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Engaging Politically from the Margin 265
In an interview, Elizabeth Kuruvilla asked Kamila Shamsie, “Is it
important for writers to hold an activist point of view?” Shamsie
replied, “I think the question is, is it important for human beings to
hold an activist point of view?” (2015). This was not the first time
Shamsie has expressed her interest in politics, specifically the “politics
of government” and the “politics of gender” (2014b: 9). Being
convinced that “aesthetics are [
sic
] about precision in representation
through the use of metaphor rather than about constructing a realm
outside of or above politics” (Shamsie, 2007: 150), Shamsie has
written both political fiction and non-fiction. As Bruce King points out,
Shamsie’s first four novels all grapple with Pakistan’s politics:
the crisis caused to local society and the long-lasting
divisions within some families by the migration of north
Indian Muslims at Partition (
Salt and Saffron
); the constant
military coups against democratically elected governments
(
In the City by the Sea
); the civil war and ethnic hatreds
that led to the independence of Bangladesh and the
violence of the 1990s (
Kartography
); and the feminist
movement within Pakistan and the Islamic world during
the 1970s and 1980s, and the military’s encouragement of
Islamic fundamentalism . . . (
Broken Verses
). (2011: 149)
Indeed, many of Shamsie’s works are political. As a writer, she has
been actively involved with politics because she believes engagement is
a human duty, and more importantly, because “if you grow up in
Karachi, you don’t have that separation” between “what is happening
at the political level and what is happening in people’s lives” (Shamsie,
2015).
Shamsie repeatedly shows how one’s environment impacts one’s
political engagement. If Shamsie’s experience growing up in Karachi
has inspired her interest in Pakistan’s history and politics, what role
does dislocation play in her political engagement? Having grown up in
Karachi, studied in the United States, and recently become a British
citizen, how has she engaged in local and global politics? In this essay, I
address Shamsie’s engagement in local and global politics, focusing in