Quratulain Haider Biography: Birthday, Early Life, Career, Works, Awards, Death

Quratulain Haider Biography: Qurratulain Hyder (January 20, 1927 – August 21, 2007) was an Indian Urdu novelist, short story writer, scholar, and journalist. She is best known for her magnum opus, Aag Ka Darya (River of Fire), a novel that spans from the fourth century BCE to post-partition India and was first published in Urdu in 1959 from Lahore, Pakistan.

Quratulain Haider Biography

Name:	Qurratulain Hyder
Birth Date:	January 20, 1927
Place Of Birth:	Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh
Death:	August 21, 2007

Early Years

She was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, on January 20, 1927, although her family was originally from Nehtaur, Uttar Pradesh. Her father, Syed Sajjad Haider Yaldram, was a well-known travel and humour writer in Urdu in India. She was given the name of the renowned Iranian poet Qurrat-ul-Ain Táhirih (Tahira). Literally translated, Qurratul Ain means “solace of the eyes” and is a term of endearment. She began writing at a time when the novel had not yet established itself as a significant literary form in the poetry-dominated world of Urdu literature. She imbued it with a new sensibility and introduced previously unexplored strands of thought and imagination. She is commonly considered the “Grand Dame” of Urdu literature.

After completing her education at Indraprastha College, Delhi and Isabella Thoburn College of Lucknow University, she moved to Pakistan in 1947, then spent some time in England before returning to India in 1960. She spent nearly twenty years in Bombay before moving to Noida near New Delhi, where she remained until her passing. She was never wed.

Quratulain Haider Profession

Her literary works include roughly 12 novels and novellas and four collections of short stories. She began writing at the age of 11 and is a prolific author. Hyder has also translated a substantial quantity of classics. Her original compositions have been translated into multiple languages.

Her magnum opus, Aag Ka Dariya (River of Fire), is a landmark novel that examines the immense sweep of time and history. It spans from the fourth century BCE to the post-independence era in India and Pakistan, halting at numerous historical turning points. Aamer Hussein wrote in The Times Literary Supplement that River of Fire is the equivalent of One Hundred Years of Solitude to Urdu fiction. In a review for a 2019 reprint by New Directions Publishing, Aditi Sriram wrote in the New York Times that the novel “is as relevant today as it was when she first wrote it in 1959.” In The Nation, Kamil Ahsan wrote: “River of Fire tells a comprehensive and syncretistic version of 2,500 years of history in modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, beginning with the Nanda Dynasty on the verge of defeat at the hands of the founder of the Mauryan Empire (323 to 185 BCE) and ending with post-Partition despair.”

Her other published works include: Mere Bhi Sanam Khane, 1949; Safina-e-Gham-e-Dil ‘ ‘, 1952; ‘ ‘Patjhar ki Awaz (The Voice of Autumn), 1965; Raushni ki Raftar (The Speed of Light), 1982; the short novel Chaye ke Bagh (Tea Plantations), 1965 (one of four novellas including Dilruba , Sita Haran, Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Na Kijo, exploring gender injustice); and the family chronicle Kar e Jahan Daraz Hai (The Work of the World Goes On).

“Gardish e Rang e Chaman” (a voluminous documentary novel on the tragedy that befell respectable women after 1857), “Aakhir e Shab kay Hamsafar” (a novel on the Naxalite Movement and Bengal unrest), and “Chandni Begum” (a novel on the general social condition of Muslims forty years after Partition) are examples of novels written by the author.

Her first short story, Bi-Chuhiya (Little Miss Mouse), was published in the children’s periodical Phool. She wrote her first novel, Mayray Bhee Sanam khanay, at the age of nineteen.

Quratulain Haider Awards

Her novel Aakhir-e-Shab ke Hamsafar (Travellers Unto the Night) was awarded the Jnanpith Prize in 1989. She was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Prize in 1967, the Soviet Land Nehru Prize in 1969, and the Ghalib Prize in 1985. Her collection of short stories Patjhar ki Awaz (The Sound of Falling Leaves) won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1967. In 2000, the Urdu Academy in Delhi awarded her the Bahadur Shah Zafar Award. For her contributions to Urdu Literature and education, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Shri in 1984 and the Padma Bhushan in 2005, the third highest civilian honour bestowed by the Government of India.

Quratulain Haider Death

On August 21, 2007, Qurratulain Hyder passed away in a NOIDA hospital near New Delhi, India, from a protracted lung ailment. She was interred in New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia cemetery.

The President and Prime Minister of India, as well as the Chief Minister of her native state Uttar Pradesh, have expressed sorrow over her passing.