Qurratulain Hyder & the River of Fire: The Meaning, Scope and Significance of her Legacy
Born with an impeccable literary lineage – her father was Sajjad Hyder Yildirim and her mother Nazre Sajjad Hyder, both early and vigorous proponents of Urdu fiction – Qurratulain Hyder wrote her first story at the age of 11. Her first collection of short stories, Sitaron se Aage, published in 1945, established two singular qualities about this rising star on the Urdu firmament: one, her steadfast refusal to write only on ‘womanly’ subjects; and two, her ability to consistently produce polished, lyrical prose at a time when poetry held sway. Over the years, she produced a formidable array of travelogues, translations, novels, plays, novelettes and short story collections.
This volume attempts to re-visit her legacy and to place her work, critically and objectively, in the trajectory of post-Independence writing. It attempts, also, to offer ‘the River of Fire’ as a metaphor in which the writer must sink or swim whenever he/she chooses to cross from one bank to the other, that is from the moment he/she crafts a piece of writing to the time it is read and understood by his reader. An eclectic group of writers – from across disciplines, languages and nationalities – come together to ‘locate’ her in the continuum of post-independence studies.
RakhshandaJalil writes on issues of faith, culture and literature. She has published over 15 books, some of which include: two edited collections of short stories, Urdu Stories (Srishti, 2002) and a selection by Pakistani women called Neither Night Nor Day (Harper Collins, 2007); a collection of essays on the little-known monuments of Delhi, called Invisible City (Niyogi, 2008); two co-authored books with Mushirul Hasan, Partners in Freedom: Jamia Millia Islamia (Niyogi, 2006) and Journey to a Holy Land: A Pilgrim’s Diary (OUP, 2009). She was co-editor of Third Frame, a journal devoted to literature, culture and society brought out by the Cambridge University Press.
She has published eight works of translations: Premchand’s short stories entitled The Temple and the Mosque (Harper Collins, 1992); a collection of satirical writing in Hindi by Asghar Wajahat entitled Lies: Half Told (Srishti, 2002); 32 satirical cameos by Saadat Hasan manto entitled Black Borders (Rupa & Co., 2003); Through the Closed Doorway, nazms by Urdu poet Shahryar (Rupa & Co., 2004); short stories by Intizar Husain entitled Circle and Other Stories (Rupa & Co., 2004); a collection of Premchand’s short stories for children called A Winter’s Tale and Other Stories (Puffin, 2007); Naked Voices and Other Stories – a collection of stories and sketches by Saadat Hasan Manto (Roli, 2008); and Panchlight and Other Stories by Hindi writer Phanishwarnath Renu (Orient Blackswan, 2010).
She runs an organization called Hindustani Awaz, devoted to the popularization of Hindi-Urdu literature and culture.
RIGHTS FOR PAKISTAN SOLD TO OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, KARACHI.