8.4 /10 1 Votes
Original title راجه گدھ Publisher Sang-e-Meel Media type Print Originally published 1981 Genre Novel OCLC 276769393 | 4.2/5 Goodreads Language Urdu Publication date 1981 ISBN 969-35-0514-X Country Pakistan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Novels Pir‑e‑Kamil, Udaas Naslain, Shaheen, Umrao Jaan Ada, Moth Smoke | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Raja Gidh, [1] (Urdu: راجه گدھ) by Bano Qudsia is an Urdu novel. Gidh is the Urdu word for a vulture and Raja is a Hindi synonym for king. The name anticipates the kingdom of vultures. In fact, parallel to the main plot of the novel, an allegorical story of such a kingdom is narrated. The metaphor of the vulture as an animal feeding mostly on the carcasses of dead animals is employed to portray the trespassing of ethical limits imposed by the society or by the religion.
Plot
Hailing from an upper-middle-class family, Seemi Shah falls in love with her handsome classmate Aftab in the MA Sociology class at Government College Lahore. Seemi is a modern and attractive urban girl and attracts most of her male class fellows, including the narrator Qayyum and the young liberal professor Suhail. Aftab belongs to a Kashmiri business family. Although he also loves her, he cannot rise above his family values and succumbs to his parent's pressure to marry someone against his wishes and leave for London to look after his family business. The novel then takes on touching several moral and ethical issues, beyond the love triangle plot, depicted through the rich culture and everyday life of Lahore.