https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Razia_Sajjad_ZaheerRazia Sajjad Zaheer - Revision history2026-11-02T12:28:21ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Razia_Sajjad_Zaheer&diff=530095&oldid=prevKlaudiaDupre70: creating2025-10-16T17:20:18Z<p>creating</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Indian writer}}<br />
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{{Infobox writer<br />
| embed = <br />
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| name = Razia Sajjad Zaheer<br />
| honorific_suffix = <br />
| image = <br />
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| native_name = <br />
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| pseudonym = <br />
| birth_name = Razia Dilshad<br />
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1918|10|15}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Ajmer]], [[Ajmer State]], [[British India]]<br />
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1979|12|18|1918|10|15}}<br />
| death_place = [[Delhi]], India<br />
| resting_place = VIP Graveyard, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi <br />
| occupation = Writer, translator<br />
| language = Urdu<br />
| residence = <br />
| nationality = <br />
| citizenship = Indian<br />
| education = <br />
| alma_mater = Allahabad University<br />
| home_town = <br />
| period = 1948–1979<br />
| genre = <!-- or: | genres = --><br />
| subject = <!-- or: | subjects = --><br />
| movement = Progressive Writers Association and [[Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organisation|Afro-Asian Writers' Movement]]<br />
| notable_works = Allah De Banda Le, Nehru ka Bhatija and Galileo<br />
| spouse = [[Sajjad Zaheer]]<br />
| partner = <!-- or: | partners = --><br />
| children = 4, including [[Nadira Babbar]]{{sfn|Salman|2018}} and [[Noor Zaheer]]<br />
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| website = [https://sites.utexas.edu/zaheerarchive/ Sajjad Zaheer Digital Archive]<br />
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{{Progressive Writers' Movement}}<br />
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'''Razia Sajjad Zaheer''' (15 October 1918 – 18 December 1979) was an Indian writer in the [[Urdu language]], a translator, and a prominent member of the Progressive Writers Association. She won the Uttar Pradesh Sahitya Akademi Award as well as the ''Soviet Land'' Nehru Award.<br />
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==Early life==<br />
Razia Dilshad was born in [[Ajmer]], [[Rajasthan]] on 15 October 1918{{sfn|SA|1961|p=410}} in an academic family. Her father was the principal of Ajmer Islamia College.{{sfn|Mahmood|2020a}} She received an undergraduate degree in Ajmer.{{sfn|Tharu|Lalita|1993|p=144}}<br />
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She married [[Sajjad Zaheer]], a poet and communist activist when she was 20. He was one of the founders of the [[Progressive Writers Association]] (PWA) and was not interested in pursuing a career in law that he had trained for. Shortly after their marriage, he was arrested by the British for his revolutionary activities and imprisoned for two years.{{sfn|Mahmood|2020a}}<br />
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Razia obtained a postgraduate degree from Allahabad University.{{sfn|Tharu|Lalita|1993|p=144}} In the 1940s, Razia and her husband were in [[Bombay]], where they were active in the cultural sphere, organising weekly PWA soirees.{{sfn|Mahmood|2020a}} She acknowledged the influence of the PWA in radicalising her politics,{{sfn|Gopal|2009|p=142}} and was among the activist women who were beginning to question "''[[Mahatma Gandhi|Gandhian]] ideologies of women's nature and place''."{{sfn|Gopal|2005|p=21}}<br />
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By 1948, Razia had four daughters, and her husband was in [[Pakistan]] at the behest of the [[Communist Party of India]], which had supported the [[Partition of India]]. She moved to [[Lucknow]] with her daughters.{{sfn|Mahmood|2020a}}<br />
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==Career==<br />
Razia had been contributing short stories to journals like ''Phool'', ''Tehzib-e-Nisvaan'' and ''Ismat'' since her childhood.{{sfn|Naeem|2019}} In Lucknow, Razia began to teach, write and translate in order to earn a living. She translated about 40 books into Urdu.{{sfn|Mahmood|2020b}} Her translation of [[Bertold Brecht]]'s ''[[Life of Galileo]]'' to Urdu was called ''powerful''.{{sfn|Husain|1972|pp=146-147}} She translated Siyaram Sharan Gupta's ''Nari'' (published as ''Aurat'' (''Woman'') by Sahitya Akademi),{{sfn|Rao|2004|p=165}} and [[Mulk Raj Anand]]'s ''Saat Saal (Seven Years'', 1962).{{sfn|Husain|1963|p=145}}<br />
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In 1953, her novella ''Sar-e-Sham'' (''Early in the Evening'') was published, ''Kante'' (''Thorns'', a novel) was released in 1954, while ''Suman'' (another novel) came out in 1964. She edited and published ''Nuqush-e-Zindan'' (1954), which comprised her husband's letters to her from prison. {{sfn|Tharu|Lalita|1993|p=144}}<br />
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She worked on a novel on the poet [[Majaz Lucknawi|Majaz Lucknowi]], which remained unfinished. Along with her literary endeavours, she also edited and copied her husband's writings. {{sfn|Mahmood|2020b}}<br />
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Her short stories have been characterised as having a ''socialistic purpose''.{{sfn|Machwe|1977|p=148}} For example, in ''Neech'' (''Lowborn'') she explored class differences between a privileged woman and a fruit-seller, and the prejudices the former has to set aside to obtain strength from the latter.{{sfn|Tharu|Lalita|1993|p=82}} Moreover, given the revolutionary ideology of the PWA, her works - as those of her colleagues in the group - explored gender relations and women's oppression by men and other women,{{sfn|Gopal|2005|p=31}} the development of a modernist identity among women,{{sfn|Gopal|2005|p=68}} as well as the more deleterious effects of poverty and [[ostracism]] on marginalised women.{{sfn|Singh|2006|p=256}}<br />
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''Zard Gulab'' (''The Yellow Rose'', 1981) and ''Allah De Banda Le'' (''God gives, Man takes'', 1984) were two of her short story collections published posthumously.{{sfn|Tharu|Lalita|1993|p=144}}<br />
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==Later life==<br />
Razia's husband was in prison in Pakistan until 1956, whereupon he returned to India and joined his family in Lucknow. In 1964, they moved to [[Delhi]]. Sajjad died in USSR in 1973.{{sfn|Mahmood|2020b}}<br />
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Razia Sajjad Zaheer died in Delhi on 18 December 1979.{{sfn|Naeem|2019}}<br />
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==Bibliography==<br />
The literary work of Razia Sajjad Zaheer include:{{sfn|Naeem|2019}}<br />
* ''Sar-e-Sham'' (1953)<br />
* ''Kaante'' (1954)<br />
* ''Suman'' (1963)<br />
* {{cite book|title=Allah Megh De|year=1973|isbn=978-81-7587-511-1|last1=Ẓahīr |first1=Raz̤Iyyah Sajjād |publisher=Maktaba jamia new delhi }}<br />
* ''Zard Gulaab'' (1981)<br />
* ''Allah De Banda Le'' (1984)<br />
* ''Nehru ka Bhateeja'' (1954)<br />
* ''Sultan Zainul Abidin Budshah''<br />
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==Awards and honours==<br />
* ''Soviet Land'' Nehru Award (1966).{{sfn|Machwe|1977|p=145}}<br />
* Uttar Pradesh Sahitya Akademi Award (1972).{{sfn|Tharu|Lalita|1993|p=144}}<br />
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== References ==<br />
<!--- See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes on how to create references using <ref></ref> tags, these references will then appear here automatically --><br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==Bibliography==<br />
*{{cite book|last=Gopal|first=Priyamvada|title=Literary Radicalism in India: Gender, Nation and the Transition to Independence|year=2005|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-32904-0}}<br />
*{{cite book|last=Gopal|first=Priyamvada|title=The Indian English Novel: Nation, History, and Narration|year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-954437-0}}<br />
*{{cite journal|last=Husain|first=S. Ehtesham|title=Urdu Literature—1962|journal=Indian Literature|volume=6|number=2|year=1963|jstor=23329422}}<br />
*{{cite journal|last=Husain|first=S. Ehtesham|title=Urdu Literature—1971|journal=Indian Literature|volume=15|number=4|year=1972|pages=142–149|jstor=24157192}}<br />
*{{cite journal|last=Machwe|first= Prabhakar|title=Prominent Women Writers In Indian Literature After Independence|journal=Journal of South Asian Literature|volume= 12|number= 3/4 |year=1977|pages= 145–149|jstor=40872164}}<br />
*{{cite news|last=Mahmood|first=Nazir|url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/593596-raziya-shaukat-and-the-pwa-part-i|title=Raziya, Shaukat, and the PWA - Part I|newspaper=The News International|date=5 January 2020a}}<br />
*{{cite news|last=Mahmood|first=Nazir|url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/594043-raziya-shaukat-and-the-pwa-part-ii|title=Raziya, Shaukat, and the PWA - Part II|newspaper=The News International|date=6 January 2020b}}<br />
*{{cite news|title=Razia Sajjad Zaheer: The forgotten virtuoso of Urdu literature|newspaper=The Express Tribune|first=Raza|last=Naeem|date=18 December 2019|url=https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/92089/razia-sajjad-zaheer-the-forgotten-virtuoso-of-urdu-literature/}}<br />
*{{cite book|last=Rao|first=D. S.|title=Five Decades: The National Academy of Letters, India: A Short History of Sahitya Akademi|year=2004|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-2060-7}}<br />
*{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Who's Who of Indian Writers|title=Razia Sajjad Zaheer|year=1961|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|location=Delhi|ref={{harvid|SA|1961}}}}<br />
*{{cite news|newspaper=Dawn|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1448216|title=All about mother|first=Peerzada|last=Salman|date=29 November 2018}}<br />
*{{cite encyclopedia|first=V. P.|last=Singh|title=Emerging From the Veil: A Study of Selected Muslim Women's Feminist Writing From the Indian Subcontinent|editor1-first=Amar Nath|editor1-last=Prasad|editor2-first=S. John Peter|editor2-last=Joseph|encyclopedia=Indian Writing In English: Critical Ruminations Part 2|year=2006|publisher=Sarup & Sons|isbn=978-81-7625-725-1}}<br />
*{{cite book|editor1-last=Tharu|editor1-first=Susie J.|editor2-last=Lalita|editor2-first=K.|title=Women Writing in India: The twentieth century|year=1993|publisher=Feminist Press at CUNY|isbn=978-1-55861-029-3}}<br />
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<!--- Categories ---><br />
[[Category:People from Ajmer]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian Muslims]]<br />
[[Category:Urdu-language Indian writers]]<br />
[[Category:University of Allahabad alumni]]<br />
[[Category:1918 births]]<br />
[[Category:1979 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Urdu-language writers]]<br />
[[Category:Indian women short story writers]]<br />
[[Category:Translators to Urdu]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian translators]]<br />
[[Category:Communist Party of India politicians from Rajasthan]]<br />
[[Category:Female politicians of the Communist Party of India]]<br />
[[Category:Indian feminist writers]]</div>KlaudiaDupre70