Zulfiqar Ghose as a Novelist

A novelist, poet, short-story writer, autobiographer, essayist, and literary critic, he was born in Sialkot, India (now Pakistan) in 1935, grew up in British India, and immigrated to England in 1952 and graduated from Keele University (BA 1959). He taught in London between 1963 and 1969, and worked as a cricket correspondent between 1960 and 1965. In 1969, he moved permanently to the US and became a lecturer at the University of Texas, Austin. His early work reflects rural displacement and cultural conflict in pre-Independence India, in ‘The Contradictions’ (1966) and ‘The Murder of Aziz Khan’ (1967). 

He became a close friend of British experimental writer B. S. Johnson, with whom he collaborated on several projects, and of Anthony Smith. The three writers met when they served as joint editors of an annual anthology of student poets called Universities' Poetry. Ghose also met English poet Ted Hughes and his wife, the American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath, and American author Janet Burroway, with whom he occasionally collaborated. 

While teaching and writing in London from 1963–1969, Ghose also free-lanced as a sports journalist, reporting on cricket for The Observer newspaper. Two collections of his poetry were published, The Loss of India (1964) and Jets From Orange (1967), along with an autobiography called Confessions of a Native-Alien (1965) and his first two novels, The Contradictions (1966) and The Murder of Aziz Khan (1969).

Themes of His Novels 

Ghose implicitly challenges the reader to acknowledge that story-line and language are secondary to a piece of writing and are merely tools the author manipulates to convey his message. His work often expresses the viewpoint of a culturally alienated individual and relates not only to his own sense of displacement from his homeland, but suggests a wider response to life in a post-colonial society. 

The theme of cultural dislocation is dominant in Ghose's first novel, The Contradictions. It explores differences between Western and Eastern attitudes and ways of life. It is a story of an English woman who is unable to find her place, either in her homeland or in the unfamiliar society of India, where her husband is stationed.

His next novel The Murder of Aziz Khan, first published in 1967, has acquired an important place in the literary history of Pakistani writing in English. It presents a picture of Pakistani society in its earliest years in the persons of Aziz Khan, who represents ancient and traditional values, and the Shah Brothers, who are out to exploit the resources and people of the new country for their personal gain. The story is built around this central conflict between the Shah Brothers and Aziz Khan, whose land they are determined to possess and which he refuses to sell. 

The novel works on many levels, but certainly it is the story of a culture in transition, a new way eclipsing an old way. Resplendent with striking images of Pakistan, the sociological matter is rich: modernization clashes with tradition, economic progress and industrialism obliterate time-honored values. The Shah Brothers represent the new order, avaricious, devoid of scruples, shrewd manipulators of the economic process. On the other hand, Aziz Khan symbolizes the tradition, the land, and the stolid character at the heart of the old culture. 

Ghose writes: 

'And these seventy acres, this piece of earth, this world of Aziz Khan, did not appear to him as land, as a property with a market value. It was a sufficiency of existence. So that nobody could take the land away from him without first taking away his existence.'

Satire and Irony in His Novels

Satire is a big element in novels of Zulfiqar Ghose. He examines vice or folly of his characters and makes them appear ridiculous or contemptible. Shah Brothers create a smoke screen of piety and philanthropy around them for fulfilling their evil designs of wealth grabbing through every act of injustice and cruelty. 

'Shah Brothers were respected not only in Kalapur but gradually all over Pakistan, for they contributed handsomely to public and, during one year, rewarded twenty of their best workers by sending them on a pilgrimage to Mecca, attracting considerable publicity for their laudable gesture in Allah’s service. Their generosity was remarked upon and their textiles were brought in increasing quantities.' 

He describes the minister in an ironic manner. He calls the minister a charming man with neither education nor ability. Actually the novelist means to say that minister is not eligible. In addition to it, he is extremely corrupt and gathers wealth at the cost of the future of his country.

A Master of Language and Style

In his novels, Zulfiqar Ghose manifests a special mastery over language and style. Linguistically his writings appear very simple. However, his style is unique on account of his comparisons and words which he uses for the creation of the required mood and feeling among the readers. Comparisons used by Ghose not only create a required impact but also bring out the history of the characters. For example

1. Akram was silent as a cannon outside a military academy.
2. Faridha suffered the party as a monarch suffers criticism – without the chance of making a reply. 

As far as the choice of words is concerned, Ghose uses concrete words in preference to abstract words. This type of use makes his writing full of auditory and scenic effects. For example, Ghose describes, 'Aziz Khan’s eyes were hooded with fatigue'. We can note how the word 'hooded' adds to the visual quality. If he had used the word 'tired', the same effect could not be created. 

Zulfiqar Ghose has a good command at description of scenes and objects. He describes things so perfectly that the reader feels as if he were looking at the real picture. For example, describing the plantation of sugarcanes, he writes, 'The green, shinely elongated stems sprouted from the tops of the sugarcanes in the curving droop of fountains as if green water floods from a nozzle at the sugarcanes’ ends'. 

The same quality is present in this description as well. For example, 'The sun was low, falling full on the house; long shadows seemed pools of water spilled on the lawn'. 

The advice to the young and aspiring writers by Ghose is to resist any ideological pressure. An artist, according to him, should be able to assert their freedom 'to serve no cause, to accept no censorship, but only to be yourself'. He quotes Chekhov who wrote in 1888, 'I am not a liberal, not a conservative, not a gradualist, not a monk, not an indifferentist. I should like to be a free artist and nothing more …' 

With the publication of eleven beautifully crafted, stylistically varied novels, five collections of poetry, several works of criticism on Shakespeare and writing, and an autobiography, Zulfiqar Ghose is one of our late-twentieth century's great and prolific writers. He is also, one of our most neglected.


IMAGE ATTRIBUTION:

Zulfikar Ghose / Public domain