Precarity of Self: Identifying the Liminal Borders of Self in Shahnaz Bashir’s The Half Mother

Abstract

This research paper explores the liminal state of existence and self-identity of ordinary people in the militarised state of Kashmir. In doing so, it aims to conceptually examine the precarity of self and the sequential element, vulnerability in Shahnaz Bashir’s novel, The Half Mother. The insurgency and violence of 1990s caused by the political and religious disputes necessitated militarisation in the territory. Violence and conflicts further emerged in the process of imposing law and order by troops in the forms of abduction and investigation of civilians on the pretext of suspicion stimulated the precarity of existence and identity of ordinary Kashmiris. In the case of Bashir’s novel, it narrates the uncertainty of existence, self and psyche of the protagonist Haleema, whose son goes missing in the militarised region giving her an indefinite status, ‘Half Mother’. The state of precarity discusses the sense of diffused identity and the vulnerability experienced by the victims of violence. Hence, this article employs Judith Butler’s concept of precarity explained in Precarious Lives to construe the state of vulnerability and the effectuated dehumanisation due to precarity of self through Shahnaz Bashir’s The Half Mother. Further, the paper also identifies the liminal state of the protagonist from the stages of self and existence questioning the human rights violations of the perpetrators.

Keywords

• kashmir conflict
• precarity
• vulnerability