Discourse of Sindhi Nationalism in Shah’s A Season for Martyrs: A New Historicist Perspective

Abstract

Shah’s historical novel, A Season for Martyrs (2014), is a representation of Sindhi culture, identity and its history. Set in contemporary and (anti)colonial Sindh, the novel interweaves past and present, fact and fiction, and myth and history. It depicts the story of the personal and political identity of a young Sindhi media journalist, Ali Sikandar, in today’s Sindh, while in parallel it also presents episodes from personal and political lives of some notable Sindhis (or related to Sindh) from the history. This research paper attempts a textual analysis of A Season for Martyrs (2014) drawing upon theoretical concepts of new historicism. Greenblatt’s theory of new historicism (1980), as a critical practice, seeks to reconnect a literary work with the time it was produced and identifies it with the cultural and political discourse(s) of the time. New historicism denies the traditional privilege of literature over history as it sees literary and non-literary texts as a product of a culture wherein both influence and shape each other. The paper attempts to study the social and political context of the novel and at the same time the textual nature of the history presented in the text. In particular, it explores the representation of discourse of martyrdom about Zulifqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, and representation of G. M. Syed’s nationalist discourse. The study argues that through the fictional representation of Sindh’s culture and history, Shah, along with the journey of political identification of the young generation of Sindhis, asserts a case for a moderate Sindh nationalism in contemporary Pakistan.