Written in 1971, but not published till a decade later, this first novel narrates the story of a young girl growing up in East Pakistan in the early sixties. Despite her sheltered life, she slowly becomes aware of social injustices and personal betrayals. Her relationships with three young men, a “Bihari,” a Bengali, and a Punjabi, unfold amidst the political and social undercurrents of the period.

Niaz Zaman is Professor of English at the University of Dhaka. Apart from writing articles on literature and women's folk art, she also writes poetry and fiction in English. Her story, “The Dance,” won an Asiaweek short story award and was later anthologized in Prizewinning Asian Fiction. Her other publications include The Dance and Other Stories, the titular story of which won an Asiaweek Short Story Award, and Didima's Necklace and Other Stories.

Niaz Zaman The Crooked Neem Tree ISBN 984 8715 037 Taka 350.00

 
Journal Article

A Study of Racism and Identity Crisis in The Crooked Neem Tree

Published in Stamford Studies in English , volume 5.

Sakiba Ferdousi

Md. Jamal Hossain

Racism is a universal issue, a social phenomenon of “intolerance and prejudice. It is also a state of the mind of an individual” (Hinshelwood 1). However, racism is thrust by different factors like territory, economy, culture, gene, religion, politics, stereotype, etc. Racism in Asia is usually driven by location, religious faith, economy, politics and stereotypes. Zaman in her fiction The Crooked Neem Tree portrays the impact of racism “upon the existence of human bonds” (Wiley 128) where human emotions and bonds are dramatically affected by external prejudices within a social group. She also shows the impact of racist attitudes on the individuals, how exactly those individuals behave in that state of mind and how in turn they reform another social group characterized by the same sort of intolerance. A relationship between racism and identity crisis is depicted consequently. This paper will explore that relationship existent in pre-independent Bangladesh and its impact on the social order, on the psychology of the individuals involved and their reaction to the social customs and to the world in general.

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Niaz Zaman's astoundingly accomplished and fascinating novel The Crooked Neem Tree has in its root the repercussion of a great historical event, the Partition of India in 1947. The division of India was accomplished at that time with a certain ideology and a great optimism: it was an “ideological' division between the Muslims and the Hindus of India to have a union among the people of the same religion, thereby to put an end to all the chaos and communal conflicts prevalent beforehand in that region. But the expectation of unity, in reality, proved futile and pessimistic, as the divided India started to suffer from unexpected problems. Racial bias and desperate and pathetic struggle of the Indian Diaspora for an identity in the new world seems to shake the root of the utter confidence of the unison. Zaman with her great mastery skills has portrayed a true picture of that time. She has dived deep to unfold the deep-rooted anguish and catastrophe of the human beings and has clearly depicted racial prejudices and search for identity in the aftermath of the partition which made the togetherness of the East and the West Pakistanis ironical. Hence, the novel can perhaps be seen as a part of history; a saga of the aftermath of the partition of India .

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The novel revolves round a young woman's life in the early 1960s. Written in 1971 but published a decade later, it narrates the story of a young Punjabi, Seema, growing up in East Pakistan where gradually she feels herself a stranger suffering greatly due to social discrimination and racial prejudices. Not only she, other characters are also there who suffer fervidly. The writer has shown how most of the characters in the story are affected by racism and identity crisis in one way or the other.

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A clear definition of racism and identity crisis and their relationship are necessary prior to analyzing the text in terms of these two words. Hinshelwood in his article “Intolerance and the Intolerable: The Case of Racism” proved with two psychoanalytic cases that “ … racist attitude impacts on the individual … and … in turn … they recreate social groups characterized by that species of intolerance.” Not only that “external prejudices within the social group impact on the internal state of mind of the individual (but also) … they become stabilized within the individuals to support the social prejudices of a group” (1).

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Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin , in Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts , defined “ … the term ‘race' as the classification of human being into physically, biologically and genetically distinct groups” (198). And this concept was conceived and used by the colonizers as a justification of their dominance of the subject peoples through the binary of ‘civilized' and ‘primitive' (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin 199). The Post-colonial Encyclopedia defines racism as “the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” [online]. This concept echoes the definition provided by the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, “Racism is the belief that some races are superior to others” (Hornby 957).

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The United Nations uses the term “racial discrimination” instead of “racism” to define race-based discrimination. According to the United Nations Conventions on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, ‘“the term “racial discrimination” shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on any footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life”' (cited in Post-colonial Encyclopedia [online]). Sociolinguistics No ë l A Cazenave and Darlene Alvarez Maddern explains racism as a socially organized system that privileges a group based on race. Racism is, they say, “ … a highly organized system of ‘race'-based group privilege that operates at every level of society and is held together by a sophisticated ideology of color/‘race' supremacy. Racist systems include, but cannot be reduced to, racial bigotry,” (cited in Post-colonial Encyclopedia [online]). ‘Group privilege', ‘every level of society' and “color/‘race' supremacy” are very important in this definition. From the above-mentioned definitions we can conclude that racism is an inhumane and inimical ideology or a prejudicial organized system which operates at every level of the society with a view to privileging a particular group and positioning them in a superior status over another on the basis of race, gender, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin or any other criteria. Therefore, racism contradicts the 1776 US Declaration of Independence, the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen issued during the French Revolution and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed after the Second World War, which all solicit equality between all human beings. It is clear that racism creates a ‘me-superior, he/she-inferior or vice-versa attitude' in human minds and gives birth to discrimination, deprivation, hatred, injustice, oppression, prejudice, segregation and violence in society.

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“An identity crisis is (a state) when an individual loses a sense of personal sameness and historical continuity” (Wikipedia [online]). The term identity was coined by the psychologist Erik Erikson. According to him, the identity is “a subjective sense as well as an observable quality of personal sameness and continuity, paired with some belief in the sameness and continuity of some shared world image. As a quality of unself-conscious living, this can be gloriously obvious in a young person who has found himself as he has found his communality. In him we see emerge a unique unification what is irreversibly given- that is, body type and temperament, giftedness and vulnerability, infantile models and acquired ideals- with the open choices provided in available roles, occupational possibilities, values offered, mentors met, friendships made, and first sexual encounters” (cited in Wikipedia [online]). Erikson suggested that people experience an identity crisis when they lose “a sense of personal sameness and historical continuity” (cited in Wikipedia [online]). Therefore, the loss of personal sameness and the loss of historical continuity play a very important role in making a person suffer from identity crisis. And these two entities of identity crisis have made it an important element of post-colonial literature. Wikipedia suggests that when a person finds himself/herself in an identity crisis, he/she can look at seven areas of difficulty in which to work towards a resolution. The areas are: “i) Time Perspective, ii) Self-Certainty, iii) Role Experimentation, iv) Anticipation of Achievement, v) Gender Identity, vi) Leadership Polarization and vii) Ideological Values” [online]. Of these areas the last three are more important to us. When a woman/man observes that a group of men/women, her/his opposite sex, enjoys a particular privilege over her/him, she/he may suffer from a sense of identity crisis or racist attitude nurtured by that group towards her/him. Hence, Gender Identity is an area where racism and identity crisis intermingles. Secondly, a person suffering from identity crisis due to Leadership Polarization might not accept his/her role of a leader/follower fearing the hatred/dominant role of others. Thirdly, a person facing problems of Ideological Values might feel segregated from and/or fall victim to racist attitude of a particular social group. Accordingly, we notice that Gender Identity, Leadership Polarization and Ideological Values are the elements of both identity crisis and racism and these are the areas where identity crisis and racism interact one another.

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If we approach The Crooked Neem Tree in the light of the definitions and characteristics of racism and identity crisis and their interrelationship discussed above, we observe the all-embracing concepts of racism and identity crisis and their impact on the lives of the people of contemporary society in the novel. An analysis of The Crooked Neem Tree through these concepts would help us in determining the place of this fiction in the contemporary literary landscape of Post-colonial canon by Anglo-Indian authors. In the story of the novel, the issue of racism is mediated through the questions of hierarchy, discrimination, deprivation, injustice, prejudice, segregation, human emotions and through the activities and outlook of the central characters.
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At the very beginning of the novel a school hostel is presented as the microcosm of the divided India . The gap between the expectation and reality of unity based on religion seems to appear ironical. The unity among the Muslim girls was hinted to highlight later the futility of this endeavour. Seema, the protagonist of the novel, the daughter of a C.S.P. tried to depict her relationship with Saida, a girl from a rich Muslim U.P. family (5) but then a refugee losing their land in West Pakistan: “We had been the best of friends, speaking the same language, eating the same food … My father came from the Punjab … Like other refugees he had been forced to make a new beginning in Pakistan. By the time … Saida had known poverty … ” ( Zaman 1). Saida expresses the state of the mind of an individual … who suffered from the intolerable “ego-destructive super- ego” ( Bion 1959 ; O'Shaughnessy 1999 , Britton 2003 [qtd. in Hinshelwood 1]) and her intolerable “states of mind can contribute to social intolerance” (Hinshelwood 1). Her protest and revolution to the existing social order express how a person reacts while suffering from a racial bias. Again the sense of insecurity and inferiority complex led Saida to be obstinate “to marry a rich man” at any cost to have a secured financial stability with her “devil –may–care attitude” (Zaman 7). According to her, a marriage with a “rich man” (Zaman 1) will make her happy. Her ideology creates a binary of ‘marriage with a rich man'/ ‘marriage with a poor man' and discloses her prejudice against the later as she deems she will not “be happy with a poor man” (Zaman 1). Saida's notion of marriage has some similitude with that of Mrs. Bennet, in Pride and Prejudice , whose only deliberation is wealth while choosing a bridegroom for any of her five daughters.

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Gap seems to grow greater between the “Urdu-wallahs” and the Bengali girls. “Oily hair tied tightly at the back” or “multicoloured petticoats” even “serious study” became a matter of ridicule. Though they stayed in the same dormitory, they did not associate much. This segregation was the result of a prejudice against the ‘other' language, culture, wealth and race nurtured by each group. Seema says, “But it was more than language that kept us separate. It was a difference also of race and culture of years of prosperity versus ages of poverty” (Zaman 2). It takes us back to the relation between Dr. Aziz and Cyril Fielding who befriended each other but cultural and racial differences and personal misunderstandings separated them. So, amidst a lot of girls of the same age Seema felt “lonely and lost”.
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We notice a deep romantic relationship between Saida and Cupie (Qamar). They exchange passionate letters, enjoy time together going “to see pictures” and become physically united to enjoy the “oneness of two bodies.” Saida's disclosure to Seema of her date with her lover Cupie in his flat and her expression- “Oh, Seema, Seema, do you know what a kiss tastes like? Something between toothpaste and pineapple juice” (Zaman 7) contradicts Kipling's attempt of presenting the Asians as the colonized racial other while he describes the romantic episode between Kim and the woman of Shamlegh. When Kim kisses the woman and speaks to her in English Kipling comments: “Kissing is practically unknown among Asiatics” (Kipling 228). However, the relation collapses because Saida is a refugee from India and socially inferior to Qamar who comes from West Pakistan and is socially superior to Saida. An atmosphere of tension and dilemma is created since Saida is thrown “out of college” for her relation with Cupie but he stops correspondence with her and the question of marriage between them becomes an uncertainty.

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It is not surprising that racist outlook is sometimes found in and against people belonging to the same family background. An example of this is the attitude of one of Seema's second cousins towards her family. The second cousin has a prejudice against Seema's family as they are not in the same socio-economic footing compared to theirs: “Their family was much richer than ours and consequently had always looked somewhat down at us” (Zaman 9).

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However, people from different races have different cultures, traditions, languages, clothings and food habits. But if people belonging to a particular race cherish the outlook that their culture is superior to that of another race, prejudice and segregation are created. Thereby people of different race and ethnicity are thrown to two different poles. Seema, living in East Pakistan for a long period, has been habituated to the clothing of the East Pakistanis. But her mother and aunt have not taken this affirmatively. Their dissatisfaction to Seema's dress up in reality expresses their prejudices against the clothing, culture, and socio-economic status of the people of East Pakistan : ‘“I know, behen ,” said my (Seema's) mother. “I have often told Seema that cotton is all right for East Pakistan where no one bothers, but not in Lahore where even the poorest woman has at least one silk jora . But she refuses to listen to me. Of course if, she lived here, she would change”' (Zaman 29). The same racist attitude against Bangla is visible among the West Pakistanis. Seema in spite of being emotionally engaged to Khalid, an East Pakistani, did not show much interest in learning Bangla. Because like others from West Pakistan she had the prejudice that learning and speaking Bangla would lower her social status. This is obvious from Khalid's words to her: ‘“He went on, “You'll learn English and French and German. If there were Spanish and Italian at the university, you'd learn that too. But it's beneath your dignity to learn Bengali”' (Zaman 35). The tug of war regarding language reaches the issue of the language to be learnt by their unborn baby. Khalid desires his wife to speak to their baby in Bangla but Seema wants to use Urdu which her husband assumes will make the baby “a misfit.”

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Undoubtedly, marriage is an important social and emotional tie between a man and a woman. And hence, the issue of racism is perhaps best exemplified through the question of marriage in The Crooked Neem Tree . Nilufer was the eldest daughter of Seema's local guardians who were from the Punjab like hers. She had some weakness for one of her class mates. But the parents of Nilufer did not consent to their marriage simply because he was a Bengali, a non-Punjabi and so a racial inferior. Nilufer expresses her parents' racial attitude thus: “I don't think my family could ever think of allowing me to marry a Bengali” (Zaman 14). Marriage is also a window to gender racism. In spite of being highly educated very often a woman has to stay indoor after marriage doing household chores as a housewife as her husband wills. Nilufer was an M.A. but the man who she was going to marry expected her to work as “a full-time housewife” and she had no choice other than agreeing to her husband. Sajeda, another classmate of Seema, with her parents from the Punjab but her grandfather well-settled in Chittagong with “a flourishing business”, is a sharp contrast with Farid “a poor refugee from India ” whom she loves in spite of knowing the truth that their union is never possible. Here Seema ponders the evil effect of a separation, the ironical togetherness of beneficiary union among Muslims and compares the situation of Tanvir and Farid. “Like Farid, Tanvir was a wanderer, searching for a goal, a safe shore. He would never reach his goal, nor perhaps would he have been content on reaching it. Uprooted with his childhood and adolescence behind him in the home he left in India , he could never be happy in this alien land” (Zaman 22).

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The romantic union between Saida and Cupie, Nasreen and Rashid, Sajeda and Farid, Seema and Tanvir and between Seema and Khalid is greatly impacted by racism. As mentioned earlier, the marriage between Saida and Cupie did not take place perhaps because Cupie found Saida socially inferior to and racially different from him. We are greatly touched by the unhappy separation between Nasreen and Rashid who dreamed to culminate their affair into a happy marriage but in vain. It is Rashid's parents who are to be blamed for this. The racist outlook of Rashid's parents turns into too strong a force for Nasreen and Rashid to be united through marriage. Rashid raises the issue of his marriage with Nasreen but his father's obstinacy makes him helpless. The father was opposed to the marriage for Nasreen is a non-Bengali, a racial ‘other.' Khalid comments: “No it's just a question of racial prejudice.” “Bengalis don't want their children to marry non-Bengalis, non-Bengalis don't want their children to marry Bengalis. We are a prejudiced lot (sic), aren't we? The world is becoming smaller and people marry foreigners, but in Pakistan there are so many prejudices that Bengali-non-Bengali marriages are frowned upon” (Zaman 58). The mother of Rashid does not acquiesce to her son's intention of marrying Nasreen as she finds no prospects for him in this marriage. According to Khalid:

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Rashid's mother had said that she had high hopes for her son. He would sit for the C.S.S. examination and become a C.S.P. Then and only then would she consider any proposals for him. Then he would be in a position to bargain and get the best. The girl whom she (Rashid' mother) had heard her son was interested in, well, she might be nice to look at, but what could she bring with her? She was a refugee from India – with no land, no money, no backing. She would hinder, rather than help, her son's career. (Zaman 72)

The affair between Sajeda and Farid suffers the same destiny as Nasreen and Rashid's simply because the parents of Sajeda want her to marry a bridegroom who comes from a well- off family background unlike Farid.

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We can set Tanvir, Qamar, Khalid and Seema, Saida, Nasreen in two binary positions regarding their to-female, to-male outlook. Each group feels a sort of unconscious and/or conscious prejudice against and separation from the other. Again we notice Seema's mother and Rashid's father in the same mental periphery in regard to their racist attitude to the East Pakistanis and the Indians. Tanvir, being a refugee from India and suffering from economic crisis is well-aware of the existent racism in the contemporary society. On the surface level, it might seem that the love relation between Seema and Tanvir is one-sided and cruel on Tanvir's part as he hardly responds to Seema's call at the end. But the fact that Seema's father was a C.S.P. from West Pakistan made him judiciously think that her parents would object to their marriage. And we can guess that Seema's parents would not consent to their marriage as Tanvir was simply an artist with an income measured on the scale of hand-to-mouth. Furthermore, he was a racial other to the parents of Seema and he would be treated as was Khalid. It is also clear from Seema's outburst that if Tanvir responded she would not care for her parents' disagreement. Regarding the failure of their association Seema views: “In many ways, when I think back today, Tanvir's relationship with me was the same as Farid's with Sajeda” (Zaman 22), which gives a hint to the prejudice of Sajeda's parents against Farid. Tanvir- Seema relation contrasts the woman of Shamlegh-Kim relationship in Kim . In the story of Kim the protagonist, Kim is found a racial other and superior to the woman and their relation stops whereas in The Crooked Neem Tree Tanvir finds Seema, the protagonist, a racially other and socially superior to him and stops the emotional engagement. And the emotional transformation in Tanvir seems to cause his physical and spiritual departure.

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We observe the relationship between Seema and Khalid in Elizabeth-Darcy frame. Love, separation, prejudice, fear, anxiety and passion change their places continuously in the arena of their affair. It is not that Seema is completely free of a racist outlook. She too like her mother subconsciously feels that Khalid is inferior to her in several respects which include socio-economic position, culture and race whose roots are in East Pakistan - West Pakistan binary. That Seema's mind has some impression of racism is evident from her sudden outburst that West Pakistan had gifted East Pakistan with many affluent things but the people of East Pakistan frequently complain against them. However, the bond between Khalid and Seema and the problems they face give us a hint of multi-faceted racism in Seema's mother. As a racialist she tries to stop the mixing between her daughter and Khalid. “Racialists are not content to just observe the separation of the races but they want it maintained and so reject racial mixing” (Todorov 213-214). As an attempt to uphold the superiority of West Pakistan she rejects Khalid's marriage proposal. She detains her daughter in her room and keeps a sharp eye on her movement so that she cannot meet her man. An atmosphere of tension, anxiety and worry is created. The affiliation between them reaches the point of downfall. Both of them suffer from the anguish and torment of things falling apart. The rationale she counters the match between Seema and Khalid is because the later is a Bengali, a racial other. Her dogma does not approve that her daughter should be married to an individual who is racially different and socially and culturally inferior to them. In fact, racism against the Bengalis turns Seema's mother's into a heart of darkness like that of Marlow in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. To the marriage proposal sent by Khalid, she reacts furiously:

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I thought I had told you that I would not entertain any proposal sent by this person. Why did you carry on despite my strict disapproval? I have rejected his proposal. I should like you to put all thoughts of him out of your mind. Was it for this you rejected Qamar? Whatever Qamar's defects might be - and which man is free from defects? - he is a thousand times better. He belongs to the same bradari , the same society as us, the same race. He is well settled, from a good family. (Zaman 93)
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Turning down the offer of Khalid in this manner, she attempts to soften Seema's heart for Qamar by placing him in a superior position to Khalid and others. While doing so, she draws a racist border of separation not only between Khalid and Qamar (i.e. the East Pakistan and the West Pakistan in general) but also between two societies and races in the Punjab , between a well-settled and a badly-settled bridegroom, between a rich and a poor family and between a male and a female. As she came to know from Seema that Qamar had a love- affair with Seema's friend Saida, she intended to convey the message to her daughter that in case of a girl such a concern and other defects might lower her worth as a bride but never vice versa. She also pointed out that all men have defects save any woman. But the racism of the racist mother is defeated by the emotions of her daughter. Repudiating the mother-daughter, father-daughter, and sister-sister devotions and relations Seema responds to Khalid's affectionate and passionate call and gets secretly married to him at his house. Thereby, it is crystal clear that human emotions, bond and strong will can stand against and triumph over racism.

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Like racism, identity crisis is constantly visible throughout the novel. The subject of identity crisis is correlated with the issues of uprootedness from one's nationality, history and culture, mediocre socio-economic condition, gender discrimination, leadership polarization, ideological values and love-relationship and marriage.

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The individuals who suffer from identity crisis in the novel are Tanvir, Seema, Nasreen, Farid, Naheed, Sajeda and Saida. However, the case of Tanvir seems to be greater and worse than those of others. During partition in 1947 Tanvir's family left India for East Pakistan . Consequently, Tanvir is uprooted from his own nationality, history, and culture. An artist with a meager income he is constantly tormented with a sense of non-belonging which is worsened by the racist outlook of the Bengalis towards him as a ‘Bihari.' Though he likes “this place,” he is in a dilemma whether he should stay in East Pakistan or go to West Pakistan . And though migration to West Pakistan would not make any difference to his destiny, it is certain that he will leave for West Pakistan when people here make them do so. In spite of discovering Seema profoundly and madly in love with him, Tanvir rejected her affection on two grounds, the second of which was his identity crisis: “I have no right to ask you to share my rootless life with me. Wherever we go in Pakistan , we shall always be mohajirs , refugees, outsiders. I cannot ask you to share that with me” (Zaman 53). Therefore, unlike racism identity crisis can sometimes crush human emotion and passion. And the fate of Farid was not different from Tanvir's. Regarding the search of identity the fate of Tanvir is worse than that of Kim who at least at the end reaches the consolation, “I am Kim. I am Kim” (Kipling 331) but Tanvir never finds the answer to the question of ‘Who is Tanvir?' (Quotation ours)

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The nature of identity crisis experienced by Seema is different from Tanvir's but no less severe than his. Separated from her own history, culture and nationality and having lived in Bengal for too long a period Seema found it difficult to go back to her own land. She was searching for a permanent home in Bengal and was anxious whether she would be successful. She had been such deeply rooted in the “soil of Bengal ” that being uprooted from it would have thrown her existence into peril: “And I, I too was a seeker. But I was in search of roots. Like all women I wanted a home, but I need a rooted home. The seed that had sprung from the soil of the Punjab had been nurtured too long on the plains of Bengal . The plant had changed in the transplantation, but uprooted from this soil, it would wither and die” (Zaman 22). Therefore, the identity of Seema is in a complex flux. But maybe her sense of identity crisis makes her come closer to Khalid. Whereas the identity crisis felt by Tanvir acted as a curse for Seema, that of Seema turned into a blessing for Khalid. Hence, we discover identity crisis as a stronger and better force than racism but a more complex entity and it appears to have a convoluted and variant link with racism. Because unlike racism, identity crisis perhaps can hardly be overpowered and overthrown by human sentiment and whereas racism simply poses a threat to man- woman relationship as we notice in cases of Tanvir and Seema, Rashid and Nasreen, Farid and Sajeda, Qamar and Saida and Nilufer and one of her classmates, identity crisis strengthens the association between Khalid and Seema. And though both Tanvir and Seema suffer from identity crisis and racist attitude of others, these negative forces weaken and destroy Tanvir but strengthen Seema to face life's odd realities born out of unequal love association.

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The second facet of Seema's identity crisis originates from her gender distinctiveness. Since she is a girl she cannot make her own decisions. Any judgment she constructs must be reflected by her parents. That her free movement is restricted and she cannot select her man make her suffer from a sense of non-being and nothingness: “Was one born, did one grow up, to have one's life planned by others? I was educated. In a few month's time I could go out and teach others. Had I no right to decide my own life?” (Zaman 93). Simliar sort of identity crisis affects Sajeda and Nilufer. The identity crisis which Nasreen, Naheed and Saida face is the same as that of Tanvir and Farid. A sense of identity crisis, whatever is its origin, pushes all these figures into the periphery of nothingness and non-being. Only Seema and Naheed fight with viogour and overwhelm this antagonistic force of life, Nilufer somehow survives with it but Nasreen and Saida perceive no sign of the appearance of Godot and therefore unlike Vladimir and Estragon commit suicide.

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The novelist sketches the multi-characteristics and multi-dimensions of racism and identity crisis with great artistic quality and care. She also shows a very convoluted and byzantine connection between these two important post-colonial products. Racism which was born to Europe/Orient binary opposition was transported to the pre-independent Bangladeshi society via India/Pakistan and spread its branches over the soil of Bengal in West Pakistan / East Pakistan frame. The novelist, being the daughter of a Punjabi mother and a Bengali father and having lived in Bengal and travelled to West Pakistan occasionally, had an opportunity to observe the uncontrolled existence of racism and identity crisis in the contemporary society. She critically noticed how these two negative entities gave a shake to Bengali society continuously and made ‘ things fall apart' . As an artist she gave her observations a shape in the name of The Crooked Neem Tree .
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We realize that the novelist uses the name of her fiction in a figurative and metaphorical sense. Perhaps she intends to deliver the message that racism and identity crisis give a twist (crooked shape) to human minds, thoughts, feelings and relations which results into much misery and anguish of life (the taste of neem is bitter). Again the neem tree seems to stand as a wall between East Pakistan and West Pakistan and create a gap between the peoples. In spite of living on the same land the people of East Pakistan and West Pakistan were on two opposite sides of a wall of racism. The neem tree in this story acts as the ablution tank at the mosque in A Passage to India . The ablution tank causes physical separation between Mrs. Moore and Dr. Aziz (12). Indeed the crooked neem tree provides a mulit-level symbol for the story in this novel as does the Marabar Caves in A Passage to India . To add an important point, showing a positive impact of human emotions, bonds and strong will on racism and identity crisis, the author suggests them as significant elements to nurture a core of individual resistance against racism and identity crisis. In a Kiplingian manner we can conclude with these words: To those who follow the path of human sentiment, bond and strong will there is neither racism nor identity crisis. They are all souls seeking to escape.

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Works Cited

Ashcroft, B., G. Griffiths and H. Tiffin. Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts . London and

New York : Routledge, 1998.

Forster, E.M. A Passage to India . London : Everyman's Library, 1942.

Hinshelwood, R.D. “ Intolerance and The Intolerable: The Case of Racism.” Psychoanalysis,

Culture & Society. Published in 2007 . Retrieved on May 7, 2009. < http://www.palgrave-

journals.com/pcs/journal/v12/n1/full/2100103a.html >

Hornby, A.S. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English . Ed. Jonathan

Crowther. 4 th ed. Oxford and New York : Oxford U.P., 1989.

Identity crisis (psychology). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Last modified on May 22,

2009. Retrieved on May 22, 2009 .

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_crisis_(psychology) >

Kipling, R. Kim. Hertfordshire: Wordsworh Classics, 1993.

Racism. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Last modified on Mar. 23, 2009 . Retrieved on

Mar. 25, 2009 . <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism>

Todorov, T. “Race and Racism.” The Postcolonial Studies Reader . Ed. B. Ashcroft, G.

Griffiths and H. Tiffin. 2 nd ed. Oxford : Routledge, 2006. 213-215.

Wiley, P. L. Conrad's Measure of Man. Madison : The University of Wisconsin Press, 1954.

Zaman, N. The Crooked Neem Tree . 2 nd ed. Dhaka : writers.ink, 2006.

 
Book Review
Published On The Daily Star: 2008-07-26
Love and the impediments it runs into
Mohsena Reza Shopna mulls over a touching tale of feeling and despair

The first reaction reading through the pages of The Crooked Neem Tree is one of unhappiness at not reading it twenty years back. The appeal would have been tenfold. Nevertheless I felt twenty years younger and wanted to guzzle the entire book in one day.


It is a moving portrayal of a sheltered young woman's life in the early 1960s. Written in 1971 and published a decade later, it narrates the story of a young Punjabi, Seema, growing up in East Pakistan. She gradually becomes aware of social injustice and personal betrayals. She falls in love with Tanvir, a young Bihari. When Tanvir breaks off this relationship she gets engaged to Qamar, a Punjabi cousin. Learning that Qamar is responsible for a friend's happiness, she ends the engagement and turns to Khalid, a Bengali student she meets at the university. However, she never stops loving Tanvir.

In a politically charged atmosphere we find that 'Urdu-Wallahs,' despite half a century or more of staying here, do not learn Bangla. The differences which separate the characters in love are also race and culture, years of prosperity vs. ages of poverty. All the characters are in one way or another in search of roots and at one point we cannot but pity the non-Bengalis. Tanvir says, “I have no right to ask you to share my rootless life; wherever we go in Pakistan, we shall be Mohajirs, refugees, and outsiders.” Nasreen is not accepted because she is a non-Bengali and is ultimately wedded to an aged non-Bengali. The underlying theme is a tussle between the haves and the have- nots. Tanvir rejects Seema on the ground that she is the daughter of a bureaucrat and cannot ultimately cope with poverty. Though Seema states that position and money are not everything, Tanvir insists, “Without it there is nothing, one becomes desperate, loses all one's finest qualities, and forgets everything only to get a little money to sustain oneself.”

Niaz Zaman takes a dig at the CSPs maybe to voice the opinion of many more of her time. When Seema asks Khalid to study for the CSS examination he retaliates by pointing out that only a few CSPs think of the teeming millions. The very person to criticise the nose-in-the-air attitude of the CSP, once “made in the C.S.P academy”, will be shocked at the idea of spending his evening on the pavements of Jinnah Avenue or in Casbah. Often he might even change his wife because of his recent high market value!


To bring life to the story, the writer takes us back to those good old days when we used to have rag days. Visit the USIS and study at the British Council, go to Nanking, Chow Chin Chow and have baby ice cream. But despite all these mundane affairs the whole story revolves round Seema's intense love for Tanvir and Khalid's for Seema. Khalid always fears losing Seema just when he has found her and Seema regrets losing a friend. “There were times we fought and argued but these had been between friends.” She has given too much of herself in her love for Tanvir and “one cannot shut off love as one shuts off a tap.”


Every line reminds us of the author's proximity with the new generation .Her portrayal of racial prejudices is amazing. Through the proposal and rejection of mixed marriages she has very successfully depicted this disparity. There is no dearth of funny notes. The conversation between Seema and Khalid is simply hilarious. Khalid tries his utmost to convince her of his love, but Seema is adamant and snubs him: “Arguments do not convince a girl.”


“What does? Physical force? I think the cavemen were right when they clubbed the women they were interested in and dragged them off by their hair to their caves”.


Everyday language is in use, easy diction makes it a tangy piece to chew. Zaman's skill in the use of imagery with which she describes Seema's forlorn state is remarkable. Seema writes letters to Tanvir, tears them into small bits and scatters them out the window, watching them float softly past the crooked neem tree like little falling paper flakes. “My love bore flowers as bitter as the Neem tree”, she says.


The book is rather a research on human nature and relationships; some isolated lines are proof enough. “Human beings are by nature very adaptable and women more so.” “Some people are not psychologically prepared to get married because they see love as spiritual and platonic and cannot bear to think of the physical closeness because it sullies the purity.”


Our social values of the time are reflected in the marriage episodes of Seema's friend Nasreen. “Any girl who was an easy conquest was unworthy of marriage” is Rashed's mother's comment. She might be pretty but what could she bring with her? A refugee from India with no land, money or backing, she would only hinder rather than help her son's career.


A vivid description of traditional marriage is also brought in for young readers. The truth in her description comes up in the lines when she says girls look pretty on their wedding day but their fear and nervousness prevent their being truly beautiful; on her walima a mixture of shyness and fulfillment makes the plainest bride a thing of beauty. In fact, every line in the book relates to our every day life, making it one of the most interesting and relaxing books to read amongst all those mind drilling books of today.


A marriage like Nasreen's sets a girl wondering. She has become a woman not gently with love but brutally. We expect that somewhere there must be our ideal companion, our soulmate whom we have only to meet once and know forever that we have found what we have sought. But life does not work out that way. Sleeping Beauty waits in vain for her Prince Charming, Snow White remains locked up in her glass coffin, the prince never comes. Sleeping Beauty chooses a substitute but, physically aroused, her innermost being is never awakened and the pretty young girl deteriorates into the slovenly matron shouting at servants and children alike or else into the butterfly which flits from lover to lover never knowing true love with any. What philosophy of life!! As a continuation we can bring the soliloquy of Seema into consideration. Tanvir has starved her of love. With Khalid she is friendly: “What did it matter, all marriages are not built on love, a lasting union can be based on deep friendship, understanding of intellectual and emotional needs”.


Niaz Zaman defends men too. Not all men are philanderers. A man can also remember his true love. Sometimes it is women who refuse to marry their lovers, preferring wealth and security to the uncertainties of love with an impecunious lover.


She embellishes her story with interesting dialogues. Seema asks Khalid what a “pearl girl and a diamond girl” mean. Pearl girl graceful, simple, quiet, with a deep hidden well of emotion; whereas diamond girl is vivacious, glamorous, always on the go, all fire, anger and laughter, and changing moods.


People often mix culture with religion. After Khalid and Seema's marriage there is a slight clash of cultures. The projection is incredible. Humor is injected in a casual way to break the monotony. Khalid jokes with Seema, telling her he should marry a Bengali girl to see what it's like. “After all we are allowed four wives. I'll have only two and find out which will make a better wife-------- my hot blooded Punjabi or my docile Bengali.”


The end of the book reminds us of Devdas in the sense of unquenched love. Tanvir sends word and Seema rushes to the hospital, a mad woman bereft of reason. “What right had I to weep for him”, but love does not listen to reason. “I had known him alive and had been happy. All I cared for was that he should be in the same world under the same sky, sun and moon. How would I live knowing he was dead, the face I loved and had never touched while it belonged to a living man could crumble into dust? She faints and when she comes to, she finds Khalid, anger, anguish and love all over him: “You loved him terribly, didn't you?”


“Yes, I loved him long ago, ages and ages ago, but you are my husband and I love you above everything else in the world.”

“You always loved him more than me, didn't you?”

“What we don't succeed in getting always seems more desirable than what we do. Please believe me. I'm happy to be your wife.”

An extremely touching tale. Read it and you'll find old wine in a new bottle.


Mohsena Reza Shopna studied English literature and is Past President, Inner Wheel Club of Dhaka North.