- Abdullah Hussain
- Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi
- Ali Abbas Jalapuri
- Ashfaq Ahmad
- Bano Qudsia
- Bapsi Sidhwa
- Faiz Ahmad Faiz
- Ghulam Ahmad Perwez
- Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum
- Hafeez Jalandhari
- Kishwar Naheed
- Qurratulain Hyder
- Manto
- Mushtaq Ahmad Yousafi
- Najam Hussain Syed
- Nasir Kazmi
- Noon Meem Rashid
- Shaikh Ayaz
- Parveen Shakir
- Qateel Shifai
- Fahmida Riaz
- Attiya Dawood
- Kamila Shamsie
| Hussain rose to fame with his novel. udaas naslein He learnt his craft from men like hemingway and camus. But he is not imitative His strong realism earthliness and sense of history is something rare in Urdu. |  |
He sees his characters as permanent exiles who de- rive their strenght as well as traumas from theirsense of alien- ation come to violent ends and are often at adds with their sur- roundings. His other works include Nashaib Qaid Nadaar log.
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The poet, Short-story writer and columnist was born in Sargodha district. He edited several literary magazines and wrote columns on social and political issues for several newspapers. |  |
Editor of dialy Imroze from 1953 to 1959, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi has been the editor and publisher of a prestigious literary magazine, Funoon, since 1963. He's also working as director of literary organisation, Majlis-i-Taraqqi adab, Lahore since 1947. Qasmi began writing under the influence of Progressive Writing Movement before partition, but braved all changes and kept up with his writing. a versatile writer, he was written extensively both in prose and verse. He depicts rural life of the Punjab with all its romance and proverty and captures with the sad plight of the village dweller. Imtiaz Ali Taj called him "Premchand of Punjab"
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Ali Abbas Jalapuri
The subsuming ideological framework clamped down on learning in Pakistan has been very detrimental to scholarship. Ali Abbas Jalalpuri made concerted attempts to bring forth a distinction between various intellectual disciples, seeing and assessing them in their true shape rather than being treated as reflections of dogmatic religious reality. He analysed Iqbal and categorised him as following the tradition of scholasticism rather than of philosophy in his Iqbal Ka Ilmul Kalam and emphasised the significance of Wahdatul Wajood in the history of ideas expressed through the poetic tradition of the Punjab. Ali Abbas had read his philosophy right and therefore could relate literature, music and religion in the context of our history in their proper sequences. His various books are the stages of enlightenment that he stood for and fearlessly advocate. He mapped the history of ideas as they developed and then travlled from one culture and civilisation to another, changing various hues. This placed the body of ideas inherited by us in a definite perspective as the great cross current of ideas have been treated by him as enriching the local tradition of thinking and feeling rather than corrupting it as has been evaluated by the official ideologues of the country
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| As a short-story writer and play-wright, Ashfaq Ahmad is a naturalist who loves romances and nature. |  |
His short stories reveal that there is much more to life than misery and woe; there is beauty and lovelines which can be best appreciated when viewed against the background oa natural scenery. His short story, Gaddarya (shepherd) brought him fame as great short story writer in the generation of fiction writers that appread on the literary scene after the creation of Pakistan. He blends romanticism with realism in his early works. He wrote, produced and ected in a popular weekly radio feature, Talqeen Shah, for more than quarter of a century that became icon in Pakistan's broadcasting history. Ashfaq Ahmad's contribution to television drama ranges from Eik Muhabbat So Afsane, ona of the most popular series of Pakistan Television in the early 70s, to Tota Kahani in the 80s. Ashfaq turned to religious in his later writings. He also worked as director of a literary organisation, Markazi Urdu Board and Urdu Science Board, for several years.
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| Bano born in 1928 in Ferozepur, India and moved with her family to Lahore during the Partition. Her father, a landlord with a bachelors degree in agriculture, died when Bano was very young. She attended school in Dharamsala in eastern India before moving to Lahore. Her mother was an educationist, and this inspired the young Bano to develop a keen interest in academics, which turned her into a conscientious student |  |
Her marriage to Ashfaque Ahmad consummated the artist in her, though she says she never discusses any of her works with her husband nor has the writer-spouse ever tried to influence her writings. "We work very independently. Writing a book is like bearing a child and you do not share that with anyone. God is your only confidante. It is also like falling in love. You keep it personal and private."
In 1951, she completed her master's degree in Urdu from the Government College Lahore.
Author of innumerable short stories, novelettes, television and radio plays, besides some memorable stage plays, Bano's writings have a strong association with life's vicissitudes
Though many term her novels and plays 'indigestible,' it is true to say that she is one of the few contemporary Urdu writers who have used the everyday philosophy of life as thesis her writings. The strength of conviction in her prose is unmistakable. Her short stories like Baz Gasht, Amar Bail, Doosra Darwaza and Twajju ki Talib, the latter, a stimulating collection of short stories, have mustered a vast readership. Of her novels, none has received as much recognition as Raja Gidh which centers around the forbidden truth. The plot builds around the symbol of a vulture that feeds on dead flesh and carcasses. The moral sought implies that indulgence in the forbidden leads to physical and mental degeneration.
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Bapsi Sindwa can truly be called a born storyteller. All four novels Crow Eaters, The Bride, Ice-Candy Man which was released in US under the title Cracking India and AN American Brat are the hallmark of Sindhwa's superb writing skills. |  |
They have a freshness about them and see an element of humour even in tragedy. A graduate from Kinnaird College Lahore, she began writing in her twenties. She is the first Pakistani writer whose novel Ice-Candy Man, a novel about Partition set in Lahore, has been filmed by an internationally acclaimed Canadian director Deepa Mehta, under the title Earth. In 1991 Ice-Candy Man (Cracking India) Sindhwa's third novel, was decleard a New York Notable Book, received the Literature Prize in Germany and was nominated by the American Library Association as a Notable Book the same year. She is the recipient of many national and international recognition. Her novels have been translated into German, French, Italian and Russian.
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| Faiz Ahmad Faiz was born to a landed, educated family in Sialkot of pre-partition Punjab on February 13, 1911. He grew up surrounded by literature with a father who was a friend to many writers, including Muhammad Iqbal. |  |
His schooling took him to Lahore where he studied Arabic and English literature. His literary studies laid the foundation for him to create a modern Urdu verse that took on larger social and political issues of his times yet retained the polished style and diction of the ghazal. His death in 1984 was a loss to the Urdu literary world.
He began his career as the editor of the leftist English-language daily, Pakistan Times, as well as the managing editor for the Urdu daily, Imroz. Although his first volume of poetry, Naqsh-e-Faryadi, was published in Lucknow in 1941; he became widely known after the 1952 publication of Dast-e Saba, poems written during his imprisonment by the Pakistani Government. After the Miltary coup led by Zia ul haq in 1979, Faiz lived in self-exile in Beirut writing for the Afro-Asia Writers Association journal, Lotus, until his return to Pakistan in 1982.
As a Marxist Faiz Ahmad Faiz rejected the notion of "art for art's sake". He has been described as a "committed" poet who used his simple verse to probe not only beauty and love but also humanism and justice. His imprisonment was evident in more than his two collections of poems written during his political detention. His translator Shiv K Kumar sees his imprisonment as a "metaphor that embodies his poetic vision." Aside from poet, Faiz was a journalist, songwriter, and activist.
Faiz was a nominee for the Nobel Prize and in 1963 was the first Asian poet to win the Lenin Peace Prize. He recorded for the Library of Congress in Lahore in 1977.
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Ghulam Ahmad Perwez
Born in Batala in the Indian Punjab, Ghulam Ahmad Pervez belonged to a family of Chishti-Nizami sufis. His grandfather, Hakim Maulvi Raheem Baksh, tought him Arabic and trained him in Islamic studies. He met Allama Iqbal in Lahore and on his suggestion got in touch with Hafiz Muhammad Jairajpuri, the scholar moulded his views of Islam. In 1955, he retired from the post of assistant secretary in the central secretariat in Karachi to devote himself to the study of Islam. It was in New Delhi that he began publishing his journal Tolu-e-Islam in 1938 at the behest of Allama Iqbal and the Quaid-e-Azam. Through his writings in the journal, he defended the Pakistan movement and took issue with Gandhi and other Congress leaders.After the creation of Pakistan, Pervaz dedicated Tolu-e-Islam to debates on the nature of Quran. The most valuable contribution to Islamic learning were his classification of Quranic themes and etymology of Quranic words in his book Lughat-ul-Quran and his work on the tradition of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) Maqam-i-Hadith. He argued that hadith can neither abrogate nor supercede the Quran and that hadith which jibes with the quran and does not insult the Prophet should be accepted. His weekly lectures in Lahore attracted a lot of educated followers as he challenged the authority of his contemporary, Maulana Maudoodi. Pervaz's work on the Quran remains unprecedented as a rationaal gloss in Islamic scholarship.
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Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum
Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum was a teacher par exellence. As professor of Persian he represented sound academic tradition, which was considered the fountainhead of higher learning. Sufi Tabassum's poetic talent encompassed three languages; Urdu, Persian and Punjabi. He was a master of prosoby and even poets like Faiz were constrained to consult him in the craft of poetry. His poetry grows out of the extreme romance of the classical tradition and the pain and suffering that the modern man has to go through. His vast repertoire of translations into Punjabi of Urdu and Persian poetry is also work of great merit. For about fifty years he was one of the most prominent speaker at the various astistic and intellectual formus, like radio, television and the literary circles. He brought to these forums a very rich and comprehensive worldview, which was the outcome of his vast reading, very rich life and a vibrant personality. A man full of life till the very end he will also be lovingly remembered for the poems that he wrote for children. He created the immortal character of 'Tot Batot' which has been the most constant companion of the children.
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Habib Jalib was a populist poet. He was a clear departure from the mainstream Urdu poetic tradition where the poet preferred to live in his ivory tower away from the rough and tumble active life. |  |
He was in fact much closer to the Punjabi tradition where the poet was also an activist fighting on all front, usually either landing in jail or forced into exile.Going to jail was thus a professional hazard because Jalib was irrepressible and could not hold back in the face of repressive mearsures by successive government. A totally diapossesed man, he was fearless in his confrontation with the government and was therefore much feared by the powers that be. He had to be populist because he was topical and engaged the anti-people policiees in his verses which became instant slogans and were more deadly than the deadliest of bullets. His verses galvanised scattered opposition and inspired hope among the common urban dwellers. These easy to understand verses thus were more effective as their outreach was more than thar of the more respected poets.
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Born in Jalandhari, Indian Punjab hafeez Jalandhari migrated to Lahore after the Pakistan. He made up for the lack formal education with self-study and hard work and carved his place in the poetic pantheon. |  |
He also worked as director of Song Publicity Organisation during the World War 11. He also established a publishing house called Honhaar Book depot, in Lahore. His fame rests on his long poem, Shahnama-i-Islam, which in the manner of Fridouse's Shahnama, is a record of the glorious history of Islam in verse. He also wrote the national anthem of Pakistan. He is unique in Urdu poetry for the enchanting melody of his voice and lilting rhythms of his songs and lyrics. His poetry generally deals with romantic, religious, patriotic and natural themes. He chooses his themes, images and tunes from the subcontinent and his language is a fine blend of Hindi and Urdu diction, reflecting the composite culture of South Asia.
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Born in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1940, Kishwar Naheed is one of the best- known feminist poets of Pakistan. In a field dominated by traditional male voices, Naheed, writing in Urdu, was a pioneer of a new, distinctively feminine voice and has produced over the span of thirty years a body of work that is innovative, defiant, political, and self-aware. |  |
Her poetry dared to go beyond the prescribed accepted 'feminine' realms to include hitherto unmined fields of female sexuality, politics, and social issues. In an interview with Rakhshanda Jalil for the Indian daily The Hindu (11/4/2001), Kishwar Naheed explained her writing as an attempt to redefine the man-woman relationship. Rejecting being branded as a radical or a bohemian, she declared herself "a realist" who "never let herself get pushed around by men or by circumstances."
Born into a traditional family that moved to Lahore, Pakistan during the 1947 Partition of the sub-continent, Naheed had to fight to pursue an education in a milieu where women did not go to school and "were not allowed to speak to boys." She studied at home and obtained a high school diploma through correspondence courses, but went on to receive a masters degree in Economics from Punjab University.
Naheed's first collection of poetry, Lab-i goya, published in 1968, won the prestigious Adamjee Prize of Literature. This collection of traditional ghazals was followed by a collection of nazms, by translations of foreign poetry, and by many works in free verse. She also wrote for children and for the daily Jang, published her autobiography in 1994 (it appeared the following year in India), and in 2001 saw her collected poetic work released in a 1312 page volume entitled Dasht-i qais men Lail'a. Her daily columns in Jang were also collected and published in 1999. Her poetry has been translated into English and Spanish and her famous poem "We, sinful women" gave its title to a path-breaking anthology of contemporary Urdu feminist poetry translated and edited by Rukhsana Ahmad, published in London by The Women's Press in 1991.
Kishwar Naheed has held the position of Director General of Pakistan National Council of the Arts before her retirement, has edited a prestigious literary magazine Mah-i naw, and has founded an organization named Hawwa (Eve) whose goal is to help homebound women become financially independent through cottage industries and the marketing of handicrafts.
The Library of Congress has twenty-five works by Naheed in its collection. She read for the Library in Lahore on December 13, 1977.
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Born in 1927 in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, Qurratulain Hyder is one of the most celebrated of Urdu fiction writers. A trendsetter in Urdu fiction, she began writing at a time when the novel was yet to take deep roots as a serious genre in the poetry-oriented world of Urdu literature. She shook it out of its stagnation and purged it of its obsession with fantasy, romance and frivolous realism. |  |
She instilled in it a new sensibility and brought into its fold strands of thought and imagination hitherto unexplored.
A prolific writer, she has so far written some 12 novels and novellas, four collections of short stories and has done a significant amount of translation of classics. Aag Ka Darya (River of Fire), her magnum opus, is a landmark novel that explores the vast sweep of time and history. It tells a story that moves from the fourth century BC to the post-Independence period in India and Pakistan, pausing at the many crucial epochs of history.
She received the Jnanpith Award in 1989 for her novel Aakhir-e-Shab ke Hamsafar (Travellers Unto the Night). She received the Sahitya Akademi Award, in 1967, Soviet Land Nehru Award, 1969, Ghalib Award, 1985, Jnanpith Award, 1989, and was conferred Padma Shri by the Government of India for her outstanding contribution to Urdu literature. She served as a guest lecturer at the universities of California, Chicago, Wisconsin, and Arizona.Her books have been translated into English and other languages. The Library of Congress has twenty-one books by her.
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Sa'adat Hasan Manto (1912-1955) is the author of Urdu social realist literature in terms of the style and content of his writing, and in terms of his ambiguous relationship with the Progressive Writers' Movement. |  |
Both Chughtai and Manto were influenced by Soviet socialist literature and employed styles that were explicitly realistic in their representation of character and the human condition. However, both authors were also greatly influenced by Freud's work, which inspired them to write openly about aspects of human sexuality. Ultimately it was this focus on sexuality that alienated him from the Progressive Writers'Movement, despite his continued devotion to social realism.
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Mushtaq Ahmad Yousafi
Born in Tonk, rajistan, Mushtaq Ahmad Yousafi graduated from Aligarh University and worked for several banks before the president of the united bank Ltd in 1974. Yousafi is arguably one of the most original humourist in Urdu. His carefully crafted prose is a marvel in lucidity. While the situation and characters in his writings are funny enough, there is nothing vitriolic about them. There is considerable compassion in his point of view and a healthy tolerance of human foibles. His first book was made up of sketches but gradually his writing has become a composite genre in which sketch-writing is generally mixed with fiction, realism and humour. His book, Aab-i-Gum, is a milestone in Urdu prose.
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| when Urdu became the medium of instruction in the Punjab, the educated Punjabis switched to Urdu and their monther tongue was reduced to being the language of the street as higher discourse wall conducted in either Urdu or English. Punjabi poetry too stoped to grow as most of the poets started to express themselves in Urdu. |  |
Poetry which was streetwise with sotck phrases and stock sentiments Contonued to be wrutten or recited orally in the villages and less educated sections of the urben population. The concerns which were ushered in the changing realities of colonialism and then freedom in a changed world remained outside the purview of Punjabi poetry. Najam Hussain Syed's Punjabi poetry is a departure from the stock imagery, metre and sensilility because it explores areas of experience which have evolved in a much larger context. The poet is actuly aware of his contemporary world and also is sensitive to the rich heritage and tradition of the last seven hundred years of poetry. The great divide imposed by language between the urban and rural, the illiterate and the highly educated has been addressed by his poetry. In the plays too important characters and events of punjabi histary have been treated in a manner as to represent the dilemma of commitment and authentic existence.
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Nasir Kazmi,
Born in Ambala (Indian Punjab) Nasir Kazmi migrated to Lahore after the partition. He worked for Radio Pakistan, Lahore and earned fame as a poet of ghazal (lyric) but lived in extreme poverty. Bearing the marks of Mir Taqi Mir, Nasir Kazmi developed Urdu ghazal into a modern art-form, transmiting the classical tradition into something modern and uinque. His lyrics transformed the traditional pessimism of the lyric into an expression of the sorrow, despair and anguish of the modern man. His poetry expresses the tragedly of the bloodshed and migration at the time of partition of the sub-continent.
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It was said by the begining of the century that Urdu poetry had lost its essence as it got bogged down in the craft of versification. Many attempts had been made to liberate it from the restrictions of stylisation but it was Rashid who gave it the impetus of breaking away from the traditional pattern of prosody. |  |
Inspired by the European poets and egged on by his teacher, Patras Bokhari, Rashid dwelled on the blank verse intraducing it successfully to dispel the widely held view that our poetry was not possible without it. He was part of the new movement that brought in modern sensibility to support the experimentation in the formal patterns of poetry. The theme of his poems were the serve humiliation in being subjugated and the various states of emotional distress that creat a certain kind of character, linking it to existential anguish. This new formal pattern also had to do away with much of traditional imagery and rhythmic patterns, and he was able to creat imagery and from sources which had not been considered poetic material. His poetry therefore was not always easy as it demanded agility on the part of the reader to appreciate a totally new area of experience
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Born in a middle class Shikarpur family on March 23, 1923, Shaikh Ayaz was a lawyer by profession. He also served as vice-chancellor of the Sindh University. But poetry was his forte. He began composing poetry as a zealous youth in 1940. This was an era of reawakening in Sindhi literature, as in the literature of other major laguagues of the subcontinent. |  |
In fact this was when Sindhi literature emerged from its early and mediaeval expressions and subjects and started responding to new cultural and social demands. A new generation of progressive writers, poets and artists came to dominate the literary scene.
who died in Karachi on Sunday, 28th December 1997, was a towering figure of Sindhi literature, known and respected nationally and by Sindhi-speaking people all over the world. He was equally acclaimed in progressive circles for his contribution to the advancement of human values. Shaikh Ayaz revolutionised almost all genres of Sindhi literature and is rightfully called the doyen of the 20th century Sindhi writers and poets.
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Parveen Shakir was born on 24th November, 1952 in Karachi, Pakistan. She was highly educated with two masters degrees, one in English literature and one in linguistics. She also held a Ph.D and another masters degree in Bank Administration. |  |
She was a teacher for nine years before she joined the Civil Service and worked in the Customs department. In 1986 she was appointed the second secretary, CBR in Islamabad.
A number of books of her poetry have been published. In chronological order, they are Khushboo (1976), Sad-barg (1980), Khud-kalaami (1990), Inkaar (1990) and Maah-e-Tamaam (1994). Her first book, Khushboo, won the Adamjee award. Later she was awarded the Pride of Performance award, which is the highest award given by the Pakistan government.
On 26th December, 1994, on her way to work, her car collided with a truck and the world of modern Urdu poetry lost one of its brightest stars.
Parveen Shakir initially wrote under the pen-name of 'Beena'. She considered Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi her 'ustad' and used to called him 'Ammujaan'. She was married to Dr. Nasir Ahmed but got divorced from him sometime before her untimely demise in 1994. They had one son - Murad Ali.
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| Qateel Shifai was born on 24th December, 1919. His actual name is Aurangzeb Khan. Qateel Shifai is his nom de plume, the pen-name under which he is known in the world of Urdu poetry. "Qateel" is his "takhallus" and "Shifai" is in honour of his ustaad Hakim Mohammed 'Shifa' whom he considered his mentor. |  |
His father's death at an early age, forced Qateel to quit his education and start his own sporting goods shop. Success eluded him and he moved to Rawalpindi, where he worked at a transport company for a monthly salary of Rs.60. Finally in 1946, Nazir Ahmed called him to Lahore and made him the assistant editor of the monthly 'Adab-e-Latif'.
Qayeel Shifai's first ghazal was printed in the Lahore weekly 'Star', whose editor was Qamar Jalalabadi. In January 1947, a Lahore based film producer asked Qateel to pen the songs for his forthcoming film. His first film as a lyricist was "Teri Yaad". Since then he has won numerous awards as a lyricist. He has had quite a few of his poem collections published, one of which being "Mutriba" which was awarded the highest literature award in Pakistan.
Qateel's primary contribution to Urdu poetry has been to raise the standards of ghazals in films. Though this work was started by Tanvir Alvi and Sahir Ludhianvi,it has been brought to its natural conclusion by Qateel Shifai. His work brought a certain standard to ghazals in films and gave it a certain respectability. His work also brought Urdu poetry closer to the masses by using simple words, quite often words taken from Hindi.
Qateel Shifai has also been known for his collaborations with Jagjit and Chitra Singh on numerous ghazal albums.
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FAHMIDA RIAZ is a noted Pakistani feminist and a published poet. She is also the author of a highly acclaimed novella Godaavari. Her most recent work is a volume of short stories, Khat-e Marmuz. |  |
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| Attiya Dawood is a voice from the goths and villages of rural Sindh. It is a voice of pain and harrowing anguish. |  |
As a rural Sindhi woman she finds deprivation everywhere: she faces oppression piled on oppression. As a woman, oppression of women by men, as a Third World woman, oppression and exploitation by the advanced capitalist countries. As a rural woman she is marginalised in favour of the voice of the first person singular
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Born in Karachi in 1973, her first novel, In the City by the Sea was described as 'riveting' in several reviews, and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Shamsie was born into a literary family; her great-aunt was Attia Hosain, her mother, Muneeza Shamsie, is a writer and editor, and her grandmother Jahanara Habibullah's memoirs will be published by Oxford University Press soon. |  |
Kamila Shamsie studied at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where the seeds of her first novel were sown in a short story she wrote for a class. She went on to a graduate program in creative writing at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her thesis advisor, Shona Ramaya, suggested that she show her story to an agent, who in a twist of fate turned out to be the agent who had published Attiya Hussain at Virago. This first novel won the Prime Minister's Award for literature in Pakistan in 1999.
Shamsie currently teaches creative writing at Hamilton College in New York.
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--
Asadullah Syed
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