Beneath the amber glow of Lahore’s minarets, where the call to prayer mingles with the hum of a city that never sleeps, a forgotten voice murmurs from the pages of history.

The Heart Divided by Mumtaz Shahnawaz, often cited as the first English-language novel to grapple with the political and emotional turmoil of the 1947 Partition, is a gem that few Pakistanis, let alone the world, have rediscovered. As Pakistan reflects on its identity nearly eight decades after its creation, this novel offers a poignant lens into the dreams, divisions and dilemmas that shaped the nation.

Published posthumously in 1957, The Heart Divided is a sprawling saga set between 1930 and 1942, capturing the simmering tensions that led to the seismic split of the Indian Subcontinent. Written by Mumtaz Shahnawaz, a trailblazing freedom activist, diplomat and women’s advocate, the novel is as much a historical document as it is a literary work.

Born in 1912 to a prominent Arain Mian family in Baghbanpura, Lahore, Shahnawaz was a woman ahead of her time. She cast aside the purdah [veil], pursued a university education in London and aligned herself first with the Indian National Congress before embracing the Muslim League’s vision for Pakistan under Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s influence. Her life was tragically cut short in 1948 when, at the age of 35, she died in a plane crash en route to New York to represent Pakistan at the United Nations.

Before Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man, there was Mumtaz Shahnawaz’s The Heart Divided — Pakistan’s first English-language Partition novel. Why does it remain so under-acknowledged?

The Heart Divided mirrors Shahnawaz’s own ideological journey, weaving a narrative around two sisters, Zohra and Sughra Jamaluddin, who clash over the merits of Congress and the Muslim League.

Set against the backdrop of pivotal events, such as the 1938 Muslim League session in Patna and the 1940 Lahore Resolution, the novel intertwines political history with personal stories of love, loss and ambition. It explores the lives of a Muslim family alongside their Hindu counterparts, offering a nuanced portrayal of the communal harmony and fractures of pre-Partition Punjab.

“The novel doesn’t just tell a story — it captures the heartbeat of a nation in the making,” says Dr Ayesha Perveen, a scholar of literature. “It’s a rare text that humanises the Partition without shying away from its political complexities,” she tells Eos.

What makes The Heart Divided remarkable is its feminist undertones, a bold stance for a novel drafted in the 1940s. Zohra, the younger sister, rejects traditional roles by taking up a job and refusing arranged marriage, embodying Shahnawaz’s own defiance of societal norms.

The novel also delves into unconventional love stories, such as a Muslim man’s romance with a Hindu Congress activist and a woman trapped in an unhappy arranged marriage, challenging the rigid social structures of the time.

“It’s striking how contemporary the writing feels,” says Areeba Qutab, a literature student who presented the novel at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. “Shahnawaz was writing about women’s agency and intellectual parity long before these became mainstream feminist themes,” she tells Eos.

Why, then, has this masterpiece slipped into obscurity? Copies are as rare as monsoon snow, priced beyond reach at $45 or more, hoarded in private collections or lost to time. Published as an unedited draft after Shahnawaz’s death, its typos and rough edges only deepen its poignancy — a work unfinished, like the nation it portrays. Its scarcity only amplifies its call for revival.

“It’s a tragedy that such significant work is so hard to find,” laments Jalal, a 28-year-old bookstore owner in Lahore’s Liberty Market. “People here devour Partition stories such as Train to Pakistan, but The Heart Divided is barely mentioned,” he tells Eos.

The novel’s obscurity reflects a broader gap in Pakistan’s engagement with its literary heritage. While Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India (originally Ice-Candy Man) is celebrated as a Partition classic, The Heart Divided predates it, arguably laying the groundwork for Pakistani literature’s exploration of the Subcontinent’s division.

Critics note that Shahnawaz’s work, though sometimes criticised for its “monotonous” style or idealistic portrayal of Partition, offers a raw, unfiltered glimpse into the hopes and disillusionments of the era.

“It’s not just a novel. It’s a historical artifact,” says Professor Sohail Akhtar, who studies Partition literature. “It shows why many Punjabis, especially Muslims, saw Partition as their only path to self-determination, even as it sympathises with the Hindu perspective,” he tells Eos.

In today’s Pakistan, where debates over national identity and religious pluralism persist, The Heart Divided feels strikingly relevant. The novel’s characters grapple with questions that still echo. Can unity coexist with difference? What does it mean to forge a nation when hearts are divided?

Shahnawaz herself, a socialist who lamented Pakistan’s drift from egalitarian ideals post-Partition, might have found these questions urgent today. Her activism, founding the Women’s Volunteer Service to aid Partition refugees and advocating for workers’ rights, underscores the novel’s call for a just society.

As Pakistan navigates its 78th year of independence, there’s a growing call among scholars and readers to revive The Heart Divided. Literary circles in Lahore and Karachi are pushing for reprints and translations into Urdu to make the novel accessible to a wider audience. “We need to reclaim Shahnawaz’s legacy,” says Sidra Shah, a researcher of Partition literature. “This isn’t just a story. It’s the soul of Pakistan’s birth, told by a woman who helped shape it,” she tells Eos.

As the sun sets over the River Ravi, casting golden ripples across a city that has seen empires rise and fall, The Heart Divided waits to be reclaimed. It is a love letter to a fractured land, a hymn to the resilience of the human spirit and a reminder that, even in division, there is beauty. Mumtaz Shahnawaz, with her pen and her passion, gave Pakistan its first literary mirror. It is time we gazed into it once more.

The writer is project manager at the Citizen’s Archive of Pakistan. He can be contacted at salmanhistorian@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 1st, 2025