Ajeet Cour (born 1934) is an Indian writer who writes in Punjabi. She is a 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 ...

and the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is confe ...

, the fourth-highest civilian award by the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

Biography

Ajeet Cour was born in the family of Sardar Makhan Singh in 1934 in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest ...

. She had her early education there. After the partition, her family came to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders wi ...

, where she earned an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...

(Economics). She has written novels and short stories in the

Punjabi language Punjabi (; ; , ), sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language of the Punjab, Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It has approximately 113 million native speakers. Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first lan ...

on social-realist themes such as the experience of women in relationships and their position in society. She received the

in 1985, the civilian honour of

in 2006, and the Kuvempu Rashtriya Puraskar award in 2019. Her works include 19 short story anthologies, novellas and novels, as well as nine translations. She has also edited over 20 works. In her autobiography, ''Weaving Water'', translated from the original Punjabi into English and published in 2018, she discusses surviving domestic violence from her husband. In a review of one of her books of short stories, ''The Other Woman'', Ziya Us Salam writes in '' The Hindu'' about the story "Ali Baba’s Death", "Exposing the double standards of our society, the endless urge to be among the haves and pretend to have more than we have, she takes many digs at our system." She was described by Kuldip Singh Dhir in ''

The Tribune ''The Tribune'' or ''Tribune'' is the name of various newspapers: United States Daily California *''Oakland Tribune'' * ''The Tribune'' (San Luis Obispo) *'' San Gabriel Valley Tribune'' Indiana *'' Kokomo Tribune'' *''Peru Tribune'' * ''The Trib ...

'' as a writer who "portrayed angry rebellious women around us." In a review of ''Pebbles in a Tin Drum'', Suneet Chopra writes for '' Frontline'', "For a society opening up to the market principle at the cost of its humanity, a process that is equally the driving force of consumer-packaged globalisation as the neo-Hindu swadeshi, her chronicle is a stark warning that India should take note of." She served as the chairperson of the Academy of Art and Literature in New Delhi, and was part of the first delegation of Indian writers to visit Pakistan in 2003. She also served as the chairperson of the Foundation of SAARC writers and literature (FOSWAL).

Works

*''Gulbano'' (short story collection) *''Mehak di maut'' (short story collection) *''Butt Shikan'' (short story collection) *''Dhup wala shahr'' (novel) * ''Gauri'' (novel) * ''Post Mortem'' (novel) * ''Koora Kabara'' (autobiography) * ''Khanabadosh'' (autobiography) * ''Weaving Water'' (autobiography) (2018)

References

External links

All Punjabi Books Of Ajit Kaur

Why Do I Write? Ajeet Cour Examines her Vocation
(The Beacon, 2021) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cour, Ajit 20th-century Indian women writers 1934 births Living people * Punjabi-language writers Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education 20th-century Indian novelists Indian women novelists 20th-century Indian poets Indian women poets Indian memoirists Indian women memoirists

Biography

Works

See also

References

External links