Qurratulain Hyder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hyder, Qurrat-ul-Ain (b. 1926) is an Urdu novelist and short story writer, an academic, and a journalist. She is the daughter of the famous writer Sajjad Haidar Yaldram,(1880-1943) . Her mother, Nazr Zahra (later Nazr Sajjad Hyder) (1894-1967) was known as one of her time’s foremost novelists.
[edit] Life
Born in January 20, 1926 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 instilled in it a new sensibility and brought into its fold strands of thought and imagination hitherto unexplored. She is widely regarded as the "Grande Dame" of Urdu literature.
After graduating from Lucknow University, she moved to Pakistan in 1947, then lived in England before returning to India in 1951. She has been writing since she was 11 years old.
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. The [London] Times Literary Supplement wrote that "[River of Fire] is to Urdu fiction what A Hundred Years of Solitude is to Hispanic literature. Qurratulain Hyder has a place alongside her exact contemporaries, Milan Kundera and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as one of the world's major living writers." Other books include Patjar ki Awaz (‘The Voice of Autumn’, 1965); Roushni ki Raftar (‘The Speed of Light’, 1982); the short novel Chae ke Bagh (‘Tea Plantations’, 1965); and the family chronicle Kare Jahan Daraz He (‘The Work of the World Goes on’). Amitov Ghosh writes that "hers is one of the most important Indian voices of the twentieth century."
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. She was conferred Padma Shri by the Government of India for her outstanding contribution to Urdu literature, and in 2005 she was conferred the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India, for her contribution to Urdu Literature and Education. The Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian honor awarded by the Government of India. Hyder has served as a guest lecturer at the universities of California, Chicago, Wisconsin, and Arizona. She was Professor, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Chair, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Dehli.
She was Managing Editor of the magazine, Imprint, Bombay (1964-68), and a member of the editorial staff of the Illustrated Weekly of India (1968-75). Her books have been translated into English and other languages. The Library of Congress has twenty-one books by her.
