Tariq rehman’s European stories

Tariq Rahman’s “European” stories also serve as a reminder that many conflicts so often perceived today as a cultural
clash between the East and the West are nothing of the kind. They mark the tensions between traditional rural societies and the
advance of industrialization. At the same time, unlike Europe, South Asians have inherited an Anglicized ruling class created by their
erstwhile colonial rulers, which has widened the social and communication gaps.

An early story “Bingo”, written in the mid-1970’s, was the first work of fiction in Pakistani English Literature, to focus on the 1971
war. The tale revolves around the relationship between the West Pakistani narrator, Safeer, and his friend Tajassur, from East
Pakistan. Both are in the military academy together and are posted as junior officers to Dhaka on the eve of the civil war, with tragic
consequences. The story makes a telling comment on how a blinkered reading of colonial history has shaped the perceptions and
institutions of Pakistan’s ruling elite.

In a later, more accomplished story,

“Mai Baap”,

about the Bengal famine during the British Raj, Rahman shows very clearly how Khaled Khan, an ambitious, Cambridge-educated
young Indian in that elite colonial corps, the Indian Civil Service, echoes the contemptuous attitudes of his British superiors, when he
is posted to Bengal and finds himself surrounded by starving people clamouring for food.

The indifference and revulsion that the British Raj and its echelons demonstrate towards the poor and wretched in “Mai Baap” is
reflected in the attitudes of Rahman’s many characters depicting Pakistan’s ruling elite. “Animals” looks at the dehumanization of
rural society, under the onslaught of progress, and revolves around government appropriation of scenic mountain land. There, the
“sahib” who stays at the Dak Bungalow, is as alien to the local inhabitants as were the Englishmen he emulates.