Main Article Content

Abstract

The concept of nation as an ideology has been contested and debated since the early Eighteenth century. As time passed, people learned that the idea of nation in the present context of the world turned a deaf ear to the golden social mantras – liberty, equality and fraternity, and hence seems outdated. The present paper basically argues that the foundational ideas of Pakistan as a nation could not live up to the expectations of the people. Instead, it preaches things contrary to what nation (Pakistan) stood for. Consequently, this turned it into a biased and exclusionary phenomenon, therefore, an outdated principle. Given the above, the paper seeks to bring in an alternative to the biased, exclusionary and outdated ideas of nation. For this, the paper heavily banks upon Kamila Shamsie’s overarching alternative manifested in her novel Kartography (2002) where she envisions a society based on spatial justice1, tolerance, equality and social inclusion. The present paper throws light on how Kamila Shamsie envisions an alternative to nation which in the words of Edward Soja is called a Thirdspace society. Contrary to the concept of nation, Thirdspace is an inclusive phenomenon wherein exclusionary, discriminatory, biased, unjust, and binary driven ideas are subjected to reconstruction and recombination

Article Details