Summary Of Jamil Ahmad's The Wandering Falcon

Jamil Ahmad has made a place for himself, in the Pakistani literary sphere, in a very short span of time through his sole novel The Wandering Falcon. There is not much criticism available on his work. The book was composed in 1970s but no publishing house was interested in publishing it. But in the post 9/11 scenario this part of the world became prominent and so the book aroused a lot of interest and finally got published in 2011. Ahmad had served as a government agent in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) for almost 18 years of his life and his experience is manifested in the nine loosely connected short stories. The study shall endeavor to highlight the homelessness and sense of belonging depicted in the novel through the life of the protagonist, Tor Baz, and other characters in light of Victor Turner’s theory of Liminality.

The little critical material available about the novel analyzes its socio-political aspects generally. Clement Therme in his article The Dynamics of Change in Pakistan-Afghanistan Region points out: “Ahmad’s writings seek to romanticize the Pashtun tribesmen reminiscent of the British colonial policy in the region…”. Ahmad in one of his interviews said, “Brutality exists. But how the tribes deal with it is clean and clear. There is a clear dividing line between right and wrong… each one of us has a tribal gene inside us”. The tribal world, which the so called civilized one deems to be barbaric or uncivilized, is portrayed by Ahmad to be