The Heart Divided

An Astonishing Lost Classic, Written In 1947 And Never Published Outside Pakistan. Mumtaz Shah Nawaz Was An Extraordinary Woman: A Freedom-Fighter, Poet, And Workers And Women S Advocate In Delhi And Lahore. She Was An Idealistic Congress Supporter Until The 1940S, When She Reluctantly Concluded That The Time Had Come To Fight For Pakistan. When The New Nation Was Born, Mumtaz Lamented Its Loss Of Egalitarian Spirit, But Too Briefly A Plane Crash Took Her Life In 1948, As She Flew To New York To Speak To The Un On Kashmir. She Was Just Thirty-Five. Published After Her Death, The Heart Divided Is A Pre-Partition Saga Centred On Two Educated Sisters, Zohra And Sughra Jamaluddin, Who Quarrel Over The Merits Of Congress And The Muslim League. Mirroring The Author S Own Conversion To The Idea Of A Muslim State, The Novel Weaves Political Events The 1938 League Session In Patna, The Lahore Resolution Into A Series Of Love Stories. With A Breeziness Ahead Of Its Time, Mumtaz Tweaks Traditional Marriage From Four Politically Charged Angles: The Girls Brother And Zohra S Hindu Friend Mohini Fall In Love; Sughra S Arranged Marriage Is Painfully Unhappy; Zohra S Friend Najma Is Forcibly Wed To A Widower, Mercifully Divorced, And Then Considered Unmarriageable; And Zohra Falls For A Man Her Family Deems Lower-Class. Some Manage To Break The Rules, Some Do Not; But All Dream Of Unions Based On Intellectual Parity. The Heart Divided Is More Than Just Fiction It S A Priceless Historical Document Of The Social And Political Tumult, Often Excitement, Of The Late United India.