'Sometimes it’s easier to tell a truth through lies’

KOLKATA: He’s also Hanif. He’s also from Pakistan. He’s also lived in UK. And yes, he too writes in English. And if they say “He’s Pakistan’s best writer in English,” he has to be one of the best writers on this Subcontinent. But Mohammed Hanif, a prominent and “provocative” journalist who wrote for Washington Post and India Today, is a Karachi-based Punjabi who can read Sindhi — a language that I have a special affection for, having spoken it with childhood friends in Mumbai.Understandably, a conversation with Hanif, 60, ranged from the plight of Sindhi to English in Pakistan, with Punjabi, Baluchi, Urdu and Hindi thrown in.
Sindhi, a language once frequently heard in Mumbai and still heard due to Sufis like Shah Abdul Latif and Shahbaz Qalandar, is losing its muscles as more and more Sindhis settle abroad. Is it the same story in Karachi?
Sindhi is thriving in Pakistan, especially when compared to Punjabi or Baluchi. There are so many TV channels, newspapers and books published. Writers are thriving since Sindhis take a lot of pride in their language — they speak it with their kids unlike Punjabis who speak Urdu or English. Sindhi is taught in schools — Punjabi isn’t. So, many people think in Punjabi but write in Urdu. Consequently a limited number of books are written in Punjabi.
What’s the reason? Religious?
No, only political and economic. Our leaders — who’re mostly Punjabi — are slightly embarrassed by their linguistic roots.
Where do these books — Sindhi, Punjabi or Urdu — mostly sell?
In Pakistan of course, but also amongst the diaspora, thanks to internet. That’s reassuring, considering they’re primarily in English-speaking countries like UK, USA or Australia. There’s a generation in these countries that hasn’t lost their mother language.
What’s the contour of the Urdu spoken in Pakistan?
Pretty much like in India. I can perfectly understand Hindi or Hindustani like you do Urdu. Some purists here try to Sanskritise Hindi, some in Pakistan try to Persianise or add more Arabic to Urdu. It’s an old joke: We say Hindi is like Urdu, and you say Urdu is like Hindi.
What determines your choice of language? Do you write any Punjabi?
I write in Urdu and English. Being a journalist I started with English. It’s my language for fiction; no one pays you to write novels in Urdu, which lends itself well for non-fiction stuff like editorials or essay. The occasional songs and poems I write for films are in Punjabi. They’ve picked up in recent times. So, if you need a lyricist who charges less than Gulzar or Javed Akhtar, let me know!
Is ‘The Case of Exploding Mangoes’, listed for the Man Booker in 2008, a political thriller born out of your journalism?
The backdrop is the death of Pakistan’s longest serving head of state, General Zia-ul-Haq. But it’s not based on real incidents. It’s all fiction. While he lived he hogged headlines, but when he died no one — the army, the government, the US — wanted to know who killed him! Like all reporters, I was keen to unravel the mystery and found layers of deceptions and cover-ups surrounding the cover-ups. When I realised that no one’s going to tell who did it, I decided to put my hand up. I fictionalised the conspiracy. Sometimes it’s easier to tell a truth through lies than through facts.
And does ‘Our Lady of Alice Bhatti’ have any truth in it?
It’s about a nurse who falls in love with someone she shouldn’t have loved. The setting, a Christian hospital, comes from the one my mother was treated in for cancer.
You’ve been to several litfests — in India and elsewhere. What’ve you observed?
Yes, there are litfests in Karachi and Lahore, just as every major Indian city has a litfest now. Which is great — how else do you meet writers? At the same time, a certain element of predictability has set in. You meet the same set of writers in Karachi, Kolkata, Kerala, Jaipur...
And in terms of content? Are the concerns of Indians writing in English different from those writing in Pakistan?
I don’t read books because they are by Indians or Pakistanis. A writer’s nationality is never a criterion for reading books. But the best of Indian writings I have read are from Tamil or Malayalam... Clearly some robust writing is happening in the languages but the litfests focus only on English writing.