Items related to Basti
Basti is one of the finest works by one of the finest writers of Urdu literature. Regarded as a classic, Basti is a touching account of the human denouement that followed Partition, the division of the country - an event which has been the most important episode in the history of the Indian subcontinent. It is the guiding experience of Intizar Husain's creativity and a recurrent theme in his writings.
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About the Author:
Intizar Husain was born in Dibai near Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh, he went to school in Hapur, and later to a college in Meerut. Frances W. Pritchett is Associate Professor of Modern Indian Languages at Columiba University, where she teaches Urdu and Hindi. In addition to translating, she has studied traditional prose genres.
Review:
“In graceful prose, Husain conjures the unceasing wonders of early childhood and the social rhythms of small-town life.” —Ratik Asokan, The Nation
“This brilliant novel from Intizar Husain, one of South Asia’s greatest living writers, should finally end the scandal of his relative obscurity in the West.” —Pankaj Mishra
“Intizar Husain is the most important writer of fiction in Urdu, the strangely homeless language produced out of interactions between the vernacular of north India and those of the Islamic Near East, Persian and Arabic in particular. In Basti he has produced a novel of epic ambition: a swirling storm of historical moments, scriptural traditions, and ancient mythologies, all harnessed around the convulsion of India’s partition along religious lines. By taking us through the internal life of his protagonist, Zakir—‘He who remembers’—Husain performs an act of civilizational memory and provides us with the fragments of a culture’s history that modernity has firmly set on the road to oblivion.” —Aamir R. Mufti
“The uncharitable might say that but for the past, Intizar Husain would not have had a future. But truth to tell, the man who blends the personal with the impersonal, specific with the universal, actually has the past much to thank for. Be it drawing generously from the Jataka tales or the Panchatantra fables or even the layered Shiite tradition or the more modern existentialism, his tomorrows have been taken care of by yesterdays. Yet Intizar Husain does not live in the past, so much as he draws from it. His nostalgia is not comforting, there is that disquiet air that runs through his works, and Basti, arguably the finest novel on Partition, is no different. Distance in time often diminishes emotion, but in Husain's case it only serves to distil it: what goes away is the peripheral, what is retained is the essential.” —The Hindu
“This brilliant novel from Intizar Husain, one of South Asia’s greatest living writers, should finally end the scandal of his relative obscurity in the West.” —Pankaj Mishra
“Intizar Husain is the most important writer of fiction in Urdu, the strangely homeless language produced out of interactions between the vernacular of north India and those of the Islamic Near East, Persian and Arabic in particular. In Basti he has produced a novel of epic ambition: a swirling storm of historical moments, scriptural traditions, and ancient mythologies, all harnessed around the convulsion of India’s partition along religious lines. By taking us through the internal life of his protagonist, Zakir—‘He who remembers’—Husain performs an act of civilizational memory and provides us with the fragments of a culture’s history that modernity has firmly set on the road to oblivion.” —Aamir R. Mufti
“The uncharitable might say that but for the past, Intizar Husain would not have had a future. But truth to tell, the man who blends the personal with the impersonal, specific with the universal, actually has the past much to thank for. Be it drawing generously from the Jataka tales or the Panchatantra fables or even the layered Shiite tradition or the more modern existentialism, his tomorrows have been taken care of by yesterdays. Yet Intizar Husain does not live in the past, so much as he draws from it. His nostalgia is not comforting, there is that disquiet air that runs through his works, and Basti, arguably the finest novel on Partition, is no different. Distance in time often diminishes emotion, but in Husain's case it only serves to distil it: what goes away is the peripheral, what is retained is the essential.” —The Hindu
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherSouth Asia Books
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 8172231768
- ISBN 13 9788172231767
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages287
- Rating
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Basti
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South Asia Books
(2000)
ISBN 10: 8172231768
ISBN 13: 9788172231767
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Softcover
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Book Description Condition: Very Good. Very Good condition. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp. Seller Inventory # H07L-00612
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Basti
Published by
South Asia Books
(1995)
ISBN 10: 8172231768
ISBN 13: 9788172231767
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Book Description 12mo Softcover. Condition: Good. 287p. Pages are unmarked with a slight patina. Binding is tight, spine is unbroken. Orange covers are glossy with lightly bumped corners and a few vertical creases on front panel. Foxing present on text-block and endpages. Seller Inventory # 98843
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Basti
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Indus, New Delhi
(1995)
ISBN 10: 8172231768
ISBN 13: 9788172231767
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Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Good. Lightly soiled orange wraps. Moderate wear along extremities. Small closed tear along vertical leading edge of front cover. Some wrinkling of front cover. Bit of creasing to spine. Head and tail of spine are bumped, rubbed. Binding is solid. Interior is unmarked, text is all bright and clean. Seller Inventory # 005007
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