Raja Gidh (Urdu: راجه گدھ) by Bano Qudsia is one of the most widely read and acclaimed Urdu novels. Gidh is the Urdu word for a vulture, and Raja is a Hindi synonym for king. The name anticipates the kingdom of vultures. In fact, parallel to the main plot of the novel, an allegorical story of such a kingdom is narrated.

The metaphor of the vulture as an animal feeding mostly on the carcasses of dead animals is employed to portray the trespassing of ethical limits imposed by society or religion. Bano Qudsia has written this novel drawing on the religious concept of Haraam and Halaal.

Many readers interpret Raja Gidh as a sermon, in which Bano Qudsia puts forth her theory of hereditary transmission of Haraam genes. The plot supports her thesis, suggesting that the pursuance of Haraam—be it financial, moral, or emotional—results in the deterioration of a person's normality in some sense. This abnormality is transferred genetically to the next generation.

Apart from this implication, the novel explores many social, emotional, and psychological aspects. The nostalgic narration of the historical Government College Lahore and Lawrence Garden Lahore sheds light on the days of the seventies and eighties.

Bano Qudsia is among those Urdu writers who think ten times before writing a sentence. Yet she does not sacrifice the flow of the narrative anywhere in this novel. Her characters are not black and white, as some critics suggest. Every sensitive reader who has attended college or university in a Pakistani setting is bound to find similarities between themselves and one of the characters.

Plot: Seemin Shah, from an upper-middle-class family, falls in love with her handsome class fellow Aftab in the MA Sociology class at Government College Lahore. Seemin is a modern and attractive urban girl who attracts most of her male classmates, including the narrator (Abdul) Qayyum and the young liberal professor Suhail. Aftab belongs to a Kashmiri business family. Though he loves her, he cannot rise above his family values and succumbs to his parents' pressure to marry someone against his wishes and leaves for London to look after his family business. Thus, the long story of separation begins.