Salma Siddiqui (18 June 1931 – 13 February 2017) was an Indian novelist in the Urdu language and a prominent member of the Progressive Writers' Movement.

Biography

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Salma Siddiqui was born in 1931 in Varanasi. Her father Rashid Ahmad Siddiqui was an educationist and professor.[1] She studied Urdu at Aligarh Muslim University, earning a master's degree; she later taught at Women's College, Aligarh Muslim University.[2]

Her first marriage ended early,[2] and in 1957, she married Krishan Chander in Nainital. They settled in Bombay in 1962.[1]

Family

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Kausar Munir, a lyricist and poet known for the songs in the Hindi film Ishaqzaade is Siddiqui's granddaughter.[3] Siddiqui died on 13 February 2017, aged 85.[2][4]

Literary career

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In Siddiqui's father's household in Aligarh was a family retainer named Sikander. He was an idiosyncratic personality, and his stories formed the basis of Siddiqui's novel Sikandarnama.[1] A television serialisation of the novel, Karname Sikandar ke, was broadcast by Doordarshan in 1991.[1]

Other works Siddiqui is known for are Gilhari ki Behen, Bharosa and Mangal Sutra. Several of her completed manuscripts were destroyed in a monsoon shower, following which Siddiqui didn't publish again.[1]

Bibliography

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  • Sikandarnama. Delhi: Punjabi Pustak Bhandar.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Kartikey Sehgal (24 May 2009). "Playing host to EM Forster and Majrooh Sultanpuri". DNA India. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Rakhshanda Jalil (14 February 2017). "Salma Siddiqui, the Last of the Bombay Progressive Writers, Passes Away". The Wire. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  3. ^ Akshay Manwani (12 April 2016). "Kausar Munir: 'I don't like to be bracketed, in life or in anything else'". The Wire. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  4. ^ "Urdu writer Salma Siddiqui breathes her last". United News of India. 13 February 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2017.