Ismat Chughtai
| Ismat Chughtai عصمت چغتائی |
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| Born |
15 August 1915 Badayun, British India (now in Uttar Pradesh, India) |
| Died |
Mumbai, India 24 October 1991 (aged 76) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | Urdu |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Citizenship | Indian |
| Alma mater | Aligarh Muslim University |
| Genre | Short stories |
| Literary movement | Progressive Writers Movement |
| Notable awards | Ghalib Award (1984) Filmfare Best Story Award (1975) |
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Ismat Chughtai (Urdu: عصمت چغتائی) (August 1915 – 24 October 1991)1 was an eminent Indian writer in Urdu, known for her indomitable spirit and a fierce feminist ideology. Considered the grand dame of Urdu fiction, Chugtai was one of the Muslim writers who stayed in India after the subcontinent was partitioned. 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 modern India. Her outspoken and controversial style of writing made her the passionate voice for the unheard, and she has become an inspiration for the younger generation of writers, readers and intellectuals.
She was born in Badayun, Uttar Pradesh and grew up largely in Jodhpur where her father was a civil servant. She was ninth of ten children (six brothers, four sisters), and since her older sisters got married while Ismat was very young, the better part of her childhood was spent in the company of her brothers, a factor which she admits contributed greatly to the frankness in her nature and writing. Her brother, Mirza Azim Beg Chughtai, already an established writer, when Ismat was still in her teens, was her first teacher and mentor. She had her early education in the Women's College of Aligarh Muslim University.
In 1936, still working on her bachelor's degree in Lucknow, she attended the first meeting of the Progressive Writers' Association . After her BA, Ismat secured a BEd (a Bachelor's in Education), thus becoming the first Indian Muslim woman to have earned both degrees. In this period she started writing in secret, due to violent opposition to her education from her Muslim relatives.
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