last summer and did not contact her, not even on telephone (p.30). All the children of Shamas and Kaukab hate them, especially their mother but the youngest Ujala is quite blunt in his hatred. Years later, at the time of their reuniting, Ujala shatters the happiness of Kaukab on the occasion of their family getting reunited by making malicious comments about his mother's religiosity and finally explodes out of anger and revealed the ill-image of his parents in his eyes. 

The hatred of Pakistani communities towards English people is clearly highlighted in the novel but still, Aslam does not emphasise racism or discrimination between white and black. The readers can find very arresting arguments of racism in the case of    Pakistani immigrants on behalf of English people, and on account of perceived racism, immigrants always have lurking fear while trying to establish contact with the British. Aslam in Maps for Lost Lovers (2004) concentrated on the chaos and despair within the Pakistani diasporic community. A picture of violence, murder and intimidation is there, but nothing like a terrorist attack or bomb blast or any connection of immigrants with Al-Qaeda can be seen in the novel. The community of Pakistani immigrants lives in the UK in a place which is not in shape or has an accurate name where they feel they are in England but at the same time not in England. The reader is unable to find integration in the novel thus Aslam showed how different nations having different norms, cultures and values live together and refuse to take part in the mainstream activities of each other while preferring to live a parallel lifestyle without building any kind of lasting interaction with each other. This prejudicial act of staying away from each other is becoming more acceptable and common in the British community and among Muslims in England. 

With regard to the unwillingness to interact, Hasan (2010) is of the view that "In British Empire, the White Colonialist tried not to mix socially or culturally with black or darker complexion but presently the entire situation is altered as now the immigrants of East does not accept mixing with the people having lighter complexions (white people). Immigrants of Dasht-e-Tanhai have a natural inclination of aloofness to mix with White people because they are obsessed with the imaginary purity and diasporic identity of their community in England. They have decided to refrain from interacting with people of the host country and restricted themselves inside the life of diaspora. 

Conclusion

Shamsie and Aslam as the British-Pakistani diasporic writers have masterly described this tension in British society in their literary works, where they have shown the scenario of terrorism or crime and disturbance within diasporic communities in their own way and have represented the Muslim diasporic communities around the globe. The problems and characteristics of post-9/11 and discussions on factual victimization, subjugation and discrimination are discussed in both novels. After undertaking a critical analysis of both novels, it is concluded that terrorism is a global phenomenon that has nothing to do with Islam as a religion. By creating a false enemy, the West cannot put an end to terrorism and it will have to rethink the entire story before oversimplifying it by associating it only with Muslims. The concept of Muslims as a terrorist nation is a prejudicial concept that is artificial and is ‘injected’ into the minds of people around the world.

Such a new dimension from the Pakistani diasporic writer, who proposed a different perspective of the cultural image with the help of her fiction for the purpose of exploring the beguiling single-dimensional picture of Muslim communities in England, is skillfully diverted by Kamila Shamsie in her fictional work Home Fire. With the help of her characters of Parviaz Pasha and Karamat Lone, she redefined and reframed the typical image of secularism and Westernization as well the diligent mindfulness of religious practices in terrorism and fundamentalist intolerance. The truth is that both the concepts of Westernization and Fundamentalism in Muslim communities in England are more than complicated. For resolving the issues of Westernization, Fundamentalism and terrorism are both needed by the government to have a vigilant eye, open minds and open hearts. Islamophobia can play havoc and create, chaos and disharmony between the host and immigrant with far-reaching consequences for the foreign policies of both countries. Both governments need to think and rethink to neutralize these issues rather than taking radical action to appease the anti-Muslim sentiment.  

Maps for Lost Lovers (2004) is a performative genre of Bhabha’s theory of Cultural Hybridity by taking into consideration the yearning and point of view of the Muslim community living in Dasht-e-Tanhai. Most of the characters are portrayed as roaming in the “third space” as a result of the close interaction of two different cultures, i.e., Eastern and Western. This interaction between these two discreet cultures represents the two sides of the coin that highlights hybridity among immigrant and their host culture. At the same time, it represents the resistance on part of the immigrants. Nearly all the characters, except for the few like Kaukab, are aware of the consequences that in order to survive in an alien land with an alien culture, you need to adopt their way of life, but, at the same time, they do not give up on their own culture and religious practices/beliefs. They create their identity in such a flexible and fluid way that this new identity lies somewhere in the conditional border of their adopted and the previous culture. Their diasporic identity is relational but is constantly in fusion with both cultures. For example, Shamas' children have established a link between their British and Pakistani Identity without any conflict of culture which proves Bhabha's idea of a “third space of enunciation”, a space which creates new identities, from where no one can turn back, nor can anybody leave that space.

References

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