Syed Sajjad Zaheer () (5 November 1905 – 13 September 1973) was a Pakistani-Indian

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

political writer. He was a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

ideologue and a radical

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

who worked in both India and Pakistan. In the pre-independence era, he was a member of the

Communist Party of India The Communist Party of India (CPI) is a political party in India. The CPI considers the Foundation of the Communist Party of India, December 26, 1925 Cawnpore (Kanpur) conference as its foundation date. Between 1946 and 1951, the CPI led m ...

and the Progressive Writers' Movement. Upon

independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

and partition, he moved to the newly created Pakistan and became a founding member of the

Communist Party of Pakistan The Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP; Urdu: ) is a communist party in Pakistan founded in 1948 by Sajjad Zaheer. History The Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) was founded in Calcutta, India, soon after the establishment of Pakistan on 6 March ...

Early life and education

Zaheer was born in Lucknow in 1905 and was the fourth son of Syed Wazir Hasan, a judge at the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad. He got his BA degree from the University of Lucknow in 1924. He then left for

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

for further studies. In his final year at Oxford, he contracted

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

and was sent to a sanatorium in Switzerland. On returning to England, he was influenced by the communist leader Shapurji Saklatvala and joined the Oxford Majlis. He attended the second Congress of the League against Imperialism held in Frankfurt, where he met influential leaders like Viren Chattopadhyay, Saumyendranath Tagore, N. M. Jaisoorya and Raja Mahendra Pratap. He also started the newspaper ''Bharat'' in 1930 in England. He graduated from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

with a degree in BA in 1931. After finishing his studies at Oxford he travelled through Germany, Italy, Denmark and Austria on his journey back to India in 1932. In December 1932, Zaheer along with a group of friends published his first book . The book was met with outrage from both the religious and civil authorities in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

and was subsequently banned by the government. Following the uproar due to the release of , he was sent to London by his father in March 1933 to study law at Lincoln's Inn.

Political career

In 1935, he and novelist Mulk Raj Anand went to Paris to attend the International Congress for Defense of Culture organised by

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...

. Influenced by the conference he established the Indian Progressive Writers' Association in London. The first conference of the association was held on 9 and 10 April 1936. After returning to India, he organised the first conference of the Progressive Writers' Association in Lucknow on 9 April 1936, and started working as its general secretary. He along with Sohan Singh Josh started the first Marxist journal in Urdu, ''Chingari'', in Saharanpur. He became Uttar Pradesh state secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) as well as a member of the working committee of the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

in 1936. He was nominated in charge of the Delhi branch of the CPI in 1939 and was jailed for two years during the Second World War for opposing Indian participation in it. After his release in 1942, he became the editor of the CPI newspaper ''Qaumi Jung'' (People's War) and ''Naya Zamana'' (New Age) in Bombay. He also helped to organize the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) and the All India Kisan Sabha. After partition, Sajjad Zaheer along with Sibte Hasan and Mian Iftekhar-ud-Din started the

. They were appointed Secretary General of the party. In 1951, he was arrested in the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case along with Faiz Ahmed Faiz. He remained in jail for four years and upon release was given Indian citizenship by

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

. While in India he continued to work in cultural activities organized by the

. He revived the All India Progressive Writers' Association, became secretary of the Indian chapter of the Afro-Asian Writers' Association, and also worked as editor of ''Awami Daur'' (People's Era) and the daily ''Hayat'' He died in 1973 while attending a literary conference in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan.

Literary career

Zaheer started his literary career with a collection of short stories, (embers) in 1932. It had stories by Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali, Rashid Jahan and Mahmud-uz-Zafar. It was banned in 1933 by the

British Government of India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

"for hurting the religious susceptibilities of a section of the community." This gave rise to the All-India Progressive Writers' Movement & Association of which both Sajjad Zaheer and Ahmed Ali were co-founders. In 1935 he wrote a novel called ''London ki Ek Raat'' based on his experience of London. In 1944 a collection of letters to his wife from the prisons of Lucknow and Allahabad was published as ''Nuqush-e-Zindan''. He also wrote ''Roshnai'', a history-cum-memoir of the early days of the progressive movement (1956), ''Zikr-e-Hafiz'', a critical look at the works of the legendary Persian poet Hafiz (1956), and a collection of poems in ''

vers libre Free verse is an open form of poetry which does not use a prescribed or regular meter or rhyme and tends to follow the rhythm of natural or irregular speech. Free verse encompasses a large range of poetic form, and the distinction between free v ...

'' called ''Pighla Neelam ''(1964). In addition, Zaheer also served as the editor of several papers and magazines throughout his career including ''Bharat'', ''Chingari'', ''Qaumi Jung'', ''Naya Zamana'', ''Awami Daur'' and ''Hayat''. He was also an avid translator, producing Urdu versions of Tagore's Gora, Voltaire's Candide and Shakespeare's Othello.

Personal life

Sajjad and his wife Razia Sajjad Zaheer had four daughters, including Naseem Bhatia, who holds a PhD in history (ancient history) from a Russian university. He was a Muslim and is buried in the Jamia Nagar cemetery of

Jamia Millia Islamia Jamia Millia Islamia is a Public university, public and research university located in Delhi, India. Originally established at Aligarh, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India) during the British R ...

in New Delhi.

Published writings

The published works of Zaheer include. * (Nizami Press, Lucknow, 1932) * ''Beemaar'' (Jamia Press, Delhi) * ''London Ki Ek Raat'' لندن کی ایک رات – (Halqaye-e-adab, Lucknow, 1942) * ''Urdu, Hindi, Hindustani'' (Kutab Publishers, Bombay, 1947) * ''Letters: Naquoosh-e-Zindaan'' (Maktaba Shahrah, Delhi, 1951) * ''Zikr-e-Hafiz'' زکرِخافظ (Anjuman Tarraqui-e Urdu, Aligarh, 1956) * ''Roshnai'' روشنائی Roshnai (Maktaba Urdu, Lahore, 1956) * ''Pighla Nilam''پِگھلا نیلم (Nai Roshani Prakashan, Delhi, 1964) * ''Meri Suno'' (Star Publishers, Delhi, 1967) * ''Mazzamein-e-Sajjad Zaheer'' (published posthumously by the UP Urdu Academy, Lucknow, 1979) * A translation of Shakespeare's ''

Othello ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...

'' * A translation of ''

Candide ( , ) is a French satire written by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment, first published in 1759. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled ''Candide: or, All for the Best'' (1759); ''Candide: or, The ...

'' * A translation of '' Gora'' (novel written by

Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

) * A translation of '' The Prophet'' (written by

Khalil Gibran Gibran Khalil Gibran (January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist; he was also considered a philosopher, although he himself rejected the title. ...

)

References

Cited sources

* *

External links

Madhu Singh's article about Sajjad Zaheer's novel ''London ki ek raat''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaheer, Sajjad 1899 births 1973 deaths Pakistani dramatists and playwrights Urdu-language poets Indian Marxist writers Muhajir people Pakistani communists Alumni of New College, Oxford Alumni of the University of London University of Lucknow alumni Indian communist writers Communist Party of India politicians from Uttar Pradesh Communist Party of Pakistan politicians People extradited to India Writers from Lucknow Novelists from Uttar Pradesh Poets from Uttar Pradesh 20th-century Indian novelists 20th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian short story writers 20th-century Indian essayists Progressive Writers' Movement Pakistani emigrants to India