Implications of Rural Displacement: The Disintegration of Rural Identity and the Complexities of Urban Life in Raja Gidh

Abstract

This article examines the theme of migration in Bano Qudsia’s novel Raja Gidh as a complex socio-psychological and cultural experience rather than a mere geographical shift. Through the character of Qayyum, the study highlights how leaving a rural environment and entering an urban setting produces emotional fragmentation, identity crisis, and a deep sense of alienation. The contrast between the rootedness, communal values, and moral cohesion of village life and the individualism, modernity, and fluid social structures of the city exposes Qayyum’s internal conflict and persistent inferiority. The character of Semi Shah embodies urban confidence and cultural modernity, intensifying Qayyum’s struggle between his inherited rural identity and the demands of urban life. Ultimately, the article argues that migration in Raja Gidh becomes a symbolic journey of psychological dislocation, moral uncertainty, and the painful reconstruction of selfhood within shifting social realities.

References:

1. Abu Sa‘adat Jalili, Raja Gidh: Ek Aham Novel, mashmoola: Qaumi Zaban, vol. 81, no. 3, March 2009, Karachi: Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-e-Urdu, p. 40.
2. Bano Qudsia, Raja Gidh, Dehli: Arshia Publications, 2018, p. 189.
3. Ibid, p. 189.
4. Ibid, p. 120.
5. Ibid, p. 218.
6. Ibid, p. 21.
7. Ghulam Fareeda and Tahir Nawaz, Urdu Novel “Raja Gidh”: Tazkiri Misaliyat Pasandi — Tajziati Mutala‘a, mashmoola: Imtizaj, no. 19, 30 June 2023, p. 56.
8. Bano Qudsia, Raja Gidh, p. 191.
9. Nazeer Siddiqui, Raja Gidh: Ek Nai Akhlaqiyat ki Janib Ek Da‘wat, mashmoola: Nairang-e-Khayal, vol. 60, no. 67, Rawalpindi, May 1984.