Ismat Chughtai
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Ismat Chughtai1 (1915 – 1991) was an eminent Indian Urdu writer. She was born in Badayun, Uttar Pradesh and grew up largely in Jodhpur where her father was a civil servant.
In 1941, she was charged with obscenity for her short story "The Quilt" ("Lihaaf" in Urdu) which dealt with lesbianism, among other issues. She was acquitted after her lawyer successfully argued that the story could not be a corrupting influence because the subject would only be understood by someone who has had a lesbian experience.
Along with Rashid Jahan, Wajeda Tabassum and Qurratulain Hyder, Ismat's work stands for the birth of a revolutionary feminist politics and aesthetics in twentieth century Urdu literature. She explored feminine sexuality, middle-class gentility, and other evolving conflicts in the modern Muslim world. She was briefly associated with the membership of the Urdu Progressive Writer's Movement in Lucknow. She is considered one of the more prolific writers of Urdu short stories (Afsana, افسانہ).
Ismat Chughtai appeared in Shyam Benegal's 1978 film Junoon.
She died in Bombay in 1991 and was cremated according to her wishes.
Her autobiography is entitled "Kaghazi hai pairahan" (Paper-thin is the apparel). Her major novels include Ziddi, Masooma, Terhi Lakeer (translated into English as The Crooked Line by Tahira Naqvi, New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1995).
[edit] End note
1 See Chughtai for information on her last name.
The Crooked Line is also being published, with a new afterword by the translator Tahira Naqvi, in the United States by the Feminist Press (publication date is July 2006).
