My book drumming support for father's killer: Aatish Taseer Submitted by admin4 on 20 August 2011 - 3:15pm Indian Muslim

Muslim World News By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS, New Delhi : Writer Aatish Taseer, son of slain Pakistani politician Salmaan Tase er, says the description of his father as "not a man of religion, but a brillian t well-read intellectual" in one of his books is being used to drum up support f or his father's killer by a section of Pakistani society. In an incident that shook Pakistan's liberals, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was assassinated Jan 4, 2011, by his own bodyguard for opposing the oppressive blas phemy law. "A section is trying to say that he (Salmaan Taseer) was not as strict as one sh ould be in his practice of Islam. It is because I described my father in my book as a cultural Muslim who was not a man of religion, but a brilliant well-read i ntellectual. For these people (fundamentalists), it is a justification," Aatish told IANS in an interview. His book "Stranger to History: A Son's Journey Through Islamic Lands", released in 2009, is a political travelogue of his journey through Islamic Asia with a pa rallel story of his relationship with his estranged father. Aatish, a London-based journalist, says he hasn't been to Pakistan ever since hi s father's death. "The last time I went to Pakistan was in 2007. I couldn't go after my father's d eath for many reasons - I have a name that gets recognised, my family was in per il and they asked me to stay away. And now it's more difficult," he said. Aatish, 31, was in the capital to promote his new novel, "Noon", published by Ha rper Collins India. It is a narrative of loneliness, loss and rediscovery of pat ernal legacy in an alien land by Rehan Tabassum, a boy who was raised by his sin gle mother. The novel straddles through New Delhi, Pakistan and stray cities of northern India. The writer, who has been observing the social turbulence in Pakistan in course o f his visits to renew ties with his family, says "Pakistan has made a final brea k with its culture and its past in the name of faith". "I don't know if Pakistan can return to itself," he said. The writer says "the class of people which perhaps has a little education - the middle class - does not exist in Pakistan". "In a strange way, I have realised that the presence of (middle) class is a mora lising force. But in my book, when the protagonist seeks out the public sphere, what he gets is a mob," said Aatish, who has also penned "The Temple Goers". The broad social decay in Pakistan in the form of social violence is more unsett ling to Aatish than religious extremism. "I think that the violent nature of Pakistan's creation and the idea behind it i s fake and chauvinistic. It has rejected the basis of Indian society for the las t 1,000 years. When you set up a country on a fake premise, there is this feelin g...

"If you can make this utopia (nation) more Islamic, if only we (people) were bet ter Muslims. It is a misplaced sense of value. The violence that killed my fathe r was the violence with which Pakistan was created," the writer said. The situation in India and Pakistan cannot be compared, he says. "I don't think what Anna Hazare is doing is the solution. But the fundamental ou trage comes through. People are asking for the removal of corruption... But I do n't think Anna is right," said Aatish, a Muslim-Sikh by parentage. His years in the capital with mother Tavleen Singh, a senior Indian journalist, gives him an insight into the country. "There is a sense of comfort in this city ." According to Aatish, his novel has its origin in something "personal and autobio graphical". "But it is also global. The story has a sense of dislocation of being... The boo k reflects an original absence in my life - which grew sharper as I grew older. I had to deal with a lot of relationships which people have taken for granted bu t I could not afford to. I have no world..." (Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in) Share