Paper short abstract:

Through reading novels written in Hindi by Muslim authors published before and after the Babri Masjid demolition and the rise of Hindutva, this paper examines the way a minority represents itself in the national language and participates or struggles against the dominant modes of nationalism.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on two of Manzoor Ahtesham's novels: Sūkhā Bargad (1986) and Dāstān e Lāpatā (1995) written and set in Bhopal tracing the changing relations between Muslims and Hindus in independent India . Minor Literature has the potential for changing our understanding of the borders of the idea of the nation, and can prove an invaluable starting point for its critique. I deploy "Minor Literature" according to Deleuze and Guattari's definition: "A minor literature doesn't come from a minor language; it is rather that which a minority constructs within a major language".In the light of the above, questions of belonging, vocal critical engagements with post-independence state nationalism, tensions in personal relationships with friends and loved ones belonging to the "majority", even strange and unnamed malaises—all these can be read, as narrative manifestations of the "political unconscious" (to use Fredric Jameson's term) of minority existence . Furthermore, the position of a Muslim author in Hindi provokes questions about Hindi's role as the national language and the relationship between Hindi and Urdu.