These Silences Are All the Words

These Silences Are All the Words explores the public libraries of Karachi, Pakistan, as an evolving three-part piece, against the backdrop of the city’s changing linguistic landscape. Focusing on librarians who have been working for years in traditional institutions such as Bedil Library and others, Aijaz tells the stories of an aging intelligentsia. The conversations with both librarians and the library’s users reflect on the shift of language from Urdu and its literary history to the ambition and individualism associated with English. Many of Aijaz’s works similarly offer a perspective on a country sharply divided along linguistic lines. Her work contextualises the complexity of the postcolonial state and its ambitions surrounding the English language, not only as the legacy of the Raj, but also as a tool for authority and social mobility.