Eminent Urdu fiction writer and Jnanpith Award winner Qurratulain Haider died on Tuesday after a prolonged illness. She was 80.
NEW DELHI: Eminent Urdu fiction writer and Jnanpith Award winner Qurratulain Haider died on Tuesday after a prolonged illness. She was 80.
Known for her imaginative and realistic prose, Haider had touched upon the lives of common people through her works like 'Aag ka Darya', a historic epic, 'Aakhre shab ke Hamsafar' and 'Chandni Begum'.
She has penned nearly a dozen novels and novellas and many short stories. One of her best-known works, 'Aag ki Darya' (The River of Fire), is a massive historical tale that spans the 4th century BC to the modern period.
In a condolence message, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was "deeply grieved" at Hyder's demise.
"I am deeply grieved to learn about the sad demise of Qurratulain Hyder. She was a great teacher and scholar famous in India and abroad," the prime minister said.
"She was one of the most celebrated and prolific writers of Urdu literature. 'Aag Ka Dariya', her magnum opus, is a landmark novel that explores the vast sweep of time and history.
"In her unfortunate passing away the country especially Urdu literature has lost a towering literary figure. She will be truly missed in literary circles in the country," Manmohan Singh said.
Born in 1927 in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haider drew early inspiration from her father S.H. Yaldram, a well-known writer, as well as her mother, Nazr Zahra, a novelist.
Haider, who settled down in Delhi, never married.
An iconoclast, Haider broke the through the poetry-dominated Urdu literary world to give Urdu prose its due recognition through her works that earned her accolades.
Often called an author of "poetry in prose" due to her eloquence and versatility, Haider's death brings the curtain down on an era in post-colonial Urdu literature.
She left India during the 1947 partition, but returned in 1960. Her experience during the division of the country, the trauma and agony of people she had witnessed during that period often filtered into her writings.
She was also associated with journalism and worked for The Illustrated Weekly of India and for Imprint. She served as a guest lecturer in several varsities in India and abroad.
Her body was interred at the campus of the Jamia Milia Islamia here where she was professor emeritus.
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