Liquid Lores: Reading Amna Mufti’s Paani Mar Raha Hai (Water is Dying) as Hydrofiction

Abstract

Hydrofictions, as theorized by Hannah Boast, examine the cultural, social, ecological, and political perspectives on water and provide a lens through which the element of water in literature can be studied. This research article aims to analyze Amna Mufti’s Paani Mar Raha Hai (Water is Dying) (2018) as a specimen of hydro fiction as it employs a quasi-magical realist narrative to delve into the ramifications of human meddling with the natural course and flows of water. In doing so, mufti’s narrative partakes in concerns of the Anthropocene regarding the misuse, scarcity, spoilage, and misappropriation of water and, above all, the political ecology of its unequal distribution. This paper employs the theoretical framework of hydrofictions proposed by Hannah Boast to argue that in the novel, water emerges as a central metaphor, a symbol of nature's resistance in the face of human greed. In the novel, water is not just a marginal ecological concern but an active force shaping the lives of characters and changing the order of reality. In aligning the mufti's novel with Boast's groundbreaking theorization of water in literature of the Anthropocene, this research contributes to a broader discourse on environmental literature in South Asia, paving the way for further studies in hydrofictions and water narratives in Pakistani literary and sociopolitical contexts.