by a comparatively little known writer, Muzaffar Iqbal, (published by Ad-Daira, Lahore). "Inkhila"' means "being uprooted," and the title implies a warning signal for the reader that here is another Hijrat manual a la Intizar Husain, describing the pleasant sights and sounds of far away and long ago in the midst of an alien reality of the here and now which is repugnant and antagonistic through and through. Gratefully it is not so. The uprootedness is more of the nature of the social phenomenon related to the universal alienation of human beings in the socio-economic and political-cultural disorientation of the post 2nd world war period. It has a special significance for the people who are connected with the Pakistani reality, and have known no other. Here is how one of the characters describes a dream of [hers]: [She] saw in a dream a man who suddenly jumped out of the continuum of time and found himself in Non-Time, and out of his profound separation was extending his gaze to the farthest distance in every direction, searching for those who started on the journey with him. Our era was oppressive and swift. Two great wars, the enslavement by an unscrupulous nation, and the struggle to save ourselves from our internal disunity did not give us enough opportunity to protect our past. The night of slavery has cruelly wounded our historical consciousness. Our history was written by hands which were keen to change our being into nothingness. And inspite of that, he said, looking towards the sun light, inspite of that we made ourselves a house. But having made the house we forgot to build a wall around it. Now the bricks are falling out, and the house has become misshapen. But you people at least, have a house. This is a very big bounty for you. What you need is a wall around it, within which we may remain enclosed for three generations. For a comprehensive and honourable transformation it is necessary for us that we cut our connection with the outside world for at least three generations. Our fourth generation will be able to open the gates in our Pakistan wall in accordance with its own conditions...There has been no revolution in history which has not acquired strength by enclosing itself within its walls for a limited time. Our backwardness is not of the spirit. It is an oppressive and unjust economic system which is the cause of our present helplessness. This vision of enclosing a nation from the outside world for three generations may be naive but it certainly is not without precedents. Japan in the 19th century affected its industrial revolution by just such an encirclement round itself. The same kind of conditions of encirclement were created (forced on it by its enemies) for the Soviet Union for at least thirty years within which its people struggled to achieve their amazing modernisation of industry and collectivisation of agriculture. Whether it was, or is, possible for Pakistan to have such a condition of circumscription for its development, is not the question. It is the concern shown by the character in the novel for the historical destiny of this country that is important. Annual Of Urdu Studies, #7 50