1. Moniza alvi poetry : a Diaspora
aesthetic (With special
references to her poeMs)
subMission Date: april 24, 2012

2. Q: Moniza Alvi’s poetry: A Diaspora aesthetic (with special reference to ‘The
country on my shoulders’, Unknown girl, Presents from my aunt in Pakistan)
Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan .Her father was Pakistani and mother was English.
She left Pakistan when she was a baby for England. The poet is thus caught between two
worlds and her poems exemplify her quest for her cultural identity. Pakistan was a part of
India before the partition; therefore the setting may be a symbolic thirst for her motherland.
Her poetry shows feelings of Diaspora in very splendid way. Different authors poets and
writers expressed element of Diaspora in their work
A Diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or
ancestral homeland” or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people
settled far from their ancestral homelands".
Diaspora Literature involves an idea of a homeland, a place from where the displacement
occurs and narratives of harsh journeys undertaken on account of economic compulsions.
Basically Diaspora is a minority community living in exile.1There lies a difficulty in coming
to terms with Diaspora, and as such it introduces conceptual categories to display the variety
of meanings the word invokes. Robin Cohen classifies Diaspora as:
1. Victim Diasporas
2. Labor Diasporas
3. Imperial Diasporas
4. Trade Diasporas
5. Homeland Diasporas
6. Cultural Diasporas
As an example of Diaspora literature, one of the authors finds a common element in all
forms of Diaspora he says;
These are people who live outside their 'natal (or imagined natal) territories' and
recognize that their traditional homelands are reflected deeply in the languages
they speak, religion they adopt, and cultures they produce. Each of the categories of
Diasporas underline a particular cause of migration usually associated with
particular groups of people. So for example, the Africans through their experience
of slavery have been noted to be victims of extremely aggressive transmigrational
policies. (Cohen) 2
As Moniza Alvi Diaspora literature Firstly, elaborating idea of Diaspora in her poem
“The Unknown Girl”, though it may refer to the girl in the poem, it may be a pointer to the
poetess herself as she is unknown to the roots, the unconscious culture and heritage
ingrained in her. In An Unknown Girl, there are obvious associations between Western and
Eastern culture. There is a sense of the purity of the 'unknown girl', perhaps representing the
innocence of India, being invaded by the Western culture. There are constant reminders of
the beauty of India ‘a peacock spreads its lines ‘ . The poem describes the poet’s visit to
India and the time she had her hand hennaed by a girl in the market place. It has proved to
1
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2
(Cohen Robin, Global Diasporas- An Introduction. London: UC L Press, 1997)

3. be an experience she has never forgotten.
The poetess states how her neon studded jewelry glared at her in the evening bazaar. A
woman in India is closely associated with elaborate jewelry and embellishment. This forms
a part of her individuality, and her feminity. The act of hennaing is a form of body
decoration with the dye of a plant. With the act of Hennaing, she seems to impart to the
speaker significant feminine aspects of the culture. The hennaing comes out of a nozzle,
slowly descending on her as her tradition was. The semi-solid henna is cool and a good
conditioner, and therefore the girl feels her hands being ‘iced’. The warmth of the hand of
the girl applying the Henna steadies or balances the effect, echoing the equilibrium of the
ethnicity there. The salwar-kameez is a loose fitting garment that is like her shadow, larger
than herself. Nevertheless, it may also point to the shadow of her identity that she cannot
deny in spite of herself. Therefore, the phrase ‘shadow-stitched’.
The peacock is the national bird of India, and therefore an expressive sign of Indian culture.
This explains the peacock henna-tattoo spreading its lines over her palms. The poetess thus
is caught in the spiritual pulse of her tradition. The colors leave the streets and float above as
balloons.
Dummies in shop-fronts
tilt and stare
with their Western perms.
The dummies mirror the poetess herself as she finds her foreign culture all of a sudden
artificial and the perms superficial, as it was not her in the first place. So are the banners of
the Miss India pageant, a competition of Western origin that requires a woman to
compromise on her modesty. In India, the feminity of a woman is synonymous with her
modesty. The poetess compares the lines of the henna to brown veins on her. These are her
natural veins as opposed to the foreign color ‘white’; and as opposed to the voice of
education ’green’. She desperately holds on to it like people clinging onto a train, lest the
henna fades away within a week’s time. She wants to hold on to this way of life, and does
not want it to die away as the henna does. She wants it to thrive and flourish within her.
It is the time of the night as the furious streets are hushed .The poetess asserts that she will
scrape off the henna at night, as it will:
Trail reveal soft as a snail
The amber bird beneath.
The culture comes to her slowly as the snail, and subtly like the amber brown. When the
poetess repeats that the henna will fade within a week; she may refer to the circumstances
that compel her to go back abroad. Nevertheless, the poem ends on a positive note,
reaffirming the continuity of memory and identity:
When India appears and reappears
I’ll lean across a country
with my hands outstretched
longing for the unknown girl
in the neon bazaar

4. Than, she explains that “There’s a country at my shoulder, growing larger – soon it will
burst” here she uses an extended metaphor as it could be a rain cloud or a dam, this is to
show the difficulty she faces with her dual nationality.
She emphasises her difficulty throughout the poem, as she “Must stand to attention with
the country at my shoulder”, here she feels that she must obey as she is fascinated to her
country despite being raised in England. Also as she tries to “Shake the dust from her
country”, she tries to make aspects of her country reconcile with her English nature.
The Later on she “Can’t break bits off” a metaphor, as she can’t seem to let go of her
English side to become fully sovereign over herself. Then near the end she uses a simile,
“Or fall like a meteor” to show how big of a dramatic impact it will have with her life and
feelings.
The final way in which the writer creates a vivid expression of her country is with her use of
language. First off, she uses much imagery such as; “there is a country at my shoulders”
portraying a cloud, dam or even a foetus, also “Fall like a meteor” which help create an
image to further emphasis the simile used. The writer also uses much contrast throughout the
poem such as “In the square there are those who beg – And those who beg for mercy”,
“Everyone is very unhappy or very happy” this is used to further emphasis her difficulty
with her dual identity.
Another way she creates a vivid impression of her country is by closely referring to her
relatives in her country. First, is cousin Azam, who is annoying in the sense of playing
“Ludo with him all the time”, he learns “English in a class of seventy” this shows that there
is very limited educational opportunities with such large numbers. Then there is Uncle
Aqbar who “...Drives down the mountain to arrange his daughter’s marriage.” Showing how
ambitious he is to get his daughter married, this also shows a contrast between the cultures
as in England men and women are free to marry whoever they choose but in Alvi’s country
you’re married to a total stranger.
Then Uncle Kamil who “Shot a tiger... Hung (it) over the wardrobe” he shows great
pride as its hung over his wardrobe, but through Alvi’s perspective she is embarrassed and
”hide its head in a towel” this again shows the differences in culture as in her country you
gain much honour for killing a ferocious creature, whilst in England its known as a wildlife
offence.
Then there are Indian films which end with “Everyone is (as either) very unhappy, or
very happy” this shows that the culture is overdramatic and never actually in harmony to
real life. Also she feels disgust towards Uncle Kamil’s actions, and wants to hide the tiger’s
head in a towel. Also she feels fear, fear towards the fact that the men are free and have easy
jobs “Wear loose cotton clothing” and “Sit in their trucks”, whilst the women are working as
hard labour and cry with the public executions.
Than same type of feelings found in ‘Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan’ as it is also a
poem by Moniza Alvi. Alvi describes some gifts that she receives from her aunts. This is a
metaphor for her Pakistani culture, and she says how much it clashes with her English
culture. The poem is about the poet's struggle to find which culture she truly belongs to;
Pakistani or English.
The Structure of the poem is in free verse, with stanzas of varying length. The poem dots
from idea to idea, and every now and again a random phrase comes unexpectedly, such as:

5. ‘My aunts requested cardigans’. This may be to give the idea of a random train of thought of
personal memories, drifting from one memory to another, but it also conveys her own
uncertainty and lack of structure in her life.
The poet uses enjambment to emphasise key ideas and words, such as ‘peacock blue’ (to
emphasise how bright it was) and ‘found myself alone’ (to emphasise how isolated she
feels).
The poet uses language to convey her ideas about her confusion and emotional pain. She
writes in the first person, so the reader knows that these are personal memories lots of the
images are about pain, to reinforce the emotional conflict she is feeling about her identity –
candy-striped glass bangles/snapped, drew blood (beautiful but painful), her mother’s
jewellery was stolen from the car. Even the journey to England was painful – ‘prickly heat
had me screaming on the way’. The poet finishes with a very powerful image of ‘staring
through the fretwork at the Shalimar Gardens’.
This sum up the confusion the poet is feeling. The ‘fretwork’ refers to the wooden screen
of the harem that many Pakistani were forced to stay in; as a teenager in 1960s Britain,
Moniza Alvi would have found this restriction horrific. But she can also ‘see’ the beautiful
Shalimar Gardens.
Moniza Alvi throughout in his work explicitly illustrated her painful experiences and love
for her country ,she expresses her pain and feeling of marginalized situation in her work
discussed as above. She tries to make aspects of her country reconcile with her English
nature.
Concluding with beautiful verses In the novels of Rahi Masoom Raja (in Hindi) narrate
woeful tale of partition, the foul play of politicians, the devastated form of the nation and its
people after partition and longing for the home that has been:
"Jinse hum choot gaye Aab vo jahan kaise hai
Shakh-e-gulkaise hai, khushbu ke mahak kaise hai
Ay saba too to udhar hi se gujarti hai
Pattaron vale vo insane, vo behis dar-o-bam
Vo makee kaise hai, sheeshe ke makan kaise hai.3
3
(Sheeshe Ke Maka Vale ,173)

6. Bibliography:
• Robin, Cohen. Global Diasporas- An Introduction. London (UC L Press. 1997)
• Singh, Shaleen. Diaspora Literature – A Testimony of Realism. Retrieved from
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1362004
• Haq , Rizaq. Pakistani Diaspora. Retrieved from
http://www.riazhaq.com/2011/09/pakistani-diaspora-is-worlds-7th.html
• Dr. Masoom Raza, Rahi , Sheeshe Ke Maka Vale. ed. Kunvar Pal Singh, Delhi:
Vani Pub.2001,)
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1362004