Historical significance of novel “Reluctant Fundamentalist”

The Reluctant Fundamentalist was chosen by the The Guardian as one of the novels that defined the
decade of 9/11 .Shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, the novel also inspired a well-received film
adaptation in 2012. The Reluctant Fundamentalist  holds historical significance of the central event of
the attack of September 11, 2001, the heart of The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the oft-stated assertion
that those attacks which changed the world forever. They did, but not in the same way for everybody.

The narrator, Changez, a young Pakistani goes to America, becomes caught up in the events of September
11, and then returns to Pakistan to organize anti-American protests, he reveals the extent to which life
before the planes came crashing down will forever be different for billions of people who had absolutely
nothing to do with those tragedies. Along the way, the reader is offered a glimpse of recent Pakistani
history through the socio-political lens provided by the author, but it is the way that people of a particular
physicality have been impacted by events and opinions well beyond their control that is the real meat and
potatoes of the novel.Mohsin Hamid's tale fits right in with current debates about the radicalization of
young Muslims. But Hamid, born in Lahore in 1971 and located in London since finishing his studies at
Princeton, has too much experience wandering between different worlds to fall into a simple pattern of
describing a "clash of civilizations."
This is a book that pivots on a smile. The novel begins a few years after 9/11. Changez happens upon the
American in Lahore, invites him to tea and tells him the story of his life in the months just before and
after the attacks. That monologue is the substance of Hamid’s elegant and chilling little novel. The
Western visitor eyes his bearded opponent with suspicion, well aware that America is at war with Islamic
forces across the world. Their brief encounter turns into hours, and at the end of the day we don't know
much more about the mysterious American, but we have heard the entire life history of thirty-year-old
Changez. Changez, tells an American how he first learned of the destruction of the World Trade Center.
While on a business trip to Manila, he turned on the television in his hotel room and saw the towers fall.
“I stared as one — and then the other — of the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center
collapsed. And then I smiled. Yes, despicable as it may sound, my initial reaction was to be
remarkably pleased.” Changez is not indifferent to the suffering of others; however, he notices the
symbolism of it all: “someone had so visibly brought America to her knees”

Changez’ story reads like a classic tale of alienation: a young Pakistani who has become alienated from
the promise of the West through a confrontation with that which has made him into an enemy: his Muslim
identity.

He becomes a "reluctant fundamentalist." Mohsin Hamid explains the double meaning of the title: "He is
a reluctant fundamentalist because his environment sees him as a religious fundamentalist, though
he isn't one. He, on the other hand, rejects the economic fundamentalism of the business world to
which he belongs – a world oriented solely around gains and losses. For me, this is what
fundamentalism is: looking at the world from a single perspective, thereby excluding all other
perspectives."

In the wake of the attacks, as tensions escalate between India and Pakistan (some one attacks Indian
parliament and it was confirmed that india would harm Pakistan), and the United States is meanwhile
caught up in patriotic displays (bombing Afghanistan) that strike Changez as a dangerous form of
nostalgia, he loses interest in his work. "Pride and nostalgia," says Hamid, "are for me the most
important human factors in the twenty-first century. In the Muslim world the idea of a glorious past
predominates. This is nostalgia – but it arises when we feel threatened and insecure. And this is part of
our world because so much is changing right now. Pride, on the other hand, is important because in a
globalized world many different histories become intertwined and this sense of pride is what currently
predominates in the Muslim world."

After 9/11 America invaded Afghanistan to end the Al Qaeda and Taliban Regime but the things seem to
have gotten worse for both countries. Pakistan is still under pressure by US leadership to wipe out the
terrorist camp in the Northern borders of Pakistan. Pakistan has played an ally in the war against terror
since 2001, in doing so Pakistan has faced a loss of ten billion. In the novel, when the events of
September 11 then take their toll on Changez' life and America soon invades Afghanistan, Changez
rejects the American dream altogether, thereby sharpening his newfound awareness that as a Muslim he
had been serving the wrong cause. Changez realizes that Afghanistan is a friend, neighbor and fellow
Muslim nation, therefore Changez questions his loyalties

Summing up, right up to the end of the novel, Hamid intentionally leaves open the question of who
represents good and who evil in this battle of wills. According to Hamid, "The real question is: Will the
human race find the empathy we need if we are to live together. We have no other choice but to rid
ourselves of our fear of the other. History holds such events that entirely changed the outlook of people
and brought into light questions which dwell unanswered.

Mohsin Hamid as a Novelist

Mohsin Hamid has been called a water lily for the way he's drifted from place to place. The 43-year-old
novelist and essayist, born in Lahore, has established roots, grown and thrived in places as disparate as
Pakistan, London, California and New York. Mohsin Hamid was born in 1971 in Lahore. He grew up
mostly in Pakistan but spent part of his childhood in California and returned to America to attend
Princeton University and Harvard Law School. He then worked in New York and London as a
management consultant before returning to Lahore to pursue writing full-time.

Hamid's professional life began in the business world, not in book writing. He graduated from Princeton
University summa cum laude in 1993, having studied under such writers as Joyce Carol Oates and Toni
Morrison. He wrote first draft of his first novel for a fiction workshop taught by Morrison. His first novel,
Moth Smoke (2000), told the story of an ex-banker and heroin addict in contemporary Lahore. It was
published in 14 languages and became a cult hit in Pakistan, where it was made into a telefilm. It was also
the winner of a Betty Trask Award and a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. About his first novel,
Michiko Kakutani writes in The New York Times:
“It is a measure of Mr. Hamid’s audacious talents that he manages to make his protagonist’s story
work on so many levels. ‘You’ is, at once, a modern-day Horatio Alger, representing the desires and
frustrations of millions in rising Asia……With How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia Mr. Hamid
reaffirms his place as one of his generation’s most inventive and gifted writers.”

Hamid went on to publish two more novels and eventually left New York for Lahore, where he lives with
his wife and two children. His new book of essays, Discontent and Its Civilizations: Dispatches from
Lahore, New York and London, explores some of his thinking, reflection and recollection over the past 15
years. He takes on ethnic identity, class disparity, and mass-urbanization in his bold, inventive work.

The creative capacity of Hamid’s mind remains seemingly limitless, his novels exploring a plethora of
compelling socio-political issues set largely against the backdrop of urban Pakistan.

Hamid never knew that he would pursue writing as a profession, but he always had an intensely active
imagination. The power of Hamid’s imagination is doubtless, demonstrated brilliantly in his body of
work: Moth Smoke (2000), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising
Asia (2013). He says :

“My mother showed me a book that I had written at the age of eight or nine, after watching Star
Wars. It was a kind of galactic space opera that was very much like Star Wars, depicting outer
space battles with little stick figures and stations.”

Although he discontinued writing at a young age, his passion never faded. “I was always imagining
other things, other countries, other people, and other stories. So when I began writing fiction at the
age of eighteen, it felt very natural to me.” He laughs, continuing, “But I had no idea that I could be
a professional writer! The idea of writing as an occupation never occurred to me.”

“Imagination,” says Hamid, “is one of the greatest pleasures of writing. It allows you to envision
lives other than your own. Today my three-year-old son came into my bedroom and roared “Baba!
I’m a T-Rex!” A Tyrannosaurus Rex is very different from a human being. So if my son can
imagine becoming a dinosaur, there’s no reason why I can’t imagine being a woman, or a man very
different from myself, or simply being a very different kind of character.”

He is best known as the author of the 2007 international bestseller. The Reluctant Fundamentalist which
has been published in 30 different languages, was shortlisted for Britain's Man Booker Prize and was
made into a 2013 movie directed by Mira Nair. His second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007),
recounted a Pakistani man’s abandonment of his high-flying life in New York. It won the Ambassador
Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Asian American Literary Award, and the South Bank
Show Award for Literature, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The Guardian named it one of
the books that defined the decade.

His third novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013), was a love story and an exploration of
mass-urbanization and global economic transformation. It was shortlisted for the DSC Prize. In the words
of Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times: “With How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Mr.
Hamid reaffirms his place as one of his generation’s most inventive and gifted writers.”

Mohsin’s next novel, Discontent and its Civilizations (2016), was called by NPR “a near-perfect essay
collection, filled with insight, compassion, and intellect.” In it, Hamid traces the fracture lines
generated by a decade and a half of seismic change, from the “war on terror” to the struggles of
individuals to maintain humanity.
His latest novel, Exit West, follows the story of a young couple’s escape from their war-torn home
through a chain of mysterious doors leading to foreign lands. Exit West explores themes of loyalty,
courage, and hope in a entirely believable near future world. According to The New York Times, “. . .
Hamid has created a fictional universe that captures the global perils percolating beneath today’s
headlines.” Exit West was shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize in 2017 and won the
inaugural Aspen Words Literary Prize in 2018.

Hamid’s characterization of certain personalities in his novels has been billed as controversial. In The
Reluctant Fundamentalist, there comes a point when the protagonist smiles upon receiving information
about the attack on the World Trade Center. When asked how he risks influencing minds with a
convincing portrayal of a character that he may not personally agree with, and how he does justice to such
a character, Hamid responds, “First of all, we are not perfect angels. I think all of us have the
potential for kindness, as well as aggressive or violent acts. When I go out, I don’t want people to
know I am a writer; I don’t want to be the focus of attention. I actually want to watch things and
just be in a place where I can observe. As a writer, I find that much more interesting.”

Hamid shares his personal views on his own works: “You know, I am a very different person at
different stages of my life. In my twenties, I think Moth Smoke was probably closest to me, and in
my thirties, I associated most with The Reluctant Fundamentalist – living in New York and
London, and working in business. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia was born out of living in
Pakistan in my late thirties. Similarly, my new novel is the product of life in my mid-forties. So, in a
way, at each point in my life I’m probably closest to the novel that I wrote at the time. I keep
evolving, and my novels progress in the same direction.” Mohsin Hamid is an exponent of postcolonial
characterization and possesses a specific touch of today’s hero in local Asian context. His pen is fluent on
social fiction portraying Indo-Pak culture. Few writers could rise to the height of fame right with only a
couple of preliminary works. Hamid secured it through his first novel Moth Smoke and the second one
The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Both these novels depict contemporary Pakistani mindset with a fine
transparency of reflection. His treatment of characters, especially the heroes, in these novels is masterful.
The objective of this study is to explore the character of both heroes (Darashikoh in Moth Smoke and
Changez in The Reluctant Fundamentalist). Both heroes undergo critical scheme of events and transform
into non-heroic pitiable men.This study encircles the outer incidents that happen to the heroes and their
inner responses to those situations. This study also attempts to uncover those complexes which are
ensnaring the youth of the country and turning them into a generation pressed under complexes. With too
few exceptions, there is widespread infatuation for wealth, vehicles, and women in developing societies
of postcolonial frames; and Pakistan is also one.

Summing up, Mohsin’s essays and short stories have appeared in The New York Times, the Guardian, the
New Yorker, Granta, TIME, the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books, the Financial Times,
the Paris Review, and many other publications. He has lectured at dozens of universities around the
world, from Stanford and Yale to the London School of Economics and the National University of
Singapore. In 2013, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the world’s 100 Leading Global
Thinkers. He is winner of the Betty Trask Award, a Pen/Hemingway finalist, and shortlisted for the Man
Booker twice, most recently for Exit West, Mohsin Hamid has quickly emerged as a clarion voice of his
generation.