Reconstructing Home In Ethno-Religious Conflict Of Diaspora: A Study Of Nadeem Aslam’s Maps For Lost Lovers

Abstract

Migration leaves certain consequences, like the coalition between the homeland tradition and the social structure of the hostland where migrants try to maintain their homely associations in the newly settled place, which is dynamic with time and generations. The formation of diaspora community, thus, in some point shows the adaptability of the migrants in the new land. Even journeying to some other place provides a space to the individual where one can have a choice of the way of living which is somewhat indiscernible in a religiously rigid society. Religion in this process becomes an intricate part of the migrants especially for people of South-Asian Muslim descent. As religious beliefs and practices form an essential link between migrant and his place of origin and acts as the backbone of the community, integration is often perceived as a process of conversion or to negotiate with one’s own cultural values. The present study tries to explore the conflict of religious belief system and the concept of home for migrants with reference to the novel written by Nadeem Aslam, Maps for Lost Lovers. Aslam’s novel dramatizes ethno-religious conflict of Pakistani migrant community living in England. The tight knot of the community creates a boundary between the host and home culture where each and every extraneous element is either equated to strangeness or the alien. Even home signifies a different concept for each individual in the text. While some characters presented in this novel are very conscious about their home, culture and religious practices, some are trying to cross the religious orthodox belief system