Affecting phantasm: the genesis of Pakistan inThe Heart Divided

Abstract

This article explores the Partition narrative put forward by Mumtaz Shah Nawaz's novel The Heart Divided (1948), which is set in 1930s and 1940s colonial India. It argues that the novel's teleological narrative proposes both the inevitability and desirability of Pakistan as it emerged from and through nationalist liberation movements for Indian independence. It utilizes theories of affect to illuminate the ways in which affects of belonging power much of the drive for the creation of Pakistan in the novel, and are used to consolidate a sense of Hindu-Muslim difference. The article furthermore proposes that emotions exist in tension with bureaucracy, and that affects of belonging to the nation repress the violence that characterized Partition. The analysis engages with the novel as a Partition narrative that does not address the human cost of Partition.