Author: Kabir

I am Pakistani-American. I am a Hindustani classical vocalist and ethnomusicologist. I hold a B.A from George Washington University (Dramatic Literature, Western Music) and an M.Mus (Ethnomusicology) from SOAS, University of London. My dissertation “A New Explanation for the Decline of Hindustani Music in Pakistan” has recently been published in Pakistan by Aks Publications (2024)and in India by Aakar Books (2026) My writing can be read on my Substack "Thoughts of a Bibliophile" https://kabiraltaf.substack.com/ Samples of my singing can be heard on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Le1RnQQJUeKkkXj5UCKfB

Gender statistics in India

June 21, 2026 Kabir 25 Comments filed under Kabir

Normally I’m wary of India-Pakistan comparisons but since a comment was made on an earlier thread that “India is light-years ahead of Pakistan” when it comes to gender, let’s look at some objective statistics. I have no problem conceding that India is indeed ahead of Pakistan in many things. For example, India has decriminalized homosexuality (by getting rid of the British colonial Section 377). This is something that is currently unimaginable in Pakistan. Partly this is because India is a constitutionally secular state while Pakistan is an “Islamic Republic”. Islam has clear views about homosexuality which don’t need to be elaborated here.

Yet, India is by no means a Western feminist paradise. Arranged marriage remains the norm (just as it is in Pakistan). Marital rape is not a crime (just as it isn’t in Pakistan). So Indians can indeed take satisfaction in being more progressive than Pakistan but they are nowhere near Western standards.

Take the Global Gender Gap Index for example. While Pakistan is the bottom ranked country on the list (with a score of 0.567) India is ranked at 0.644. This is just above Saudi Arabia at 0.643. Meanwhile, the UK is ranked at 0.838 and the US is ranked at 0.756. Clearly, India needs to make a lot of progress to catch up with the so-called “civilized world”. Continue reading Gender statistics in India

Lucknow’s Composite Culture and its Destruction in Qurratulain Hyder’s Novels

June 21, 2026 Kabir No Comments filed under Kabir

I am sharing an excerpt from this piece in the context of Fly Die’s piece on ethnic violence in India. I believe that sometimes Literature provides a different lens on these issues than academic research does.

I was tuning my tanpura for riaz in the morning to sing Khayal Jaunpuri, and one string snapped. Gautam, there’s symbolism for you. Hussain Shah’s tanpura broken into two,’ said Talat ruefully.

— Qurratulain Hyder, River of Fire, pg. 273

In the passage quoted above–from Qurratulain Hyder’s novel River of Fire (her own translation of her Urdu magnum opus Aag Ka Dariya)—the speaker, Talat, is a member of Lucknow’s Muslim elite. She is speaking to a group of friends—both Muslim and Hindu—after the Partition of 1947. Two new nation-states–“India” and “Pakistan”– have been created and the group of friends is splitting up in different directions: Talat’s cousin Amir Reza has already left for Karachi, Talat herself is imminently departing for further studies in England, and Gautam is soon to leave for America. The broken tanpura symbolizes the death of the composite culture, which could not survive the politics of religion and the force of the Two Nation Theory. This theme—the destruction of the Lucknawi way of life—runs through many of Hyder’s novels, particularly through My Temples, Too (Hyder’s translation of her debut novel Mere Bhi Sanam Khane) and the later sections of River of Fire.

In this paper I will examine Hyder’s novels and use them to discuss some arguments about the formation of the composite culture of Lucknow (and of UP generally) and the failure of this culture to prevent the Partition of British India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947. By focusing on Muslim elites who, despite all the odds, chose to retain their belief in a united India, Hyder problematizes the prevailing discourse that sees Hindus and Muslims as inherently opposed and Partition as the inevitable outcome of Independence.

The rest of the essay can be read on Substack. See also my review of Hyder’s novel “Fireflies in the Mist”

Review: Siren Song: Understanding Pakistan Through Its Women Singers by Fawzia Afzal-Khan

June 20, 2026 Kabir No Comments filed under Kabir

I am sharing this review in the context of the ongoing discussion on women’s rights in Pakistan. Though Afzal-Khan’s book is specifically about women singers, it is relevant to this discussion since it makes broader points about “respectability politics”.

Afzal-Khan’s book is wide-ranging and covers a time period from the years preceding Pakistan’s creation in 1947 to the present. It includes many genres, from khayal to Sufi-Pop. The central theme of the book is articulated in the first two chapters entitled “The Respectable Courtesan” (focusing on Malka Pukhraj) and “Roshan Ara Begum: Performing Classical Music, Gender, and Muslim Nationalism in Pakistan.” In these initial chapters, Afzal-Khan develops her notion of “respectability politics.” This refers to the ways in which these artists had to negotiate their public image in order to align themselves with the norms of ashraf Muslim families, which hold that a woman’s primary place is in the home. Though they were both great artists, Malka Pukhraj and Roshan Ara Begum identified themselves primarily as “good” wives and (in Pukhraj’s case) mothers. This allowed them to distance themselves from their alleged “courtesan” backgrounds, considered dubious by mainstream society. In Pukhraj’s case, she was a court singer in the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, ruled at the time by Maharaja Hari Singh. It is telling that, according to her daughter Tahira Syed (1958-) – herself an accomplished singer – Pukhraj’s children didn’t learn about this aspect of their mother’s background until she wrote her autobiography in her eighties (Afzal-Khan 2020: 5). It is also important to note that Pukhraj dedicated her memoirs to two men: first her husband and then her patron (Maharaja Hari Singh). Afzal-Khan deems this another “normative gesture of respectability” (2020: 3).

The rest of the review can be read on Substack.

Review: Requiem in Raga Janki by Neelum Saran Gour

June 18, 2026 Kabir 2 Comments filed under Kabir

Neelum Saran Gour’s novel Requiem in Raga Janki (Penguin Random House India, 2018) is a fictionalized biography of Janki Bai Ilahabadi (1880-1934), one of the most famous Hindustani classical singers of the early twentieth century. Janki Bai was an extremely successful gramophone artist in the early days of recording. She performed at the Grand Delhi Darbar in December 1911, where George V was crowned as Emperor of India. She also wrote Urdu poetry, most famously the Diwan-e-Janki.

Gour begins the novel by describing one of the most famous stories associated with Janki Bai, when she was stabbed by a jealous lover (depending on the version of the story, the man was either her lover or the lover of her father’s mistress). Janki received 56 stab wounds, which led to her receiving the nickname “Chappan Churi” (56 knives). After the stabbing, her father’s mistress, Lakshmi, ran away and Janki’s father abandoned his wife and children to go searching for her. Janki and her mother Manki Bai were then sold to a brothel in Allahabad. In order to protect her daughter from becoming an ordinary sex worker, Manki Bai arranged for her to recieve a high level of musical training from Ustad Hassu Khan of the Gwalior gharana (school) of Hindustani classical singing. Her success at this art is what made Janki a bai or courtesan– a highly valued female entertainer.

The rest of the review can be read on Substack

Review: The Medici Boy-Art and Homoeroticism in Renaissance Florence

June 16, 2026 Kabir 3 Comments filed under Kabir

Another great read for Pride Month. I am a big fan of historical fiction, particularly those books set in Renaissance Italy.

Renaissance Florence was a period of great artistic ferment. Under the patronage of the Medici family, artists such as Donatello, Michelangelo and Leonardo produced great works of painting and sculpture. Among the best known of these works are the sculptures of David produced by Donatello (c. 1440s) and Michelangelo ( 1501-1504).

John L’Heureux’s novel The Medici Boy focuses on the creation of Donatello’s David (the titular “Medici boy”). The story is narrated by Luca Mattei, a former monk who works as Donatello’s apprentice. Luca becomes jealous of his foster brother, Agnolo, who serves as Donatello’s inspiration for David and later becomes his lover. Donatello’s relationship with Agnolo serves as the major plot complication since Agnolo is repeatedly denounced as a sodomite. His illegal activities also threaten to bring down Donatello and through him his patron and friend, Cosimo de’ Medici.

The rest of the review can be read on Substack. For a woman’s perspective on the Medici, see this review of Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, which is inspired by the marriage and possible murder of Lucrezia de’Medici (1545-1561) at the hands of her husband Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. This alleged murder also served as the inspiration for Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess“–itself a classic of English Literature.

Note: Modern historians believe that Lucrezia died of pulmonary tuberculosis

Review: The Carpet Weaver by Nemat Sadat

June 13, 2026 Kabir 31 Comments filed under Kabir

Since it is Pride month, I am sharing an excerpt from my review here. This novel is about Afghanistan by an Afghan writer, so it hopefully adds to the conversation on that topic as well. In general, I think there needs to be more discussion on BP about non-normative sexualities.

The Carpet Weaver, Nemat Sadat’s debut novel, is the story of a young Afghan man coming to terms with his sexuality amid a backdrop of civil war and political unrest in 1970s and ‘80s Afghanistan.As one of the few South Asian novels featuring homosexuality as a central theme, it is an important book. However, the plot could fairly be called cliched. Certainly, readers of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner would find much that is familiar in this novel.

The rest of the review can be found on Substack. Also see my review of Khaled Alesmael’s novel Selamlik.

Review: Medusa of the Roses by Navid Sinaki

June 10, 2026 Kabir 1 Comment filed under Kabir

Since Iran is in the news, I’m sharing this review of a novel categorized as “queer Iranian noir”.

Navid Sinaki’s debut novel Medusa of the Roses (Grove Atlantic 2024) falls into quite a rare genre: Queer Iranian Noir. Noir fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and has been characterized by author and academic Megan Abbott as follows: “In noir, everyone is fallen, and right and wrong are not clearly defined and maybe not even attainable” (Literary Hub 2018). James M. Cain’s 1934 novel The Postman Always Rings Twice is usually identified as a classic example of the genre. Sinaki directly references this novel and even borrows some plot elements from it. In Cain’s novel, the protagonist and her lover scheme to murder her husband so they can be together. Similarly, Sinaki’s queer protagonists scheme to murder the wife of one of them.

Sinaki’s novel focuses on the relationship between Anjir and Zal, two men who have been lovers since they were teenagers. At the beginning of the story, Zal has been injured in a gaybashing incident–he was with someone other than Anjir. Shortly afterwards, he disappears and much of the novel concerns Anjir trying to locate him. Anjir also plans to get gender reassignment surgery and live as a woman–not because he has gender dysphoria but because while Iranian law punishes homosexuality with death, the government allows people to surgically transition to another gender. Before Zal’s accident, the two men came up with a plan to murder Zal’s wife. After Anjir’s gender reassignment, the two would be able to marry. Continue reading Review: Medusa of the Roses by Navid Sinaki

Review: Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano Mysteries

June 8, 2026 Kabir No Comments filed under Kabir

This has nothing to do with South Asia but in an attempt to mix up subjects I’m sharing this recent piece I wrote about crime fiction. Also see these related pieces on crime fiction: “Mehmet Murat Somer’s Turkish Delight Mysteries” and “Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz”.

One of my guilty pleasures is that I read police procedurals to relax. Though they are certainly not high art, these novels are paradoxically comforting– despite the violence they contain– since the reader knows that the mystery will be solved in the end. This perhaps explains why detective stories–of which police procedurals are a subgenre– continue to be one of the most popular literary genres. Agatha Christie, for example, is one of the world’s bestselling authors.

Sometime during the pandemic, I discovered Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano mysteries. At a time when we were all stuck at home, these novels allowed me to travel vicariously to Sicily. The books are full of local color. In particular–since Inspector Montalbano is a gourmand– they are full of descriptions of local cuisine.

The series often covers the connections between crime and politics–the Mafia is often involved in the plots. In a 2012 interview with The Guardian, Camilleri spoke about how he combined the detective novel with social commentary. He said: “In many crime novels, the events seem completely detached from the economic, political and social context in which they occur… In my books, I deliberately decided to smuggle into a detective novel a critical commentary on my times. This also allowed me to show the progression and evolution in the character of Montalbano”. Continue reading Review: Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano Mysteries

Arslan Athar’s debut novel Forty Days of Mourning Remembers Hyderabad Deccan through Grief and Silence

June 6, 2026 Kabir 14 Comments filed under Kabir

Our 2026 reader survey is open until 7 June – anonymous, roughly five minutes. Please take a moment.

Since there has been some recent discussion of Hyderabad Deccan here, I am sharing this book review from DAWN of Arslan Athar’s debut novel Forty Days of Mourning.

Note: Like everyone else these days, Arslan also has a Substack. He is a Lahore-based writer.

Hyderabad Deccan is not merely a setting in this novel. It is a living, breathing presence that shapes the people who inhabit it and the events that unfold. Once a princely state rich in terms of material wealth and cultural plurality, Hyderabad carried a distinct identity that rarely finds adequate representation in narratives of colonial India. Discussions around the British Raj and Partition often reduce history to binaries, and Hyderabad’s nuanced past is frequently overlooked. Athar’s novel resists this erasure with care and precision.

And:

As pressure from the newly formed Indian state increases, Hyderabad’s fragile independence begins to crack. The story follows this slow unravelling, moving from hope and denial to violence, loss and reckoning, ending with the state’s forced integration and the collective grief of a world that disappears almost overnight.

As the wife of a high-ranking army officer, Saleema moves through the city’s elite circles, aware of every whisper of political tension, every shifting alliance. But as the Nizam’s Hyderabad faces the inevitability of annexation, Saleema realises that neither status nor cunning can fully shield her, and the choices she makes ripple through both her personal life and the crumbling world around her.

Continue reading Arslan Athar’s debut novel Forty Days of Mourning Remembers Hyderabad Deccan through Grief and Silence

Marjane Satrapi, French-Iranian artist and the author of ‘Persepolis’, dies at 56

June 5, 2026 Kabir 15 Comments filed under Kabir

Rest in Peace Marjane Satrapi – As an aside, our 2026 reader survey is open until 7 June – anonymous, roughly five minutes. Please take a moment.

Thanks to Agni for bringing this to our attention. I remember reading Persepolis years ago and it definitely does provide a different perspective on the Iranian Revolution.

From CNN:

French-Iranian artist and activist Marjane Satrapi, whose graphic novel “Persepolis” brought home the struggle of the Iranian people to millions around the world, has died. She was 56.

A statement from the Élysée Palace announcing her death Thursday lauded Satrapi’s work, saying her work “captivated a global audience.”

“Her passing marks the loss of a leading figure in French culture and an artist deeply committed to freedom, whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international acclaim,” the Élysée said.

And:

Satrapi’s work spanned numerous graphic novels – which she preferred to call “comic books” and films. In 2019, she directed “Radioactive,” a British biographical drama film starring Rosamund Pike as Marie Curie.

But she was also an outspoken critic of Iran’s ruling establishment and a prominent supporter of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement that emerged after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022.

Iranian women human rights group, the Narges Foundation described Satrapi as “a fearless advocate for feminism, women’s rights” and as someone who “champion(ed) the struggles and resilience of Iranian women.”