Blasphemy: The Trial of Danesh Masih is the story of a lawyer in Pakistan who defends an innocent Christian boy accused of blasphemy―a crime punishable by death. Aatish Taseer observed that "in this novel of quiet creeping horror, Haneef forces us to confront the supreme evil that lies at the heart of Pakistan's blasphemy law." In an interview with our Publisher, Dipankar Mukherjee, Osman tells us more about the book, and his journey as an author.
Dipankar: Does Literature still have the ability to make an impact? What makes you think so?
Osman: On rare historical occasions, literature has supported large movements, and helped transform lives. More often though, it offers a respite from daily life, and perhaps another perspective on the world.
Abraham Lincoln supposedly greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, when he met her in 1862, with “so you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” The causes of the civil war are multifaceted, and it would be ridiculous to attribute the main cause to the novel, but the book was highly influential in fuelling the abolitionist cause and was significant enough that Lincoln made a quip about it.
A group of writers discussed this recently on twitter. Some pointed out how Upton Sinclair's The Jungle prompted Roosevelt to create the FDA within a year of reading it. The Citadel by A.J.Cronin was supposed to have influenced the establishment of the NHS in the UK.
But even if novels don’t create a national movement, they can influence individuals in profound ways. For example, Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the civil liberties advocacy organisation, was inspired by To Kill A Mockingbird to pursue a career as a lawyer and campaigner. There are countless other lawyers who have similarly been influenced by Harper Lee’s classic. Even if fiction doesn’t make people consider new careers, some studies have suggested that reading fiction builds empathy in readers.
At the very least, fiction should be able to entertain or move someone emotionally. And isn’t that worth something?
A fair question to ask is whether, with the advent of the internet and the availability of countless hours of streaming television, novels still have the ability to have such an impact. These different mediums may actually enhance a novel’s ability to have an impact rather than detract from it because these other mediums often borrow heavily from fiction. Almost every future dystopian novel owes a debt to George Orwell’s 1984. Streaming services, such as Netflix and HBO, are mining novels and books for source material for their most successful shows. This provides an opportunity for novelists to reach many more people through their work than they otherwise would have been able to — and with translations and dubbing, this allows works to travel across borders and cultures. If anything the ability for literature to influence people has only been amplified with new technology.
When I think of the impact of literature, I sometimes think of the scene in the Devil wears Prada, where Meryl Streep’s character berates Anne Hathway for thinking she chose the outfit she is wearing and that fashion doesn’t impact her. She explains how fashion norms and trends are created by tastemakers and those then trickle down into retail stores who cater to the mass market. I believe novels do something similar with entertainment, where derivatives are created in different mediums so that even if the work doesn’t directly impact us, the conversations we have and the issues we discuss are heavily influenced by the literature of our time. So Yes, literature does have an impact. In more ways than we even realize.
Dipankar: Many a time an author starts with an idea and ends with something else. What was your idea when you started writing Blasphemy and how did it fare against your own expectation when you finished writing it?
Osman: I wrote the novel as a “discovery” writer. That is, I wrote the first draft without a strong sense of the narrative arc or central conflict. But as I wrote, my mind kept coming back to a blasphemy case from the 1990s. In the case, an illiterate teenage boy, Salamat Masih, was accused of writing blasphemous statements on the wall of a mosque in a village in the Punjab. There was no physical evidence, and the judge was never told what was said because to repeat the statement would have been blasphemous. Eventually, the conviction was overturned, and Masih fled to Germany. However, the injustice of an obviously innocent young boy wrongfully convicted in this Kafkaesque court proceeding in Pakistan stayed with me. I couldn’t write anything else.
Dipankar: Too close to reality in Pakistan, as many would say Blasphemy is, what were the apprehensions that you had in mind before you let this one out? Or did you have the security of a privileged-life that gave you the courage?
Osman: You can never feel completely secure when writing about Blasphemy. Salman Taseer, the Governor of Punjab was murdered by his own bodyguard, for taking a very moderate and reasonable position towards the law. But if those of us with the ability to write about these topics, don’t out of fear, then we cede the debate to the most extreme elements of society. Those of us with the power to do so, need to speak for those who don’t. If we don’t confront them while we can, it will soon be too late.
Dipankar: Debut novels usually carry a lot from the author's life and become autobiographical to that extent. Is there any character, event, or setting in the story that reflects you or your life?
Osman: The novel is simultaneously completely fictional, and completely true. It is littered with stories and experiences that friends and family have shared, with discussions, and snippets, and characters who I have met and interacted with over the years. At the same time no single character is based on a single person in real life.
Dipankar: Court-room drama, romance, religion, it has it all. Was it a conscious decision to bring in these elements or did they just fall in place?
Osman: I wish I could claim that I had this marvellous vision and idea for the novel that came to me fully formed in a dream that I simply had to sit down and write. But reality is far messier, and makes for a less compelling story.
I wrote the first draft without a sense of the narrative arc. I then rewrote the novel several times until the core conflict and narrative arc made sense and all the elements fell into place, and became inseparable.
Dipankar: What is your favourite element from the book? Any scene, character, or anything else?
Osman: The most interesting characters to write in Blasphemy were probably the antagonists because I was forced to unpack the motivations for their deplorable actions. For instance, for Pir Piya, a radical religious preacher in the novel, I read extremist literature and watched videos of religious extremists to understand the way that they justified their positions. I combined that with what I knew from all the research on radicalization and extremism and the people I had met to develop the underlying psychology of the character. I then tried to imagine how a character with this fabricated background, and way of engaging the world, would think and respond in different scenarios. And then I kept editing it and changing it until it felt true.
Dipankar: Why should anyone read Blasphemy, what do you think is a reader's takeaway from the book?
Osman: People should read blasphemy if they want a gripping and entertaining read that will make them think. The story centres on a lawyer who defends an innocent Christian boy accused of blasphemy — a crime punishable by death in Pakistan. The novel is a courtroom drama, with elements of forbidden love, and family drama. It deals with broader themes of the role of religion in society and individual responsibility.
I don’t want to tell a reader what they should take away. I think good books work on multiple levels, and I hope that different readers take different things from my novel. However, on a basic level, the book emphasizes the importance of tolerance and inclusivity in society. This message is especially relevant today as a resurgent wave of ethno-religious nationalism and fascism spreads around the world. My hope is that readers will consider the dangers of these ideologies and act against them. It is not just a problem in Pakistan, around the world we’ve seen right-wing and extremist parties slowly gain more and more political ground. If we don’t confront them while we can, it will become too late.
Dipankar: As authors, one tends to sometimes lose themselves in the world they create. What is your opinion on this?
Osman: Absolutely. Though I don’t think it is just authors. Almost everyone as a child probably created make-believe worlds and had fantastical adventures with friends. Most of us probably stopped when we matured and started serious subjects in school. I simply never did.
Dipankar: Why do you write? What does writing bring to your life?
Osman: I don’t think of writing or not writing as a choice (though it obviously is). I write because I have to, and it brings me joy to create and share stories. When I was a child, before I could read and write, I would draw comics with made up languages and then share them with people. I am still that kid— I just write stories down in languages that people understand.
Dipankar: Who or what has been the most important inspiration for you to write?
Osman: I have been fortunate to have had many mentors, teachers, and friends over the years who have all contributed to me becoming a better writer and author. However, my love for books (which I think is the foundation for any author) came about because of my father’s obsession with books and our frequent trips to the old book stores that littered Islamabad. That was the most fun “outing” for me: the smell of old books, and exploring stacks of comics and novels, looking for hidden gems. It’s the reason I dedicated the novel to him.
He died from late-stage cancer recently and I had been helping look after him in the lockdown. It is hard to see a parent slowly pass away, and to deal with the breakdown of his body so intimately. He also had memory problems so he couldn’t retain new information for too long. It was challenging. But I would tell him about the novel, and he would smile and be excited for me, and say how I had accomplished something that he always wanted to do. He would soon forget, and I would share the news with him again. He is probably the only person in my immediate circle who was still excited and happy to hear about the novel or positive reviews. In the end, I was glad that I was able to share the news of the publication and its early success with the person who inspired me to write.
Blasphemy by Osman Haneef is available as an ebook on Kindle, Google, and Kobo and also as an audiobook on Audible. The print book will be released in a few months.
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