Conflict, Corruption and the Hollowness of a Nation in Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke

Abstract

The paper accentuates the trajectory of conflict, corruption and disruption in a torn nation through MohsinHamid’s Moth Smoke. The paper ponders over the violent clashbetween the two classes in Pakistan which constitute and compete in the making ofa nation. The pivotal character baptised as Darashikoh, a spokesperson of the lowerclass, alludes to the the Moghal Prince Darashikoh whose alter egoAurangzeb, like historical Aurangzeb ensures his doom in the novel. The historicalrift is significant in portraying the fall of Moghal Empire and significantly the novelalso conjectures the similar fate of Pakistan in the fratricidal war. It also featuresPakistan’s pursuit after nuclear bomb for which it risks the lives of its citizens. Thedeconstruction of social, economic and political order alters the behaviour of thecharacters and escorts them to discrete transgressions that invariably hasinconceivable repercussions in the course of their lives. The conditioning ofLahore in Pakistan undermines the assumption of the Western reader as itmanifests a life of drugs, drinks, adultery, murder, corruption etc. against differentstereotypifications. Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke becomes a canonical gospel indeciphering the sordid and squalid elements in Lahore and apprises thesignificance of hegemony in ushering a new class-conscious and materialisticsociety.