Amrita Pritam

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Amrita Pritam (August 31, 1919 – October 31, 2005) (Punjabi: ਅਮ੍ਰਿਤਾ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਮ, amritā prītam, Hindi: अमृता प्रीतम, amr̥tā prītam) was an Indian poet. She is considered the first prominent female Punjabi writer and poet. When the former British India was partitioned into the independent states of India and Pakistan, she migrated to India in 1947.

She was born in 1919 into a Sikh family in Gujranwala, Punjab, today in Pakistan, the only child of a school teacher and a poet. Her mother died when she was eleven and she was saddled with adult responsibilities early on. She began to write at an early age, and her first collection was published when she was only sixteen years old, the year she married an editor to whom she was engaged in early childhood.

She was very sad when some one million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs were brutally killed in communal violence that followed the partition in 1947. She wrote extensively about that human dilemma. At the time of the partition she moved to New Delhi, where she began to write in Hindi as opposed to Punjabi, her mother tongue. She worked until 1961 for All India Radio. She was divorced in 1960, and following that her work became more explicitly feminist, drawing on her unhappy marriage in many of her stories and poems. A number of her works have been translated into English from Punjabi, including her autobiographical works Black Rose and Revenue Stamp (Raseedi Tikkat in Punjabi).

Her novel Pinjar was made in to a Hindi movie. She was a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan award. She was awarded the Jnanpith, India's highest literary award, in 1981 for Kagaj te Canvas (Paper and Canvas)"

Amrita Pritam spent the final years of her life with a renowned artist, Imroz. She died on 31st October 2005 at the age of 86, after a long illness.

[edit] Works

Novels:
- Pinjar
- Kore Kagaz, Unchas Din
- Sagar aur Seepian
- Nagmani
- Rang ka Patta
- Dilli ki Galiyan
- Terahwan Suraj
Autobiography:
- Rasidi Ticket
Story Collection:
- Kahaniyan jo Kahaniyan Nahi
- Kahaniyon ke Angan mein
Poetry Collection:
- Chuni Huyee Kavitayen