Kartography: Mapping Culture, History, and Spaces in Kamila Shamsie's Karachi

Kartography (2002), a much-acclaimed novel by Kamila Shamsie, a celebrated Pakistani writer, introduces Karachi, the city of lights, where the author upholds various phenomena of Pakistan. It is also a home of a culture, history and a land of opportunities. The city witnesses Postmodernism through material developments and violence. Kamila’s narration swings from present to past, and back like a pendulum, as the city experiences several life changing events like the Partition of Pakistan in 1971. Kamila also records the tenets of the culture of different times and spheres.

She throws light on the myriad traditions of Pakistani society. The author narrates how the history influences the culture of particular place. The places, relationships, food habits, inhabitations, languages, dialects and attires exhibit history and culture of each historic space and generation. The present paper attempts to examine Shamsie's use of place, space, history and culture in her novel Kartography.

Kamila Shamsie's novel Kartography showcases instances of space and culture in Colonial Pakistan, especially, Karachi.

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. She explicates how history influences the common life and culture. Her narrative shifts from charts and maps based on the layout of spatial territories of Colonial India. The novel portrays Karachi with its geographical maps and canons of culture, events from history, politics and society. She comments on the historical significance of Karachi by mentioning the great historical figures, scholars, critics and cartographers like Alexander the Great, Strabo, and Eratosthenes.

Similarly, Shamsie symbolizes social conditions of Karachi with a spider plant, a decorative plant which grows and survives in the artificial light.

She pinpoints Karachi where life survives and grows despite of violence. Shamsie provides the evidences of violence. She refers ‘The November issue of Newsline, with the words KARACHI: DEATH CITY running across the cover.’(Shamsie 148) The media daily reports the death, murders, riots and violence in Karachi. Dawn newspaper gives the numbers of the death due to violence. Violence is a major subject of the correspondence between Raheen and Karim. Shamsie explicates the historical, cultural, political, and social background of Karachi is mainly responsible for the violence in the city.

The novel documents love affair between Karim and Raheen who desire live peacefully in some other part of the world except Karachi. For him Karachi is, “. . . a city that was feasting on its own blood, the violence so crazy now that all the earlier violence felt like mere pinpricks. Back to a city that bred monsters” (Shamsie 297) On the contrary, Karachi is place which is a homeland for Raheen, who like Zafar does not want to leave it. Raheen is a modern woman, free in her expressions. She prefers to go out in the nights without caring about the violence in the city. Raheen always stands for truth and justice. She criticizes the hypocrisy of the religion. She questions a sudden change in her friend, Sonia’s behavior. Kamila throws light on how the modern Muslim woman willingly accepts, molds and restricts herself according to the religious rules and norms. She states:

She rolled down the sleeves of her kameez all the way to her wrists. . .then reached behind me to the dupatta slung over the back of her chair and placed it to her head. ‘Let’s go down and sit with him’ ‘Have I entered a parallel universe here? I tugged at the dupatta, . . . She gave me one of the drop-the-topic looks. ‘We are Muslim women,’ she said. I tried to find some sign that she was joking. ‘We were Muslim women four months ago too.’ ‘I thought we’d agree to disagree about religion’

The sudden change in Sonia restricts Karim to greet her at airport. Her covered head and her tugged sleeves over her wrists make Karim pause and look to her for the first move. Even Zia, who secretly loves Sonia appreciates her new religious mannerism. Raheen assumes it must be Sonia’s father who might have forced her to follow the religion. Zia replies her, “She does have a mind of her own.”

The attire, food and the social rules and regulations are the cultural markers. Ali a sophisticated and introvert person wears neat and ironed formal clothes. Kamila traces the influence of Western culture through the Western attires of Ali. His clothes also indicate his new and practical ideology which bestows him the practical lens to judge the violence, curfew in Karachi. Shamsie states how people fight even for the common basic needs of their family. Ali concerns about his son, Karim’s safety. Hence, he wants to leave Pakiland. On the one hand, Anwar, Zia’s father who loses his one year old son in 1971 by stray a bullet maintains contacts and records of secrets of the imminent personalities of Karachi as a safeguard. These files are the personal historical records through which one can peep into the past.

Gradually, Kamila narrates how her characters change with the time. Ali’s wife, Maheen colors her hair to maintain her beauty. After finding magazines under Karim’s bed, she does not overreact like a typical mother. Raheen’s mother, Yasmin is also a friendly and candid woman. She even advises and supports her husband, Zafar. Zafar and Yasmin encourage Raheen to express herself freely. Kamila traces the women empowerment as well as changed role of parents in Pakistani society. Yasmin discusses the topics like romance, love, friendship and sex with Raheen freely. These minutes explicate the cultural shift in Muslim socio-familial spaces in Pakistan.

Shamsie presents Karachi as Mini Pakistan, a home for multiculturalism as people represent different cultures, religions and castes like Pathan, Sindhi, Bengali, Hindu and Muslim. She pinpoints how the hatred and violence among the religions, castes have increased due to the discrimination and politics. Further, the author points out hoe Partition in 1947 has given birth to Pakistan as well as Muhajirs who left their home at the time of Partition but never receive respect in Pakistan. Asif defines Muhajir as “they all left their homes at Partition. No understanding of ties to place.” (Shamsie 39) Further, Shamsie throws light on the sufferings and humiliations of Muhajirs. She also showcases the victims of the Quota System who accept theft as a way to satisfy their familial needs. A car thief, well-educated person is a victim of Quota System cares about the safety of a girl in the deserted area. Kamila minutely depicts the culture of the sufferers. Marriage, a sacred discipline, time of merriment for elite class but for a car thief it is a punishment. He unwillingly marries to his brother’s widow.

Subsequently, Kamila picturesquely narrates the culture of nomadic tribes in Pakistan. These tribes move from place to place. The city dwellers do not accommodate them. With time and place nomadic culture gets changed. One nomadic tribe remains at Asif’s farm for more than twenty years still they are called nomadic. Asif allows them to occupy his property but he restricts their presence on the water resources and mixing with the other villagers. He says:

The villagers and the farm hands considered them untouchables. . . the nomads could stay as long as they drank water from their own wells, and did not mix with the villagers. Kamila refers Islam to highlight that the concept of untouchables does not exist in Islam. She introduces the real nature of Islam which promotes humanity and equality. She offers a close look of the nomadic tribe’s culture. She describes their business, their life style, chores, homes and heavy dark colorful clothes

Further, the author brings to light the divisions of Shia and Sunni. She points out marriage, especially, an arranged marriage where everybody wants to get the life partner from the same religion, caste and culture. Asif’s brother’s elopement with his lover brings to light the attitude of society towards inter-caste marriage in Pakistani. Asif also pretends as if he is happy with his brother’s inter-caste marriage because, “the girl’s a Shia . . .Asif’s Sunni.” (Shamsie 73) Shamsie states, “Everyone wants everyone in their family to marry same to same.” (Shamsie 74) She reveals that due to Maheen’s Bengali identity Zafar does not marry her. In childhood, Zia kicks Karim when declares his identity as “half Bengali.” Zia feels as if Bengali is bad word. Kamila vocalizes the ill treatment given to the other cultures. She narrates Bengali culture through Maheen’s aunts and cousins’ saris, language and food habits.

Shamsie marks the urban culture by the airport, McDonalds, the Chinese restaurant, smoking, corruption, violence, parlors, new designer dresses, smoking and drinking habits. The women in urban areas give more importance to the artificial beauty. They care about their lipsticks, new designer dresses, waxing and their appearances. People in urban area try to be friend with someone who has seven digits amount in his accounts. Kamila vocalizes the pompousness and hypocrisy of the elites and aristocrats. Ruksaana and Bunty represent the artificial culture of pompousness, party and parlor. Rukhsaana, Aunty Runty is a prime promoter of this culture. Yasmin describes her, “a woman from whom loveliness has fled.”

Shamsie talks about popular adjective, Ghutana “to describe a particularly social ‘do’ and noun to refer to the people who threw themselves into the socializing. For instance, ‘and how was last night’s party? Was it Ghutana evening?’”(Shamsie 69) Kamila explains how people in Karachi enjoy their lives. She pinpoints the winter season, a season of party. Every year from the month of November the train of invitations starts to knock the doors of every Karachiies. These invitations reveal the lifestyle and the culture of the place. These invitations are of Dolkis, mehndis, mayouns, milads, sham-e-rangs, ganas, shadi receptions, valimas. Kamila explicates that Karachi does not mean only the violence and bloodshed which disturb the smooth life but also the enjoyment and happiness.

Similarly, the author showcases the influence of Western culture. Hollywood songs come to Raheen and Zia’s minds to express their feelings. Shamsie exemplifies the smoking habit as one of the markers of modern culture. Even Ruksaana smokes and drinks. She also brings to the mind in Pakistan smoking in front of parents is taboo.

Shamsie shows how language speaking is attached with culture. The elite class uses English to project elitism. In Pakistan Urdu, Pashtun, Hindi and Arabic are the native languages which are spoken by the natives. English is the most important language for elite class of Karachi. The author point outs how new generation prefers English easily than their mother tongue. Raheen confuses when Karim writes the names of the stations on his hand. Kamila puts forth a popular fashion of using nickname. Every character in the narrative has a nickname. Zafar is called as Zaf, Zia as Zee, Karim as Karimzow, Yasmin as Yaso, Raheen as Ra and Ruksaana as Runty. These also indicate the double culture and double identities of the characters. The use of foreign words like hors’-d’ꭀuvres, means ‘starter’, nouveau riche means ‘newly rich’is also a part of Karachi culture. Consequently, new generation has its own language, the language of anagrams and short forms that distances them from the native culture and space.

Urban Karachi has bungalows, mansions, huge buildings, airport, five stars hotels whereas rural part of Karachi has creeper-covered mud houses which brings forth the binaries of urban and rural culture. The cotton-fields, the buffaloes, the greenery and the freedom and safety are the markers of rural Karachi culture. Shamsie also describes the congested part of Karachi which has different space and culture. She states:

The congested parts of Karachi with its colorful buses manically racing one another, men selling fruits and vegetables from wooden carts on the side of the road, deformed beggars dexterously making their way through traffic, laundry flapping washing lines on the latticed balconies of the low-rise apartments buildings. Kamila provides the glimpses of poor working class of Karachi. She talks about the streets cleaners, carpets-sellers, fruits-sellers, snake charmers and florists. She mentions the food culture of Karachi as halva puri, dal, rice, pakodas, noodles, pizza, tea adding extra cream, green tea, coffee and coke that also shows multiculturalism.

Kamila explicates the story telling as the best part of culture to pass on information to next generation. Asif at dining table narrates the Partition in 1971. Shamsie narrates ‘how people are forced to entertain themselves in Ruralistan.’(Shamsie 22) Apart from it, Kamila states that more than three generations of Karim’s family are involved in the linen industry. Asif assumes that Karim will also go for the same business. But Karim breaks the monotony of the culture in the family by developing his fetish for Cartography. He declares, “No, I’m not joining the family business. . . I’m going to be a map-maker.”(Shamsie 23)

Kamila depicts the feudal statues before and after the Partition of 1971. Asif, an owner of Rahim Yar Khan is a decadent feudal. His actions and manners highlight the culture of feudal. Shamsie narrates him surveying his property as he carries himself as a feudal, he puts the dark glasses, takes a long drag of cigarette, a farm manager on his side. He also allows the nomadic tribe to live on the dune, a part of his property. He points out his property with stick which he carries like a true feudal. He does not like Zafar’s activities against feudal system. Kamila describes the consequences of migration in 1947 through the hatred of the natives towards the Muhajirs. Laila says:

“Karachi is my home, you know. Why did those bloody Muhajirs have to go and form a political group? . . .Coming across the border thinking we should be grateful for their presence. . . Do you hear the way people like Zafar and Yasmin talk about “their Karachi”? my family lived there for generations. Who the hell they are these Muhajirs to pretend it’s their city?” (Shamsie 41)

Gradually, Kamila pinpoints American culture of carrying umbrella. She also narrates the Maheen’s visit to London and her experience at airport about American accent. The author also describes the first impression of Karim as a foreigner at Karachi airport when Raheen states: “. . . stylish round glasses, dressesd in jeans, sneakers, and a collarless kurta with the sleeves rolled up. . . I might have mistaken him for a foreigner, dressed in s manner that announced both his foreignness and his desire to absorb the influences of the East. . . He’s becomes like a gora.’

Kamila also mentions the adjectives used by people in their dialect like gora, Angrez, Amreekan. She pinpoints that the geographical space does not influence Pakistani culture. She states, “He still hugs men like Pakistani.” The foreign culture influences Karachi. The infrastructure of airport is maintained and renovated to attract the foreigners. The author highlights tourism and its impacts on occupation and the lifestyle of Karachi. Also, Kamila draws the attention towards the declining condition of Karachi. She points out the problem of declining religion, drugs which has the equal distractive capacity like violence. She describes the Clifton, past the shrine of the Sufi, Shah Abddullah Ghazi, with its surrounding.

Kamila’s Kartography traces mixed culture of Karachi which is developed with time. Kamila symbolizes the culture of Karachi with the old and popular “Mohatta Palace, that decaying pink building which, with its domes and history and its amalgamation of British, Middle Eastern, Hindu and Mughal styles, had always been my favourite Karachi structures.” (Shamsie 271). The novel thus cartographs the changing space and static and not-static cultural tenets of people in Karachi.