Research Paper

Position of Agha shahid Ali as a diasporic writer, in the light of Bhaba

theories of hybridity and unhomeliness

Submitted to: Ma’am Neelam Jabeen

Submitted by: Marwa Jehanzeb

1732/FLL/BSENG/F-17
ABSTRACT:
Agha Shahid Ali, a diasporic writer, was self exile from his own homeland, Kashmir. He wrote
many poems about Kashmir. This paper focuses on the position of diasporic writers, that how
diasporic writers write about their homeland, by doing so they are reshaping their identity as a
whole. The idea of belonging plays an important role in the life of diasporic writers. I have
elaborated the identity of diaspora through the lens of Homi K. Bhabha’s Theories of hybridity
and unhomeliness. Agha Shaid Ali while experiencing unhomeliness and in luminal position
creates his own separate identity. I have also discussed the hybrid identity of Agha Shahid Ali
and the idea of exile and longing for his homeland in his poems.

Key words: Diaspora, hybrid identity, unhomeliness, longing, imaginary homeland.

Agha Shahid Ali places a very unique position in diaspora. He was born in New Delhi, spent his
childhood in Kashmir and then to pursue his career he went back to India and then to America.
He was self exile and he considered himself as “triple exile” from Kashmir, India and America.
He expresses his feeling of exile, loss and nostalgia in his poetry. This paper focuses on the
position of Agha Shaid Ali as diasporic writer, who writes about his home land and creates a
different identity for him. Through writing about Kashmir in his exile he becomes the
representation of his country. I will elaborate his hybrid identity, which is created in exile,
through the light of Homi K. Bhabha notions of Hybridity and unhomeliness. In The Location of
Culture Bhabha identify hybridity as what is “new, neither the one nor the other.”(13) Where as
unhomeliness is between the binary of homeness and homelessness. Along with this I aim to
trace his longing for his mother land through his poetry.
As Agha Shahid Ali is occupying an important place in diaspora it is important to know what
diaspora is. William Safran in his “Diasporas in Modern Socities: Myths of Homeland and
returns” defines Diaspora as “Experience of a feeling of alienation and antagonism from the host
society, and the feeling that they can never fit in”. Although the term “Diaspora” has changed in
its meaning but it still maintain some of its characteristics as ‘homelessness’, ‘alienation’ and
love for their homeland. In short, the Diasporas are communities of people that are dislocated
from their homeland through migration or exile.
The identity of Diasporas lay between at least two worlds, which at some point are more incline
toward one side or other. They experience alienation from the host society that they can never fit
still they cannot identify themselves to their homeland. So in this way diaspora causes the
encounter between different cultures, people and languages, which generate ‘hybridity, the term
theorized by Homi Bhabha. He argues that immigrant people are represented by hybridity and
unfixed cultures. They do not have fixed identity. He said that diasporic individuals experience a
double and dissembling image of being in more than one place at a time, which makes it difficult
for them to have a fixed identity. Diasporas belong to both the homeland and the host land but
not completely to one that is why they belong nowhere. They do not have pure identity.
Bhabha talks about diaspora’s identity again in his Location of Culture. He distinguishes
dislocation as prolific situation in which one can create their new identity. There is the route of
“fluid identity”. The ‘in-between’ position give them the opportunity to write about their own
homeland or their host land. They bring their old identity to the front and emerge it with the new
world thus creating a new identity. Agha Shahid Ali holds a distinct position in diaspora studies
as his nostalgic feeling increases with time. He moves to existential quest of his own position
and identity. To describe his unique identity, one can say that he is Kashmiri-Indian-American
writer or Kashmiri American writer who is also Urdu speaking Indian.
The poetry of Agha Shahid Ali creates a ‘third space’ that diaspora longed for as home. Agha
Shahid Ali’s longing to recover his cultural identity is not due to alienation faced in his host
country rather it is due to his exile, which was because of the conditions in Kashmir. He has
travelled from Kashmir to America but still nevertheless when he notices rain in Amherst, it
reminds him of the rain in Kashmir. His childhood memories of Kashmir haunt even he is settled
in America. However, he does not completely exiled himself from Kashmir and keeps his
connection to his land but still never return to his homeland by will. To this Agha Shahid Ali
would say that he is not exiled but he is ‘experimentally exiled’ from Kashmir.
Edward said says in his Reflection on Exile that “Exile is the un healable rift between a human
being and a native place between self and true home, the essential sadness can never be
surmounted, the achievement of exile are permanently undermined by the loss of something left
behind forever”. They take their national and cultural roots with them which strengthen their
feeling of nostalgia. Agha Shahid Ali states the advantages of being in “exile”, in his magazine
“Live Like the Banyan Tree”, when he left Kashmir for Delhi. He was of the opinion that due to
exile his love for homeland nourishes. Although he was self exile, his longing for homeland can
be find in his poetry. He uses to dream about his mother land in the land which in known as
‘dream of land’.
The idea of home depicted in Ali’s poem “Post earned from Kashmir” is problematic as at one
point it shows that home is Kashmir from which he suffer physical exile, but if he revisit
Kashmir the feeling of exile will be still there. The poem explains it to be more like emotional
exile from his childhood and family. As according to Bhabha ‘home’ is seen as a place of stable
identity where one is understood. Bhabha argue that the place between homely and unhomely is
a space where one has a mixed identity of what is known and what is foreign. The word
unhomely is translation of ‘unheimlich’. Alienation experience by a person in unhomely instant
enables them to create their own identity.
Central to the Bhabha’s idea of hybridity is the notion of unhomliness. To explain the subject of
modern home or homelessness Homi K. Bhabha introduced the idea of “unhomely”. He opens a
new concept of homelessness. As Tyson says “to be unhomed is to feel not at home even in your
own home because you are not at home in yourself: your cultural identity crisis has made you a
psychological refugee.”(14) As a result unhomeliness creates refugees with their two cultures
mixed. However, according to Bhabha, “to be unhomed is not to be homeless, nor can
“unhomely” be easily accommodated in the familiar divison of social life into private and public
sphere.” (13) It can be assumed that Bhabha distinguish unhomliness as the position where it go
further than the binary of homeness and homelessness.
Agha Shahid Ali as member of diaspora, writes about Kashmir and diaspora life as he has three
cultures i.e Kashmir India and West. He spends most of his time in America far away from his
country, but he was never mentally away from his beloved motherland. His poetry shows his
feeling of isolation more than any other diaspora writer. His exile was “blessing in disguise” as it
further flourish his emotions and feelings for his motherland which he expresses through his
poetry. It also gives him the opportunity to present Kashmir as “imaginary homeland” through
nostalgic technique. This pain and suffering of “unhomeliness” compels him generate his
“imaginary homeland” and present it through his poetry. His poetry has glimps of both his
motherland Kashmir and diaspora America.
Similarly, ‘Home’ in Agha Shahid Ali’s poetry portray an ‘imaginary homeland’ since he has
spend most of his life in India and America away from his homeland. His longing for home
compel him to create this ‘imaginary homland’. He calls it by different names such as Kashmir,
Kaschmir, Cashmere, Qashmir, Cashmir, Cashmire, Kashmiere, Cachemire, Cushmeer,
Cachmiere, and Casmir. Or Cawhemar in a sea of stories Or: Kacmir, Kaschemir, Kasmere,
Kachmire, Kasmir. Kerseymere (Ali 2) He uses his pen as tool to write about his homeland. In
his poetic book “The Country without a Post Office” he communicates his nostalgic feeling for
his homeland and its people. He describes his motherland as place which used to be paradise but
is now turn to hell. He is hopeful that peace will return as after every night there is a bright day.
In Addition, history and memory is also the part of Agha Shahid Ali poetry which shapes his
view of his homeland. His view of home is alter by his tragedy and pieces from his past which
his generating a historical framework. As Salman Rushdie, in his essay also speaks about the role
of memory and history in description of ‘home’. He proposes that writing about one’s homeland
actually implies writing about the homeland of one’s own mind. Further Rushdie in his essay
explain that he was also obsessed by his monochromatic memories of his home, as they emerge
in a picture careless of its ‘real’ colors, until he realized that he was writing from memory about
memory. In Ali’s poem “The Country without a Post-Office” he put the images of loss and
suffering with the images of beauty and history of Kashmir. He blends his memory, history,
imagination and personal experiences to create his homeland that is a better version from the real
one.
In his poem “The Last Saffron” Ali’s nostalgic feeling for his mother land has being depicted
through his ‘diasporic consciousness. He desire to die in his own homeland Kashmir among the
saffron gardens. He wants to be buried in Kashmir, he want his dead body in paradise as I this
poem he compares the beauty of Kashmir with heaven, that is why it is known as Paradise of the
Earth., “ If there is paradise on earth/ it is this, it is this, it is this.” His wish was not fulfilled as
he died in his exile land America.
Furthermore, almost all of the Ali’s collections of poetry directly or indirectly deal with the
theme of exile and longing for his beloved Kashmir. As in his poem “Bone Sculpture” main
themes are nostalgia, love, memory, love and death. These themes are connected with his
nostalgic feeling for Kashmir in one manner or another. “In Memory of Begum Akther and Other
Poems” Ali’s longing for Kashmir is shown by his life in Delhi. This poem weeps for the loss of
his darling singer, Begum Akhtar. In another poem “A Walk through the Yellow Pages” also
show elements of his diasporic consciousness about Kashmir. The poem “The Half-Inch
Himalayas” was his first book published in America, in this book he goes to his motherland in
his past and felt longing for beloved Kashmir.
Moreover, he also expresses homesickness, grief and anguish for devastation of his homeland in
his poetry. In “A Nostalgist’s Map of America” Ali takes to different parts of America and
world, through conversation he shows his feeling of homesickness, which shows the ominous
nostalgia of Kashmir. “The Country without a Post Office” was originally called “Kashmir
without a Post Office”, it portray disturbing situation in the motherland of Ali. In the poem
“Rooms Are Never Finished” he expresses his grief upon his mother death along with her he
grief upon his loss of motherland. His ghazals collection “Call Me Ishmael Tonight” he had used
urdu style of ghazal as an tool to express his nostalgia about his mother land Kashmir in
American diction. It also paves his path to lay his base of his diasporic identity.
To sum up, Agha Shahid Ali fashion his own identity due to the place which he hold. His
unhomeliness allows him to have a hybrid identity. As Bhabha’s work is widely recognized for
its emphasis on hybrid identities, Diasporas, migrancy, and border crossing, through the lens of
his notion of hybridity and unhomeliness we have analyze Agha Shahid Ali’s position in
diaspora. Through his poetry he not only presents his homeland but also shows his love and
longing for his land. His nostalgic feelings and pain of unhomeliness make his hybrid identity by
writing abpout his homeland.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Jahangerr, Peer Salim. “Diasporic Consciousness about Kashmir expressed by Agha
Shahid Ali”. Literary Herald. Vol 2, Issue 4 (2017): pp. 422-432. n.p
2. Parvaneh, Farid. “The Notion of unhomeliness in the The Pickup: Homi Bhabha
Revisited”. Advance in Language in language and literay studies. Vol 7 (2016):pp158-
160. n.p
3. Bhabha, Homi. “The World and the Home”. Jstor.(1992): pp. 141-153. Duke University
press.