Exclusive Interview with Internationally Acclaimed Pakistani Writer Mohsin Hamid

By Tamara Treichel

This month, Asian Fortune had the unique privilege of interviewing the internationally acclaimed Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid. Hamid is the author of the novels Moth Smoke (2000), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013). His award-winning novels have become bestsellers, made into movies, translated into over 30 languages and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

He studied under the prominent writers Joyce Carol Oates and Toni Morrison, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. He has also written short stories and essays that have been published in the New York Times, the Guardian, the New Yorker, and others. Originally from Lahore, Pakistan, he has lived there for roughly half his life as well as in New York, California, and London.

Hamid spoke with Asian Fortune about issues such as the “Asian Century,” Muslim and Pakistani identity post-9/11, U.S.-Pakistani relations and his books.

Asian Fortune: Do you think it makes sense to designate the 21st century as the “Asian Century”?

Hamid: I don’t like the idea of generalizing so sweepingly. The problem with terms like that is they exclude the experience of so many people, in this case people who are not Asian. What we can say is that the economic and political power of Asia looks like it will have a huge impact on the 21st century.

Asian Fortune: As the title of your most recent novel suggests, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia has “rising Asia” as one of its themes. Could you elaborate?

Hamid: I wanted to play with the idea of “rising Asia.” In some senses the term is true: We do see rising GDPs and skylines in much of Asia. But we see many problems as well. “Rising Asia” is an oversimplification. It isn’t without basis in fact, but it isn’t the whole picture.

Asian Fortune: What do you think is Pakistan’s role in this changing world order?

Hamid: Pakistan is a complex and complicated place. It has pockets of deprivation and pockets of growth. Pockets of violence and pockets of progressive values. A history of democracy and a history of dictatorship. It’s difficult to predict Pakistan’s future role. But a Pakistan that is at peace with itself and its neighbors could have a very positive impact.

Asian Fortune: What are the desired effects you wish to achieve in your novels? And how do you play with the conventions of genre and form to achieve those ends?

Hamid: I think the novel is a special invention. It allows one human being, the reader, to contain the thoughts of two human beings at the same time: their own thoughts, and the thoughts of the writer. It’s quite unique for that situation to exist, one human being containing the thoughts of two. It is very intimate. And I think it can be powerful. I want my novels to explore the potential of that, of empathy and intimacy and co-creation. So I play with genre and form and language to make the reader into a co-writer, as much as I can.

Asian Fortune: You have spent a part of your life in the U.S. How did you feel as a Muslim in the U.S.? Marginalized, welcome, or a bit of both?

Hamid: A bit of both. At immigration or airport security, I often feel marginalized. Once I’ve left the airport, I usually feel welcome. I have many excellent friends in America. I’ve lived there almost 20 years. I feel partly American. But the past 12 years have been a period in which people with Muslim names are regarded with more suspicion there, and that saddens me.

Asian Fortune: How did things change for you as a Muslim in the U.S. post-9/11?

Hamid: I became part of a group that was viewed with suspicion. That was a huge change. I never really felt that suspicion in America before.

Asian Fortune: Your novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist contains a dramatic monologue in which the Pakistani protagonist addresses an American listener who is never heard from directly. What was your intention regarding this dramatic monologue? Are you suggesting that Pakistanis and Americans cannot really engage in a real dialogue?

Hamid: Not at all. The dramatic monologue is intended as a way to prompt the reader to provide the missing half of the story. It’s a way for the reader to encounter his or her own biases and suppositions.

Asian Fortune: What do you think needs to be done to improve relations between the U.S. and the West in general and nations such as Pakistan? Do you think your writing can also help improve relations between the U.S. and Pakistan?

Hamid: I think U.S. military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan have been a disaster. I think Pakistan’s policies of supporting militants have been a disaster. Hopefully more and more policy makers in both countries are coming to agree. As for writing, I’d like to believe that it can improve understanding a little bit.

Asian Fortune: The characters of your novels have been called “cultural nomads” because they wander between the Islamic world and the West. To what extent do you identify with them?

Hamid: I’m pretty much a nomad myself. But I think that there is no “Islamic world” and no “West.” These are blurry terms. Many Muslims live in the “West,” many westernized people live in the “Islamic world.” We all blur together. I prefer to think of myself and of societies as mongrelized.

Asian Fortune: Rudyard Kipling has suggested in his “Ballad of East and West” that the cultural divide between the two regions can never be really surmounted. Do you agree, or do you think this is an outdated notion in our age of globalism?

Hamid: There is no wall-like barrier. There is a continuum. Countries and societies blur into each other. This will be more and more the case as mass immigration and globalization run their course. I believe we need to recognize aspects of ourselves in other people, and aspects of our own societies in other countries.