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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}}
{{infobox writer 
| name = '''Rashid Jahan'''
| image = RashidJahanPic.jpg
| imagesize =
| alt =
| caption =
| pseudonym =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1905|08|25|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Aligarh]], [[Uttar Pradesh]], [[India]]
| death_place = [[Moscow]], Russia
| death_date = {{death date and age|1952|07|29|1905|08|25}}
| resting_place = [[Moscow]], Russia
| occupation = Writer, gynecologist
| language = [[Urdu]]
| education =
| alma_mater = [[Isabella Thoburn College]], [[Lady Hardinge Medical College]]
| period =
| genre = Short stories, plays
| subject =
| movement = [[Progressive Writers Movement]]
| notableworks = ''[[Angarey]]''
| spouse = Mahmuduz Zafar
| children =
| relatives = [[Sheikh Abdullah (educationalist)|Sheikh Abdullah]] (father)<br>[[Begum Khurshid Mirza]] (sister)<br>[[Hamida Saiduzzafar]] (sister-in-law)<br>[[Salman Haidar]] (nephew)
| awards =
}}
{{Progressive Writers' Movement}}
'''Rashid Jahan''' (25 August 1905 – 29 July 1952) was an Indian writer and doctor known for her [[Urdu]] literature and trenchant social commentaries. She wrote [[Short story|short stories]] and plays and contributed to ''[[Angarey]]'' (1932), a collection of unconventional short stories written in collaboration with [[Sajjad Zaheer]], [[Ahmad Ali|Ahmed Ali]], and Mahmuduz Zafar.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Coppola|first1=Carlo|last2=Zubair|first2=Sajida|title=Rashid Jahan: Urdu Literature's First 'Angry Young Woman'|date=1987|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40873941|journal=Journal of South Asian Literature|volume=22|issue=1|pages=166–183|jstor=40873941|issn=0091-5637}}</ref><ref name="TheHindu">{{cite news|last=Kumar|first=Kuldeep|date=11 July 2014|title=Rashid Jahan: Rebel With a Cause|newspaper=The Hindu (newspaper)|url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/rebel-with-a-cause/article6201124.ece|access-date=25 December 2019}}</ref>

During her lifetime, Jahan was an active member of the [[Progressive Writers' Movement]] and the [[Indian People's Theatre Association]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Asaduddin|first=M.|date=2015|title=Review of A Rebel and Her Cause: The Life and Work of Rashid Jahan|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44479275|journal=Indian Literature|volume=59|issue=1 (285)|pages=179–182|jstor=44479275|issn=0019-5804}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Abbasi|first=Aisha|date=7 September 2015|title=A REBEL AND HER CAUSE: THE LIFE AND WORK OF RASHID JAHAN by rakhshanda Jalil India: Women Unlimited, 2012, 248 pp.: Book Reviews and Commentary|url=http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/aps.1462|journal=International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies|language=en|volume=12|issue=4|pages=367–371|doi=10.1002/aps.1462}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Jalil, Rakhshanda|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/909026227|title=A rebel and her cause : the life and work of Rashid Jahan|year=2014|isbn=978-0-19-940168-0|location=Karachi|oclc=909026227}}</ref> Jahan has been called one of the first ever [[Feminism|feminists]] and was a leading [[India]]n [[Communism|Communist]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Khanna|first=Neetu|date=2018|title=Three Experiments in Subaltern Intimacy|url=https://www.postcolonial.org/index.php/pct/article/view/2252|journal=Postcolonial Text|volume=13|issue=4}}</ref> These two schools of thought animated Jahan's life and literary output.

==Biography==

=== Early life ===
Rashid Jahan was born on 25 August 1905 in [[Aligarh]]. She was the eldest of seven children born to [[Sheikh Abdullah (educationalist)|Sheikh Abdullah]] and his wife Begum Wahid Jahan.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=SAIDUZZAFAR|first=HAMIDA|date=1987|title=JSAL interviews DR. HAMIDA SAIDUZZAFAR: A conversation with Rashid Jahan's sister-in-law, Aligarh, 1973|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40873940|journal=Journal of South Asian Literature|volume=22|issue=1|pages=158–165|jstor=40873940|issn=0091-5637}}</ref> Her father was a leading pioneer of women's English-based education in India and established the [[Women's College, Aligarh]] at the [[Aligarh Muslim University]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Mahurkar|first=Vaishnavi|date=2017-03-29|title=Rashid Jahan: The Bad Girl Of Urdu Literature {{!}} #IndianWomenInHistory|url=https://feminisminindia.com/2017/03/30/rashid-jahan-essay/|access-date=2020-12-04|website=Feminism In India|language=en-US}}</ref> Sheikh Abdullah also ran the [[Urdu]] literary journal ''Khatun'', which promoted women's emancipation and education, and to which Jahan's mother was a frequent contributor.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last=Singh|first=Madhulika|title=Radical Writings on Women: The Work of Dr. Rashid Jahan|date=2014|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44158454|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=75|pages=729–735|jstor=44158454|issn=2249-1937}}</ref> As Jahan's future sister-in-law, [[Hamida Saiduzzafar]], related in a 1973 interview, Rashid once said of her upbringing: ‘‘We have slept on the mattress of women's education and covered ourselves with the quilt of women's education from our earliest consciousness."<ref name=":5" />

=== Education ===
Jahan undertook her early education in [[Aligarh]] at the Muslim Girls' School and Hostel (which would later become the [[Women's College, Aligarh]]), where she studied until she was 16 years old.<ref name=":2" /> In 1921, she left [[Aligarh]] to join the [[Isabella Thoburn College]] in [[Lucknow]], earning a degree in Inter-Science.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last=POULOS|first=STEVEN M.|date=1987|title=Rashid Jahan of 'Angare': Her Life and Work|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23337071|journal=Indian Literature|volume=30|issue=4 (120)|pages=108–118|jstor=23337071|issn=0019-5804}}</ref> Jahan wrote her first short stories for the ''Chand Bagh Chronicle'', a publication of the [[Isabella Thoburn College]].<ref name=":0" /> Three years later, in 1924, Jahan moved to [[Lady Hardinge Medical College]] in [[Delhi]] to study obstetrics and [[Gynaecology|gynecology]].<ref name=":0" /> As a medical student, Jahan organized literacy classes and free medical clinics for poor women. After graduating with an [[Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery|M.B.B.S.]] in 1929, Jahan joined the [[United Provinces of British India|United Provinces]] Provincial Medical Service, and was posted to small towns across north India, from [[Bahraich]] to [[Bulandshahr|Bulandshahar]] and [[Meerut]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name="TheHindu" />

=== Activism ===
In 1931, Jahan was posted to the Lady Dufferin Hospital (now the Dufferin Hospital) in [[Lucknow]], the capital city of the [[United Provinces of British India|United Provinces]].<ref name=":0" /> In [[Lucknow]], Jahan met [[Sajjad Zaheer]], [[Ahmed Ali (writer)|Ahmed Ali]], and Mahmuduz Zafar. The following year, the quartet published ''Angaaray'', a collection of short stories railing against the hypocrisies of [[Islam]]ic orthodoxy and the [[British Raj]]. In 1933, Jahan joined the [[Communist Party of India]] and became a leading party figure in the [[United Provinces of British India|United Provinces]], adopting the moniker "Comrade Rashid Jahan."<ref name=":3" />

In October 1934, Jahan married ''Angaaray'' collaborator and noted [[Communism|Communist]] Mahmuduz Zafar.<ref name=":3" /> Jahan resigned from the [[United Provinces of British India|United Provinces]] medical service and joined Zafar in [[Amritsar]] soon after.<ref name=":7" /> In 1935 and 1936, Jahan was intimately involved in the founding of the [[Progressive Writers' Movement|Progressive Writers' Association]], organizing the First Progressive Writers' Conference in [[Lucknow]] during the April of 1936. In 1937, Jahan moved once again, this time to [[Dehradun]], where she continued to be an active member of the [[Communist Party of India]] while working as a gynecologist and serving as the editor of the Communist newspaper-cum-literary journal ''Chingari''.<ref name=":3" /> In early 1937, Jahan published a collection of plays and short stories entitled ''Aurat''. In the summer of the same year, Jahan travelled to [[Vienna]] to seek medical aid for a [[thyroid]] problem.<ref name=":0" />

Jahan's political, literary, and medical careers often intersected as she pursued wide-ranging [[Feminism|feminist]] and [[Socialism|socialist]] agendas in the 1930s. Jahan "offered women’s healthcare in lower caste and class communities, educated women in reproductive health and marriage rape in sweepers colonies, held adult education classes, ran her own gynecological medical practice, participated in trade union rallies and protest marches, [...] and authored and orchestrated political street theater."<ref name=":4" /> Jahan's younger sister, [[Begum Khurshid Mirza]], writes that Jahan "worked day and night, and most of her earnings went to the [Communist] party fund," from which she and her husband received a small sustenance allowance.<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal|last=Mirza|first=Khurshid|title=Dr. Rashid Jahan: My "Āpābī"|date=1987|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40873939|journal=Journal of South Asian Literature|volume=22|issue=1|pages=152–157|jstor=40873939|issn=0091-5637}}</ref> Mirza further relates that Jahan became a sort of mother-figure for all the poor comrades and their families.<ref name=":9" /> According to [[Salman Haidar]], Jahan's nephew and former [[Foreign Secretary of India]], Jahan was so extensively involved with [[Communism|Communist]] organizing that she was regularly followed by plainclothes policemen. Jahan's organizing activities continued until March 1949, when she was jailed for three months for participating in a [[Strike action|strike]] that paralyzed the [[United Provinces (1937–50)|United Provinces]] [[Indian Railways|railway system]].<ref name=":7" /> Jahan was released in May 1949 after participating in a [[hunger strike]] with her fellow prisoners, but [[cancer]] caused Jahan's health to deteriorate by early 1950 and made Jahan unable to continue her lifelong [[Activism|activist]] projects.<ref name=":0" />

=== Death ===
On 2 July 1952, Jahan and her husband left India for the [[Soviet Union]] to seek treatment for Jahan's [[uterine cancer]]. Jahan was admitted to the [[Central Clinical Hospital|Kremlin Hospital]] but died on 29 July 1952, soon after arriving. Jahan is buried in a [[Moscow]] cemetery, where her tombstone reads, "Communist Doctor and Writer."<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

== Literary output ==
It is thought that Jahan wrote approximately 25-30 original short stories and 15-20 original plays in her lifetime.<ref name=":0" /> Two of these short stories appear in ''Angaaray'' and six appear in ''Aurat'', while the rest have been lost to time for reasons of obscurity or limited initial circulation. The plays Jahan wrote were intended for radio, and were generally aired on [[All India Radio]] during her lifetime.<ref name=":9" />

Jahan also produced a number of translations of [[English literature|English]], [[Russian literature|Russian]], and [[Chinese literature|Chinese]] short stories{{Em dash}}among them works by [[Anton Chekhov|Anton Chekov]], [[Maxim Gorky]], and [[James Joyce]]{{Em dash}}and dramatized short stories written by other [[Urdu]] authors, such as [[Premchand]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" />

Jahan's writings have appeared in ''Woh aur Dusre Afsane wa Drame'' (Maktaba Jamia, 1977) and ''A Rebel and Her Cause'' (Rakshanda Jalil, 2014).<ref name=":6" />

=== ''Angaaray'' ===
Published in December 1932 by Nizami Press, ''Angaaray'' (translated alternatively as "Embers" or "Burning Coals") was a volume of 10 short stories written by [[Sajjad Zaheer]], [[Ahmed Ali (writer)|Ahmed Ali]], Rashid Jahan, and Mahmuduz Zafar.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ali|first=Mehr|date=May 2018|title=The Women of the PWA: The Politics and Writings of Rashid Jahan and Qurratulain Hyder|url=https://scholarworks.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2254&context=honorstheses|journal=W&M Scholar Works}}</ref> Zaheer contributed 5 short stories to the collection, Ali two, Jahan two, and Zafar one.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|last=Coppola|first=Carlo|date=1981|title=The angare group: the enfants terribles of Urdu literature|url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/annualofurdustudies/pager.html?objectid=PK2151.A6152_1_063.gif|journal=Annual of Urdu Studies|volume=1|pages=57–69}}</ref> The two pieces that Jahan contributed to ''Angaaray'' were ''Dilli ki Sair'' ("A Trip to Delhi") and ''Parde ke Peeche'' ("Behind the Veil").

''Dilli ki Sair'' is a three page [[monologue]] told from the perspective of a [[Muslims|Muslim]] woman, Malika Begum of [[Faridabad]], who is telling her friends about her trip to [[New Delhi|Delhi]] with her husband. However, as her husband left her at the train station to meet one of his friends, the story largely consists of the narrator relating the happenings on the railway platform as she sits on her luggage, starving, and waiting for her husband to take her home. When her husband does return, he offers her a [[Puri (food)|puri]], leftovers from his meal in a restaurant, and becomes angry when she refuses.<ref name=":10" /> The narrator concludes her story by declaring that she would not want to take a trip even to paradise with her husband. As such, the story is considered to be a brief but penetrating meditation on life behind the veil and the blindness of [[male privilege]] towards the experience of women behind the [[purdah]].<ref name=":11">{{Cite journal|last=Bano|first=Shadab|date=February 2012|title=Rashid Jahan's Writings: Resistance and Challenging Boundaries, Angaare and Onwards|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/097152151101900103|journal=Indian Journal of Gender Studies|language=en|volume=19|issue=1|pages=57–71|doi=10.1177/097152151101900103|s2cid=145360640|issn=0971-5215}}</ref>

''Parde ke Peeche'' is a conversation between two women from affluent, [[sharif]] families.<ref>{{cite web|author=Namita Bhandare|date=3 May 2014|title=Book Review : A rebel and Her Cause|url=http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/9psfLwMxo9MwsOGHFoM7DO/Book-Review--A-Rebel-And-Her-Cause.html|access-date=24 December 2019|website=livemint.com website}}</ref> One of the women, Muhammadi Begum, has become sick due to multiple [[Pregnancy|pregnancies]], having given birth to a daughter every year that she has been married to her husband, who insists on a male heir. Her husband forces her to go through several operations on her sexual organs to make her more attractive and more capable of producing a boy, but Aftab Begum, Muhammadi's [[Sister in law|sister-in-law]] and interlocutor, eventually secures the services of a female doctor. This doctor warns Begum's husband that the continuous pregnancies are weakening the health of Muhammadi and suggests that the couple use birth control. This suggestion is clearly ignored, however, as by the end of the story, Begum has finally given birth to a boy, who is shown to mistreat his many elder sisters in the closing scene.<ref name=":10" />

==== Controversy ====
''Angaaray'' railed against social inequity, hypocritical [[Mawlawi (Islamic title)|Mawlawis]], and the exploitation of women in a deeply [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] society.<ref name="TheHindu" /> These criticisms caused an uproar in the [[India]]n [[Islam]]ic community, and ''Angaaray'' was publicly condemned by the Central Standing Committee of the All-India Shia Conference in Lucknow as a "filthy pamphlet" that had "wounded the feelings of the entire Muslim community."<ref name=":10" /> [[Fatwa]]s were issued against the book and the Urdu press called for its [[proscription]]. Demonstrations were held outside book stores and the publisher had to issue a written apology and surrender unsold copies to the government. In March 1933, the British colonial government banned the book for violating [[Freedom of religion|religious freedoms]] under Section 295A of the [[Indian Penal Code]].<ref name=":10" /> The outcry was so severe that only five copies from the original press run still exist.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-08-29|title=Rashid Jahan (1905-1952)|url=https://sister-hood.com/sister-hood-staff/rashid-jahan-1905-1952/|access-date=2020-12-04|website=sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.|language=en-GB}}</ref>

=== ''Aurat'' ===
''Aurat'' was a 1937 collection of six short stories and the titular play written by Rashid Jahan. A second edition was published posthumously in 1963 at the behest of Jahan's father, [[Sheikh Abdullah (educationalist)|Sheikh Abdullah]].<ref name=":7" />

==Bibliography==
The literary works of Jahan include.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":0" />
*''[[Angarey]]'' (Nizami Press, Lucknow, 1932)
**''Dilli ki Sair''
**''Parde ke peeche''
*''Aurat aur digar afsane'' (Hashmi Book Depot, Lahore, 1937): collection of a play and six short stories
**''Aurat''
** ''Mera ek safar''
**''Sadak''
**''Pun''
**''Istakshara''
**''Garibon ka Bhagvan''
**''Salma''
* ''Gosha-e-'afiyat'' (Corner of Prosperity), radio play produced in 1948
*''Sh'ula-e jvala'' (India Publisher, Lucknow, 1974) published posthumously under the editorship Dr. Hamida Saiduzzafar, and Naeem Khan
**''Iftari''
**''Woh''
**''Sauda''
**''Asif Jahan ki Bahu''
**''Chidda ki Ma''
**''Andhe ki lathi''

==Legacy==
In 1975, a memorial was held at the [[Ghalib Academy, New Delhi|Ghalib Academy]] in [[New Delhi]] for the 70th anniversary of Jahan's birth. The event was attended by a number of prominent Urdu and Hindi writers as well as numerous government officials.<ref name=":10" />

In 2004, Aligarh Muslim University stymied a proposed observance of Rashid Jahan's centenary, fearing that "it would provoke political agitation."<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":11" />

Jahan's younger sister, [[Begum Khurshid Mirza]] (1918 – 1989), was a noted film actress in [[British India]] in the 1930s and 1940s, and later was an accomplished TV actress in [[Pakistan]]. Mirza's [[memoir]] was published in English in 2005 and includes a chapter on Rashid Jahan (pp. 86–104, ''A Woman of Substance: The Memoirs of Begum Khurshid Mirza'', New Delhi: Zubaan, 2005).<ref name="IndianExpress">{{cite news|author=Amrita Dutta|date=23 May 2014|title=Rashid Jahan: A Spark that lit the fire|newspaper=The Indian Express (newspaper)|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/a-spark-that-lit-the-fire/|access-date=24 December 2019}}</ref><ref>[https://www.dawn.com/news/354765/lahore-a-tribute-to-late-artiste LAHORE: A tribute to late artiste (Begum Khurshid Mirza)] Dawn (newspaper), Published 26 March 2004, Retrieved 24 December 2019</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/en/content/angaaray ''Angaaray'' (Penguin Books, 2014)]
*[https://oup.com.pk/academic-generalbooks/women-s-studies/a-rebel-and-her-cause.html ''A Rebel and Her Cause'' (Oxford University Press, 2014)]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jahan, Rashid}}
[[Category:1905 births]]
[[Category:1952 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths from uterine cancer]]
[[Category:Indian women short story writers]]
[[Category:Women writers from Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:Urdu-language short story writers]]
[[Category:Indian communists]]
[[Category:People from Aligarh]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Communist women writers]]
[[Category:Indian political writers]]
[[Category:Indian women political writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian short story writers]]
[[Category:Urdu-language writers from India]]
[[Category:Progressive Writers' Movement]]
[[Category:Female politicians of the Communist Party of India]]
[[Category:Communist Party of India politicians from Uttar Pradesh]]

Rashid Jahan - Revision history

->SdkbBot: /* top */Removed overlinked country wikilink and general fixes (task 2)