Ismat Chughtai (1915-1991) is considered by many to be the fourth pillar of modern Urdu fiction along with Saadat Hassan Manto, Rajendra Singh Bedi, and Krishan Chandar.
She is called the "Grand Dame of Urdu Fiction". Google doodle honoured her on her 107th birth anniversary.
For her fierce writing, she was also called Lady Changez Khan.
She was the first Indian Muslim woman to earn double degrees from Isabella Thoburn University and Aligarh Muslim University.
She started writing in her early teens and was inspired by her brother Mirza Azim Beg Chughtai (a popular urdu satiriest). The first story she published (1939) was ‘Fasadi’ (trouble- maker) which was believed to have been ghost-written by her brother.
In 1940, she joined the Progressive Writers Association which fuelled new thought for her writings and made her the writer she became.
Her most famous work is her short story, ‘Lihaaf’ about the homosexual relation between the begum and her servant. It was published in 1942, after which Ismat Chughtai was arrested for obscenity and went on to fight a (4 year court) case.
In 1941 Ismat Chughtai married Shahid Latif who empowered her even more. After marrying him she started working in cinema and writing screenplays. She has written screenplays of many famous movies (‘Garm Hava’ and ‘Sone ki Chidiya’) and for many famous actors (like Kishor Kumar and Lalita Pawar). She also acted in Shyam Benegal's 1978 film 'Junoon'.
Ismat Chughtai was a true feminist and a literary realist, who used her characters to symbolise the cruelties for society. She was way more progressive than feminists writers in the west during that period.
In 1976 Ismat Chughtai was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for her different style of writing and the fact that she always stuck to her liberal views.
She also won the Filmfare Best Story Award for ‘Garm Hawa’ (1973).
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