THE FINE BORDER BETWEEN THE LABEL OF ‘TERRORIST’ AND BEING A VICTIM OF TERROR AND THE CALL OF THE MOTHER(LAND)
THE FINE BORDER BETWEEN THE LABEL OF ‘TERRORIST’ AND BEING A VICTIM OF TERROR AND THE CALL OF THE MOTHER(LAND)

Summary/Abstract: Tariq Mehmood is a Pakistani British writer and film-maker who grew up in Bradford with his grandfather while his mother and father stayed back in his country of origin, Pakistan. His personal experience as a ‘Black’/Asian youth and as a founding member of an Afro-Asian organisation, the United Black Youth League, in the 1980s Britain includes racism and police oppression against immigrants, experience also reflected in his novel, Where There is Light (2003). Additionally, the writer and the main character, Saleem, was one of several Asian youths charged with conspiracy (known as ‘the Bradford 12’ case) who succeeded in being acquitted. This paper includes two sections. The first explores the political and social background of the novel in which the protagonist lives while it analyses the relationship between race relations and the immigration policies in Britain as a source of oppression and abuse that trigger reactions on the part of immigrants and/or non-white British interpreted as ‘terrorism’. The second part emphasises the protagonist’s complex relationship with the idea of mother and of motherland; the feeling of non-belonging and rejection not only keep Saleem away from his mother(land) but it also increases his inclination towards communism. Thus, the novel combines racism, youth immigrant identity crisis and the struggle of the working class as elements of a turbulent historical period that has been continuously updated until today.

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