A memoir is not, strictly speaking, an autobiography. It is an account of the author’s relations with some interesting people who have left an indelible impression on his/her mind. Fatima Bhutto’s Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughter’s Memoir (Penguin/Viking, Rs 699) is a description of life under the Bhuttos, one of the six most powerful landed aristocracies of Pakistan that controlled the destinies of the country. At one level, it is a microcosm of state and society in Pakistan; at another, a history of the family that is also the history of the nation, a fractured memoir that embodies in an equally fractured form the political life of Pakistan. At a personal level, it reminds me of Tolstoy’s observation that while all happy families are alike, all unhappy families are unhappy in their own special ways. Bhuttos were unhappy, not because they had an embarrassment of riches but because of the violence that riddled the lives of each successive generation. The masthead on the cover tells it all:
Fatima Bhutto:
Granddaughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (President 1970-73 and Prime Minister (1973-77): Assassinated
Niece to Shahnawaz Bhutto — Murdered 1985
Daughter of Mir Murtaza Bhutto — Assassinated 1966
Niece to Benazir Bhutto — Assassinated 2007
So, Fatima said in a recent newspaper interview that the history of the dynasty could be read as a kind of Greek tragedy: “It seems like every 10 years we bury a Bhutto killed violently and way before their time.”
Full report here Business Standard
No comments:
Post a Comment