Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Historical references in character's names

Raza Hyder’s name is an allusion to the despotic “maharaja”(king) of Mysore, Hyder Ali who ruled over the south Indian state of present-day Karnataka, and also refers more generally to the British rule.
Iskandar Harappa - The surname ‘Harappa’ glosses the archaeological site of the ‘Harappan
civilization that borders Bhutto’s family estate in the Sind province and is a ‘subtle reference to Bhutto’s reign of terror’. 

‘Iskander’ alludes to ‘Alexander the Great’, a figure both powerful and profligate who ‘invaded the part of India that is now Pakistan in 326 BC’, but it also refers to ‘the real-life ex-major-general Iskander Mirza’ as a way of casting aspersions on Bhutto’s democratic credentials.



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