Abstract

Glocalization has affected the lives of the Muslim diaspora population in North England. Diaspora communities struggle to live in a new lifestyle with a hybrid cultural and blended religious identity while coping with the problems of displacement as a result of the mixing and overlaying of eastern and western cultures caused by glocalization. Nadeen Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers captures the sociological structure of the Diaspora and demonstrates how different ways of living inspire new forms of artistic expression. Roland Robertson popularised the idea of glocalization in social discourse. The thesis expressly addresses the problems of cultural displacement and generational gap among the characters of the novel as a result of their disparate responses to glocalization, leading to isolation one way or another. The gap between the first and the second generations of immigrants is brought about by the coexistence of values from both local and global cultures. While the second generation becomes influenced by their local ideals, the first generation tries to fight against global conventions.

Key Words

Glocalization, Co-Existence, Globalization, Identity, Diaspora, Hybridity, Pakistani Anglophone Fiction

Introduction

Post-immigration life is characterized by assimilation, estrangement, and identity dispersion due to cultural blending, religious integration, and blurring of borders. Glocalized world affects the lives of immigrants in other countries. Glocalized culture produces a hybrid identity and muddled cultural and religious values. The commercial term "glocalization" rose to prominence in Japan in the 1980s. In the English-speaking world, social scientists first embraced the phrase when it caught the attention of the corporate community. It is derived from the Japanese expression dochakuka which describes the localisation of international agricultural practices. Experts in the disciplines of community organising, education, and business planning all adopt this word. Glocalization is a concept that denotes the battle between personalization and universalism as well as the blending of global and local aspects. 

A firm may adopt a glocalized mindset and think globally while acting locally in ways that go far beyond social equity and environmental effects. Every phase of the company's life cycle was affected by globalization. From the initial product proposal to its production, use, and evaluation, the glocal attitude fosters resilience against the typical "one size fits all" globalization model. The majority of businesses first think locally, but the glocal attitude proposes a more long-term growth approach. Glocalization is a term that responds to the straightforward idea of globalization as ongoing geographical scale developments. Glocalization is the process by which the importance of national and global levels is growing along with the importance of regional and local levels. Local demands and globalized relationships both shape and influence the local landforms and personalities.

Glocalization, according to Alexander (2003), is globalization refracted via the local. But Robertson believes that the local is not obliterated, engulfed, or demolished by globalisation through the analogy of refraction; rather, it coexists with globalization and influences the wholeness. Glocality is classified as perceiving the global from a micro perspective which might include particular power dynamics, geopolitical and geographic considerations, cultural heterogeneity, and so forth. We inhabit in 'glocalities,' says Meyrowitz (2005). Each glocality is distinct in so many dimensions, but they are all inspired by global patterns and knowledge in some manner. Absolute global and local, according to Ritzer (2003) no longer survive because the traditional purity vanished with the birth of the capitalist system after losing the battle against globalization.

Maps for Lost Lovers is an exploration of a glocal world showing cultural conflicts and religious fanaticism as it plays out in the emotional outburst of a single family. It is set in an imagined British city called Dasht-e-Tanhai, the Desert of Solitude, by its Pakistani-born citizens. The distinction between the first and second generations of immigrants is spelled by the coexistence of values from both local and global cultures. While the first generation tries to rebel against global conventions, the second generation drifts away from the traditional culture. 

Literature Review

The UK is next to Saudi Arabia in terms of the number of Pakistanis living abroad, and it is predicted that by 2031, over 2.6 million Englishmen would likely be the descendants of Pakistanis. The first wave of migration from Pakistan started in the early 1950s as Britain was experiencing a severe labour shortage, particularly among young demographics. This is when migration history began. Over time, the steady influx of migrants increased to include worker families as well. Families of Pakistani heritage are currently residing in the UK in their third and fourth generations, and the Pakistani-British diaspora is officially estimated to number over 1.5 million. Transnational marriages have to take on significant importance as a way of distributing chances. These behaviours exacerbated existing issues and frequently led to conflict across generations. The generations that were born and nurtured in the UK, sought greater choice in their spouses and were less likely to settle for marriages between relatives. The British government increasingly made it more challenging to get a spouse visa since they viewed such unions as essentially a back door for economic immigration. Currently, one of the requirements for obtaining a visa is to provide proof of yearly earnings exceeding £18,000, which can be challenging for a community dealing with ongoing issues with unemployment, poor pay, and poverty (Moore, 2014).

Another article titled “Ambiguous Pakistani-Muslim Masculinities in the Diaspora: A Study of Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers” examines how sexual violence, religious intolerance, and gender discrimination affect a Pakistani-Muslim diaspora community in England and contrasts sharply with the freedoms enjoyed by the developed western world. This essay demonstrates how patriarchy and religious doctrine can produce marginalized masculinities that sharply contrast with idealised dominant masculinities. Hooks (2000, p. 65) highlights how patriarchy imposes a sexist masculine identity on individuals. The community is examined in the story as something that the son prefers. After his wife's numerous pregnancies, Barra has the foetus aborted at the neighboring maternity hospital if it is discovered to be a female child. The sexuality of Charag and Ujala is also examined. The community's strong cultural opposition to all forms of gender impropriety prevents its men from interacting with women and promotes a feeling of isolation. Charag experiences discomfort when he sees Suraya for the first time in one of the occurrences because his upbringing has taught him that when interacting with ladies, one should be reserved. 

We come across innumerable instances of fundamentalist and abnormal masculinities. A young person in the neighbourhood, for instance, leaves the medical center and converts to radical Islam, claiming that from democracy to shaving cream, nothing is Islamic. The portrayal of Muslim-Pakistani masculinities in the diaspora in the novel highlights a number of themes of gender inequality and patriarchal suppression of both sexes. The main characters of the novel are Shamas' brother Jugnu and Chanda, a young woman who had previously been pushed by her parents into three marriages. The barbaric execution of the lover by Barra and Chotta, Chanda's brothers, for bringing shame upon the family by cohabiting in sin is an illustration of a patriarchal and fundamentalist community. While there is no such thing as "honor crime" in western society, honour killings are extremely common in the Muslim community. The story contains numerous instances of violence or domestic abuse against women, despite that western cultures grant women freedom and fundamental human rights. Shamas enjoys attending parties on Saturday nights when white people may be seen indulging in booze and sexual acts. 

The story also demonstrates the chauvinist hypocrisy of the community, as demonstrated by Chotta's perception that there was no relationship between his extramarital encounters with a woman to whom he was not married and Chanda's choice to wed Jugnu. The intricate connection of racial discrimination and gender is tackled in Aslam's investigation of men and women's identities, which also emphasizes the alienation of male immigrants in the predominantly white host country because of their racial status. For instance, Chanda's mother experiences depression after witnessing a Pakistani bus driver suffer racial discrimination. She feels worried that the bus driver's wife and children would be the targets of his pent-up rage. After keeping their distance from white people, the Muslim community's traditional and misogynistic behaviour becomes even more pronounced. Another philosophy that has been applied to this novel is feminism. The relationship between Shamas and Suraya displays feminist concerns. He lies to his wife, essentially developing a sexual addiction (Shama, 2018). Representation of British Muslim Identities in Leila Aboulela’s Minaret and Aslam’s Map for Lost Lovers depicts a community whose powerful, essentially fundamentalist devotion and adherence to untrue religious values and ideals complicates its relationship with the western state and gives rise to Muslim isolation, as a consequence of which Pakistani people’s lifestyle differs from contemporary British culture. It depicts a Muslim England and focus on how Muslim identities are asserted and managed in a Christian, atheist, or religiously agnostic environment. There are many British Muslim identity orientations in England. While racism is a major issue, Maps also depicts instances of "othering the other," in which one of the central protagonists, Kaukab, is uncomfortable speaking with a group of Pakistani people because they are not from the area of Pakistan where Kaukab belongs. Kaukab shows a fundamental human urge for survival. They immigrated due to poverty, and despite knowing they would experience bigotry, they expected at least to get a fair livelihood for their families.

Theoretical Framework

In Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (1992), Robertson gave a definition which is most probably the foremost and extensively agreed upon de?nition of globalization (1992a, p. 8). In keeping up with Roland Robertson, Globalization refers to the compression of the globe and therefore overall the escalation of consciousness of the planet (1992a). It, in words and action, makes the globe one entity. “Global interdependency” and cognizance of the globe as a whole leads to the emergence of capitalist progression. Since the seventeenth century, European advancement and organization of the state furthered globalization. The contemporary form of the world is the most obliged to the "take-off" decades after nearly 1875, when international transportation and communications, and discord pointedly intensify interactions over communal restrictions. In this era, the foremost locus emphases of completely globalized dispose took contour: nation-state, person self, global-system of social orders, and of a single humanity. Such components of the international circumstance ought to be "relativized"; national social orders and folks, in specific, must decipher their exceptional presence as parts of an even bigger entirety. 

Robertson is one of the pioneers to give the idea of glocalization into the sociological discourse in Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-Heterogeneity and wants to replace globalization with glocalization. He discusses that Glocalization is a term borrowed from the Japanese business world which adopts and fits foreign products to fulfil the requirements of the local market. Robertson certifies his view that globalization can be clarified with the assistance of glocalization. Within the supposition of Robertson, it is a popular methodology of the capitalistic framework in which there are more worldwide markets adapted to the neighborhood markets and cultures or ‘global localization’ (Robertson, 1992b) . The primary category according to Roberson alludes to the nearby within the specific context of being a portion of the entire. Glocalization may be the mutual presence of worldwide and neighborhood, proposing the integration of worldwide and local. Yet, he includes, the blending of worldwide and nearby in several geographic zones, originating the preparation of glocalization.

One out of the many consequences of using the term glocalization instead of globalization is uniformity. The connections that are intercultural are gradually safeguarded throughout the planet, Robertson acknowledges that we are incontrovertibly not directed towards a united humanoid scheme of principles. The explanation is that in glocalization these connections and influences are decided, controlled and consumed assenting to the proximate culture's necessities, sensitivity and scheme. While many researchers put globalization within the contemporary half of the 20th century, Robertson is inclined to work it out as a present day marvel which might be traced back to the 19th century. Robertson grasps that these designs give the impression that international forms are national forms. 

Glocalization may be a reaction to credulous philosophies of globalization as a sequence of direct progression of territorial dimensions. Glocalization exhibits that the importance of the central areas and universal scales is growing together with the impactful reputation of the regional areas and national scales. Dispositions toward homogeneity and centralization grow together with developments toward heterogeneity and decentralization. Glocalization underlines the interdependency of both international and national scales. The overwhelming majority of individuals who make use of this expression consider it a bi-level structure (international and national), concerning terms like hybridization. International connections, together with regional situations, construct and characterize national territories and distinctiveness. 




Coexistence of Homogenization and Heterogenization

In Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-Heterogeneity Robertson (2012) endorses the idea of "glocalization". His quest for "domestic" and "roots", for instance, is a counter reply to globalization or even a required organized by it. He argues that globalization is after all an area process and every worldwide mixing of cultures is done locally. Hence, the local is of course global. Giampietro Gobo in his article “Glocalization: A Critical Introduction” says that Robertson (2013) implies that only the glocal is present today. The global is that the product of the factually lengthy tussle between the national and the international, whereby both have gone astray (p. 1). These are the explanations that make Robertson believe that international culture and native culture don't seem to be two different forces because the word glocalization itself suggests the blend of "global" and "local". Roland disagrees with Barber’s (1992) claim that globalization and glocalization are two different processes. Global and native aren't relatable. But Roland says that globalization is the compression of the globe, the compressed world as an entirety. In brief, the terminology glocalization suggests that configurations of heterogenization and homogenization exist simultaneously for the duration of the forward-looking era. Harmonizing with Robertson the usage of the terminology of glocalization indicates that it is the native culture that downgrades the sense of worldwide, and these two consequently forbid and empower one another. Culturally glocalization is witnessed in local cultures which are the reinterpretations of world cultures where the global phenomenon is combined with local elements.

Glocalization and Postmodernism

Glocalization has a close relation with post-modernism as both of the theories believe in the existence of “margins” or “localities”. The realization that objective truth does not exist inevitably led to a decline in postmodernism's emphasis on “subjectivity” which is a norm of the glocal world. Of course, subjectivity itself is multiple and conditional. The emphasis on subjectivity naturally leads to a renewed interest in local and specific experiences rather than universal and abstract ones. These are mini-narratives rather than grand ones. The most famous adage declared in the diagnosis of "the postmodern condition" is that the "great narrative" is over and we are now in a situation of growth and sharply competing "narratives" (Lyotard, 1984). Glocalization, contrary to globalization, de-emphasizes the West. According to Thornton, Robertson builds the direction for a trans-local or 'glocal' critical theory by breaking the basic either/or of contemporary uniformity versus postmodernist variability (Thornton, 2000, p. 81). The end of 'great tales' or meta-narrative, which he regards to be the core of modernity, is the logic of postmodern society. By emphasizing distinct local circumstances as well as the diversity of human experience, postmodernists want to replace meta-narratives. They advocate a diversity of theoretical frameworks rather than big, all-encompassing ideologies.

Analysis

Aslam (2016) explains how the influence of western society on the lives of immigrant Muslims has been so great that they have lost sight of their own faith. He brings up the problems that arise when some of the characters adopt rebellious attitude while others become an opportunist. According to Robertson, contrarily, globalization does not destroy, consume, or erase the local; rather, it allows it to coexist.




Glocality and Generation Gap: A Blend of Global and Local

Only the glocal, according to Robertson (2013), is real. We see a blend of international and regional influences nowadays. The glocal is the outcome of a protracted conflict between the global and the local, in which neither side prevails. The work, which depicts the coexistence of western and eastern values in England, has raised major concerns about generation gaps. Nadeem Aslam explains how the influence of western culture on the lives of immigrant Muslims has led them to ignore their faith. Through the tensions Kaukab and her children are going through, much of which Shamas is ignorant of, the novel illustrates the identity challenges that the second generation of British Muslims is coping with. All disagreements inevitably result in rebuttals, where participants must compromise British Muslim identity opinions since fundamentalism is regarded as a direct threat to the freedom that the British culture provides. While the older generation laments the loss of their native lands, the younger generation adjusts to their new lives as British Muslims and seeks guidance from British progressive ideals in trying to navigate the challenges they face, which Kaukab categorically condemns: "My religion is not the British legal system; it is Islam" (p.115). Kaukab's family is in reality shattered, as evidenced by the fact that Kaukab hasn't received any calls from Ujala in seven years and a month, Mah-Jabin calls sometimes or twice a month, and Charag came last summer and hasn't called since. They all despise their parents, particularly their mother Kaukab, but it is the youngest, Ujala, who expresses his disdain for his parents the most openly. When they rejoin at the house years later, Ujala makes ominous remarks about Kaukab's religious nature, and eventually explodes in rage, revealing what he believes about his parents, ruining Kaukab's hopes of arranging a nice welcome for her family. He scolds: “There couldn’t have been a more dangerous union than you two” (p. 324).

Terror of getting contaminated by the white community is such a dangerous issue to the Pakistani community that many women, including Shamas' wife Kaukab, who is deeply religious, if not extremist, believe that Muslim people must have clothes to wear outdoors because they are polluted by the impure white environment. She regards England as "a dirty country"(p.267). The English people are perceived to be filthy, and this frightening logic is imposed on whoever the white individual may be. Kaukab can't help wonder when she sees Stella, Charag's wife and Kaukab's daughter-in-law, whether she knows that "a person must bathe after sexual intercourse?" (p.39) on being confronted with the English civilization, Kaukab feels disgusted by its cultural values and standards. The clash between older and younger generations demonstrates that as Waterman (2010) points out, "parents' memories do not correspond to their children's lived experience" (p.30). Their interpretations of home and abroad are different. For the first generation of migrants, their home is third-world countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, or India; for the second generation, their home is England, and their parents' ancestral lands are foreign. Shamas, the protagonist of Maps for Lost Lovers, is portrayed as an atheist. He has no involvement at all in matters related to Islam. His wife disapproves of him criticizing that her father set her up with a non-religious partner. Shamas doesn't comprehend Islam. Aslam shows the irresponsibility of Shamas. He mocks Islam and tells his wife that Pakistanis are the chattiest people, "we use seven syllables to say hello: Assalamualaikum" (p. 26). Kaukab says 'thank you' (p.69) to the flower-deliveryman and it is her third interaction with a white man this year. As David Waterman points out that there are signs all through the novel Britain is viewed a hostile atmosphere and their stay in England is "not desired by the immigrants" (p.20). This idea naturally drives the first generation of migrants to avoid contact with the white community, as a result of that young women are sent to Pakistan to get married to their cousins in order to avoid interracial marriages. Shama’s (2018) male relatives are depicted as liberal and anti-Islamic. They don't honor their faith and won't let Kaukab carry out her religious chores. They constantly say illegal things about her faith whenever she is at fault and connect it with issues not religious in nature. In their rage, they attribute all forms of abuse to their religion: “People become forgetful when they Fast…from dusk till dawn?” (Aslam, p. 102). 




The Existence of Locals as a Result of Global

According to Roudometof (2016), "The global interpenetrates the local," (p. 2) and the outcome is an image reminiscent of Hindu idea of Divinities: despite that they can take many distinct forms and that many of them already exist, these are regarded as expressions of a single body. Glocalization is a by-product of globalization. Western imperialism produced the cultural values that we see today. Appiah observes that "decolonization" requires finding a "negotiable" middle ground between indigenous heritage and Western ideas (1993, p.10).

According to Hall and Morley (1996), "discursive practises constructing for us" (1996, p.6). Identity is constantly changing as it is constructed, reformed, and regulated in response to the changing circumstances of a particular age. Every period of human history had its own concerns and ideas about identity formation, leading to a discourse that functioned as a point of reference for how identities are formed. The twentieth-century issue is the color line, or the relationship between men of lighter and darker ethnicities in Asia and Africa, in America, and the Sea Islands (Hamid 2007). 

Tony Blair, in his historic address "The Duty to Integrate, delivered on December 8, 2006, in Downing Street, says that integrating is more about ethics than it is about race, and blames minorities of having failed to integrate. He describes them as integrated at one level when it comes to the style of living and job, but unable to merge at the point of accepted, common western principles, which are not what distinguishes us as individuals, but as citizens, the role that comes with membership of the society.

Boehmer (2005) goes says that third world writing is relocated, dislocated, multilingual, and acquainted with Western cultural norms: part of Europe or America but not wholly (p.230). Immigrants from diverse South Asian nations live together in Dasht-e-Tantaii; however, this coexistence is limited on a geographical level. Many of the characters of the novel don't even try to converse with their neighbours who are of a religious background, much less even contact with white English. Kaukab, hesitant to cross a neighboring street because it is lined with white people's homes, considers that even the Pakistanis who live there are not from her region of Pakistan. The town's Muslim community is not willing to report the mosque leader who mistreats young children, believing that doing so would bring shame to Islam and Pakistan. Other clergymen in the mosque simply get aside with it, feeling that if the mosque closes, and there's no one to instruct their sons to keep away from white prostitutes, their own daughters will leave home and reject to legal marriages with their cousins back in the state, and that Jews, and Christians will find joy upon seeing Islam “dragged through the mud” (p.235). This self-silencing – meant to maintain purity and to glorify their differences – may be repressive, especially when community dignity is put to trial. Frustrated by the pressure of representation, migrants feel as if they are continuously being watched, and this anxiety of disgrace adds significantly to self-defense against what appears the sense of being contaminated in the public sphere. Immigrants are always aware of themselves as well as how they are perceived by others, which Amjad (2017) refers to as “double consciousness.” For example, Kaukab is acutely aware of the gaze. When Shamas tells the white doctor that he was unaware that it was Kaukab's birthday, Kaukab is red with humiliation with the thought that what the white doctor would now say of Pakistanis, of Muslim people – "they are like animals, not even remembering or celebrating birthdays” (p. 65). In the company of white people, Kaukab is very conscious, and her scorn for them is her way of internalizing that the West is superior to the East: Kaukab untangles the thread, recalling the first time she tied a knot in something in Stella's presence: she had got anxious wondering whether there was a more complex, better manner of making a knot. “Maybe the manner she tied was an ignorant way of tying a knot?”  (p. 318). Kaukab's choice of words, which the West uses to build the East as subordinate to itself, demonstrates her internalization of inferiority. She regards her manner of doing things as primitive, whereas she believes the western option would be more intelligent and always preferable as shows her discomfort over the seemingly insignificant task of making a knot. The community is greatly affected by the constant gaze, as well as the prejudice they face, as they see themselves as imprisoned in a nation in which no one likes them. In Multiculturalism: Some Inconvenient Truths, Hasan claims that, however in the days of the British Crown, it was the White colonial powers who made sure they didn't socialize with those of a darker skin tone, the scenario in Britain, in reference to many inhabitants from the 'East,' appears to have flipped: it is now they who occur to be mainly accountable “for not mixing with those of a lighter hue” (p.229). Some of the residents of Dasht-e-Tanhaii exhibit signs of this diasporic aversion to mixing. They avoid contact with the host nation because they are concerned with their sense of community and the fantasy of purity.

Conclusion

Glocal explores the interaction of global and local forces in a newly emerging global society. It demonstrates the simultaneous involvement of globalization and localization processes, which gives the local a renewed significance but not its resurrection. In other words, glocalization shows a desire to re-localize and de-traditionalize practises within the global environment through transnational exchanges, dialogue, and even clashes. Based on Robertson's views on emulation and reference society as essential components of globalisation, it would not be incorrect to suggest that glocalization involves the fusing of ideas rather than mindless imitation. The glocal appears when the local disappears since local and global are inherently inconsistent. Rebellion and opportunism are the reactions resulting from the interaction of global and local influences, and both of these outcomes support diversity. Particularly in global capitals where elites and migrants must adapt to one another and maintain links abroad, mixed races and identities arise. The rebellious response is to forge a rebel identity committed to defending regional history, traditions, and authentic civilizations.

References