Ismat Chughtai

Ismat Chughtai

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Category: Literature

Ismat Chughtai Profile

  • Name:
  • Ismat Chughtai
  • Born:
  • August 15, 1915
  • Died:
  • October 24, 1991
  • Born / Home Town:
  • Agra
  • Spouse:
  • Shaheed Latif

Ismat Chughtai Biography

Ismat Chughtai was a noted Urdu writer known for her feminist works. She is regarded as the grand dame of Urdu fiction and one among those Muslim writers who preferred to stay in India after partition in 1947. She explored feminine sexuality and middle-class gentility through her works and often featured among the great women writers of her time, Rashid Jahan, Wajeda Tabassum and Qurratulain Hyder. She wrote in outspoken and controversial style of writing and was a popular writer then. Along with Kaifi Azmi, she received Filmfare best story award for Garam Hawa in 1975, a path-breaking movie. She was the first Indian Muslim woman to have earned both degree and B. Ed.

 

She was born in Badayun, Uttar Pradesh in 1915 and her childhood days were spent at Jodhpur. She had 9 siblings. As her sisters got married earlier, her childhood days were mostly spent in company of her brothers that well reflected in her works in future. Her elder brother, Mirza Azim Beg Chughtai was an established writer. He was her mentor also. While studying graduation, she attended the first meeting of the Progressive Writers' Association. After graduation, she took Bachelor in education degree, thus becoming the first Muslim woman to earn both degrees. As she belonged to a conservative society, she had to face a lot of oppositions from her own community in the matter of education. In those days, women were not given good education. In response to  violent opposition to her education from her Muslim relatives, she started writing. She remained a liberal Muslim throughout her life and her daughter later married a Hindu.

 

Chughtai's most celebrated short story, Lihaaf was published in 1942. It was leveled with charges of obscenity and she was summoned by the Lahore court in 1944. Chughtai chose to contest this case instead of apologizing and won it. She was married to screenwriter and film director, Shaheed Latif in 1941.

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Updated: April 01, 2014

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