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Amrita Pritam (; 31 August 1919 – 31 October 2005) was an
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...
novelist, essayist and poet, who wrote in
Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
and Hindi. A prominent figure in
Punjabi literature Punjabi literature, specifically literary works written in the Punjabi language, is characteristic of the historical Punjab region of India and Pakistan and the Punjabi diaspora. The Punjabi language is written in several scripts, of which the Sha ...
, she is the recipient of the 1956
Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
. Her body of work comprised over 100 books of poetry, fiction, biographies, essays, a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography that were all translated into several
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...
and foreign languages. Pritam is best remembered for her poignant poem, '' Ajj aakhaan Waris Shah nu'' (Today I invoke Waris Shah – "Ode to Waris Shah"), an elegy to the 18th-century Punjabi poet, an expression of her anguish over massacres during the
partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...
. As a novelist, her most noted work was '' Pinjar'' ("The Skeleton", 1950), in which she created her memorable character, ''Puro'', an epitome of violence against women, loss of humanity and ultimate surrender to
existential Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
fate; the novel was made into an award-winning film, '' Pinjar'' (2003). When India was partitioned into the independent states of India and Pakistan in 1947, she migrated from Lahore, to India, though she remained equally popular in Pakistan throughout her life, as compared to her contemporaries like Mohan Singh and
Shiv Kumar Batalvi Shiv Kumar Batalvi (23 July 1936 - 6 May 1973) was an Indian poet, writer and playwright of the Punjabi language. He was most known for his romantic poetry, noted for its heightened passion, pathos, separation and lover's agony, due to that he ...
. Pritam's magnum opus, a long poem, ''Sunehade'' won her the 1956
Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
, making her the first and the only woman to have been given the award for a work in Punjabi.Amrita Pritam
''Modern Indian Literature: an Anthology'', by K. M. George, Sahitya Akademi. 1992, .''945–947''.
She later received the
Bharatiya Jnanpith Bharatiya Jnanpith a literary and research organization, based in New Delhi, India, was founded on February 18, 1944Encyclopaedia of Indian literature vol. 1, p. 298 1987, Sahitya Akademi, by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of the Sahu Jain family and ...
, one of India's highest literary awards, in 1982 for ''Kagaz Te Canvas'' ("The Paper and the Canvas"). The Padma Shri came her way in 1969 and finally,
Padma Vibhushan The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service". All persons without ...
, India's second highest civilian award, in 2004, and in the same year she was honoured with India's highest literary award, given by the Sahitya Akademi (India's Academy of Letters), the
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship is a literary honour in India bestowed by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.Quote: "In his acceptance speech when India's National Academy of Letters (Sahitya Akademi) in 1997 conferred its h ...
given to ''the "immortals of literature"'' for lifetime achievement. she wrote her poems mostly for the partition


Biography


Background

Amrita Pritam was born as Amrit Kaur in 1919 in Gujranwala, Punjab, in
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
,Amrita Pritam – Obituary
'' The Guardian'', 4 November 2005.
the only child of Raj Bibi, who was a school teacher, and Kartar Singh Hitkari, who was a poet, a scholar of the
Braj Bhasha The Braj language, ''Braj Bhasha'', also known as Vraj Bhasha or Vrij Bhasha or Braj Bhāṣā or Braji or Brij Bhasha or Braj Boli, is a Western Hindi language. Along with Awadhi (a variety of Eastern Hindi), it was one of the two predominan ...
language, and the editor of a literary journal. Besides this, he was a ''pracharak'' – a preacher of the Sikh faith. Amrita's mother died when she was eleven. Soon after, she and her father moved to Lahore, where she lived till her migration to India in 1947. Confronting adult responsibilities and besieged by loneliness following her mother's death, she began to write at an early age. Her first anthology of poems, ''Amrit Lehran'' ("Immortal Waves") was published in 1936, at age sixteen, the year she married Pritam Singh, an editor to whom she was engaged in early childhood, and changed her name from Amrit Kaur to Amrita Pritam. Half a dozen collections of poems followed between 1936 and 1943. Though she began her journey as a romantic poet, soon she shifted gears, and became part of the Progressive Writers' Movement and its effect was seen in her collection, ''Lok Peed'' ("People's Anguish", 1944), which openly criticised the war-torn economy, after the
Bengal famine of 1943 The Bengal famine of 1943 was a famine in the Bengal province of British India (present-day Bangladesh, West Bengal and eastern India) during World War II. An estimated 0.8 to 3.8 million Bengalis perished, out of a population of 60.3 milli ...
. She was also involved in social work to a certain extent and participated in such activities wholeheartedly, after Independence when social activist
Guru Radha Kishan Guru Radha Kishan (1925-1996) was an Indian Independence activist and Communist politician. Early life Radha Kishan was born in 1925 in a family of farmers on Krishna Janmashtami in Bid village (currently in Harda district, Madhya Pradesh). ...
took the initiative to bring the first Janta Library in Delhi, which was inaugurated by Balraj Sahni and Aruna Asaf Ali and contributed to the occasion accordingly. This study centre cum library is still running at Clock Tower, Delhi. She also worked at a radio station in Lahore for a while, before the partition of India. M. S. Sathyu, the director of the partition movie '' Garam Hava'' (1973), paid a theatrical tribute to her through his performance 'Ek Thee Amrita'.


Partition of India

One million people, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims died from communal violence that followed the partition of India in 1947, and left Amrita Pritam a Punjabi refugee at age 28, when she left Lahore and moved to New Delhi. Subsequently, in 1947, while she was pregnant with her son, and travelling from
Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative A ...
to Delhi, she expressed anguish on a piece of paper like the poem, " Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu" (I ask Waris Shah Today); this poem was to later immortalize her and become the most poignant reminder of the horrors of Partition. The poem addressed to the Sufi poet Waris Shah, author of the tragic saga of Heer and Ranjah and with whom she shares her birthplace. Amrita Pritam worked until 1961 in the Punjabi service of
All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...
, Delhi. After her divorce in 1960, her work became more feminist. Many of her stories and poems drew on the unhappy experience of her marriage. A number of her works have been translated into English, French,
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
, Japanese, Mandarin, and other languages from
Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
and Urdu, including her autobiographical works ''Black Rose'' and ''Rasidi Ticket'' (Revenue Stamp). The first of Amrita Pritam's books to be filmed was ''Dharti Sagar te Sippiyan'', as ''Kadambari'' (1965), followed by ''Unah Di Kahani'', as ''Daaku'' ( Dacoit, 1976), directed by
Basu Bhattacharya Basu Bhattacharya (1934–19 June 1997) was an Indian film director of Hindi films. He is perhaps best known for his 1966 film '' Teesri Kasam'', starring Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman (based on the short story "Maare Gaye Gulfam" by Phanis ...
. Her novel '' Pinjar'' (The Skeleton, 1950) narrates the story of partition riots along with the crisis of women who suffered during the times. It was made into an award-winning
Hindi movie Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, because of its humanism: "Amritaji has portrayed the suffering of people of both the countries." ''Pinjar'' was shot in a border region of Rajasthan and Punjab. She edited ''Nagmani'', a monthly literary magazine in Punjabi for several years, which she ran together with Imroz, for 33 years; though after Partition she wrote prolifically in Hindi as well. Later in life, she turned to Osho and wrote introductions for several books of Osho, including ''Ek Onkar Satnam'', and also started writing on spiritual themes and dreams, producing works like ''Kaal Chetna'' ("Time Consciousness") and ''Agyat Ka Nimantran'' ("Call of the Unknown"). She had also published autobiographies, titled, ''Kala Gulab'' ("Black Rose", 1968), ''Rasidi Ticket'' ("The Revenue Stamp", 1976), and ''Aksharon kay Saayee'' ("Shadows of Words").Amrita Pritam
''Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the Present'', by Susie J. Tharu, Ke Lalita, published by Feminist Press, 1991. . ''Page 160-163''.


Awards and honors

Amrita was the first recipient of Punjab Rattan Award conferred upon her by Punjab Chief Minister Capt.
Amarinder Singh Captain Amarinder Singh (born 11 March 1942), is an Indian politician, military historian, former royal and Indian Army veteran who served as the 15th Chief Minister of Punjab. A former Member of the Legislative Assembly, Punjab and Member ...
. She was the first female recipient of the
Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
in 1956 for ''Sunehadey'' (poetic diminutive of the Punjabi word "ਸੁਨੇਹੇ" (Sunehe), ''Messages''), Amrita Pritam received the Bhartiya Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary award, in 1982 for ''Kagaj te Canvas (Paper and Canvas).'' She received the Padma Shri (1969) and
Padma Vibhushan The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service". All persons without ...
, India's second highest civilian award, and
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship is a literary honour in India bestowed by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.Quote: "In his acceptance speech when India's National Academy of Letters (Sahitya Akademi) in 1997 conferred its h ...
, India's highest literary award, also in 2004. She received
D.Litt. Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...
honorary degrees, from many universities including,
Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...
(1973), Jabalpur University (1973) and
Vishwa Bharati Visva-Bharati () is a public central university and an Institution of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it ''Visva-Bharati'', which means the communion of the w ...
(1987). She also received the international Vaptsarov Award from the Republic of
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Maced ...
(1979) and Degree of Officer dens,
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose i ...
(Officier) by the French Government (1987).Amrita Pritam, The Black Rose
by Vijay Kumar Sunwani, Language in India, Volume 5: 12 December 2005.
She was nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha 1986–92. Towards the end of her life, she was awarded by Pakistan's Punjabi Academy, to which she had remarked, ''Bade dino baad mere Maike ko meri Yaad aayi..'' (My motherland has remembered me after a long time); and also Punjabi poets of Pakistan, sent her a chaddar, from the tombs of Waris Shah, and fellow Sufi mystic poets Bulle Shah and
Sultan Bahu Sultan Bahu ( pa, , ਸੁਲਤਾਨ ਬਾਹੂ ; also spelled Bahoo; 17 January 1630 – 1 March 1691), was a 17th-century Punjabi Sufi mystic, poet, scholar and historian. He was active in the Punjab region (present-day Pakistan) duri ...
.


Personal life

In 1935, Amrita married Pritam Singh, son of a hosiery merchant of Lahore's Anarkali bazaar. They had two children together, a son and a daughter. In 1960, Amrita Pritam left her husband. She is also said to have had an unrequited affection for poet Sahir Ludhianvi. The story of this love is depicted in her autobiography, ''Rasidi Ticket'' (Revenue Stamp). When another woman, singer Sudha Malhotra came into Sahir's life, Amrita found solace in the companionship of the artist and writer Inderjeet Imroz. She spent the last forty years of her life with Imroz, who also designed most of her book covers and made her the subject of his several paintings. Their life together is also the subject of a book, ''Amrita Imroz: A Love Story''. She died in her sleep on 31 October 2005 at the age of 86 in New Delhi, after a long illness. She was survived by her partner Imroz, daughter Kandlla, son Navraj Kwatra, daughter-in-law Alka, and her grandchildren, Kartik, Noor, Aman and Shilpi. Navraj Kwatra was found murdered in his Borivali apartment in 2012. Three men were accused of the murder but were acquitted due to lack of evidence.


Legacy

In 2007, an audio album titled, 'Amrita recited by Gulzar' was released by noted lyricist Gulzar, with poems of Amrita Pritam recited by him. A film on her life is also in production. On 31 August 2019, Google honoured her by commemorating her 100th birth anniversary with a Doodle. The accompanying write up read as, "Today’s Doodle celebrates Amrita Pritam, one of history’s foremost female Punjabi writers, who 'dared to live the life she imagines.' Born in Gujranwala, British India, 100 years ago today, Pritam published her first collection of verse at the age of 16."


Bibliography

;Novels * '' Pinjar'' * ''Doctor Dev'' * ''Kore Kagaz, Unchas Din'' * ''Dharti, Sagar aur Seepian'' * ''Rang ka Patta'' * ''Dilli ki Galiyan'' * ''Terahwan Suraj'' * ''Yaatri'' * ''Jilavatan'' (1968) * ''Hardatt Ka Zindaginama '' ;Autobiographies * ''Black Rose'' (1968) * ''Rasidi Ticket'' (1976) * ''Shadows of Words'' (2004) Short stories * ''Kahaniyan jo Kahaniyan Nahi'' * ''Kahaniyon ke Angan mein'' * ''Stench of Kerosene'' ;Poetry anthologies * ''Amrit Lehran'' (Immortal Waves)(1936) * ''Jiunda Jiwan'' (The Exuberant Life) (1939) * ''Trel Dhote Phul'' (1942) * ''O Gitan Valia'' (1942) * ''Badlam De Laali'' (1943) * ''Sanjh de laali'' (1943) * ''Lok Peera'' (The People's Anguish) (1944) * ''Pathar Geetey'' (The Pebbles) (1946) * ''Punjab Di Aawaaz'' (1952) * ''Sunehade'' (Messages) (1955) –
Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
* ''Ashoka Cheti'' (1957) * ''Kasturi'' (1957) * ''Nagmani'' (1964) * ''Ik Si Anita'' (1964) * ''Chak Nambar Chatti'' (1964) * ''Uninja Din'' (49 Days) (1979) * ''Kagaz Te Kanvas'' (1981)-
Bhartiya Jnanpith Bharatiya Jnanpith a literary and research organization, based in New Delhi, India, was founded on February 18, 1944Encyclopaedia of Indian literature vol. 1, p. 298 1987, Sahitya Akademi, by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of the Sahu Jain family and ...
* ''Chuni Huyee Kavitayen'' * ''Ek Baat'' ;Literary journals * ''Nagmani'', poetry monthly


See also

*
Indian Writers Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...
*
Indian Poets Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...


References


Further reading


Amrita Pritam Di Kav-Kala
(Punjabi- Sikh Publishing House Ltd.; pages 258; Pub: October 1954) *Amrita Work in Shahmukh
NAVEEN RUT____Index ACADEMY OF PUNJAB IN NORTH AMERICA
* Uma Trilok, ''Amrita Imroz: A Love Story,'' Penguin India (2006) * Indra Gupta, ''India’s 50 Most Illustrious Women'' * ''Indian Fiction in English Translation'' �
''Chapt 4: Comments on Amrita Pritam's Magnum Opus: The Skeleton'' (Jagdev Singh)
by Shubha Tiwari. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2005. . ''Page 28-35'' * ''Studies in Punjabi Poetry. Chapt. 9- Amrita Pritam: The Poetry of Protest'', by Darshan Singh Maini. Vikas Pub., 1979. . ''Page 109''.
1st chapter of ''Revenue Stamp'' by Amrita Pritam











External links


Amrita Pritam at Gadya Kosh
(her prose work in Devanagari script)
Amrita Pritam and her Works at ''South Asian Women's Network'' (Sawnet)Amrita Pritam 1919-2005-a tribute by Raza RumiAmrita Pritam talking about Partition and violence against women
2009-10-25)
Amrita Pritam , Kavishala Sootradhar
;Video links * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pritam, Amrita 1919 births 2005 deaths Indian feminist writers Indian women novelists Indian women poets Indian autobiographers Indian women non-fiction writers Poets from Lahore Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Punjabi Recipients of the Jnanpith Award Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in literature & education Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship Indian Sikhs Indian feminists Punjabi-language poets Punjabi-language writers Punjabi people Hindi-language writers Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha Writers from Delhi Indian magazine editors Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Sikh feminists Sikh writers Women autobiographers People from Gujranwala 20th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian novelists 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian essayists Indian women essayists Women writers from Delhi Rajneesh movement Women magazine editors Women members of the Rajya Sabha Indian people Indian women