''Twilight in Delhi'' is Ahmed Ali's first novel, originally published in English by the Hogarth Press in Britain in 1940. The novel addresses India changing social, political, and cultural climate following

colonialism Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...

Plot summary

The novel is set around 1911 to 1919 in Delhi. Ahmed Ali has vividly drawn the picture of old Delhi and its Muslim inhabitants of that era. He depicts the themes of disintegration, degeneration, alienation, gender and social conflicts, nostalgia, the downfall of the

Mughal emperors The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty ( House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire i ...

, and the effects of colonialism and imperialism on Indian Muslims in Delhi. The novel is shot through with rich symbolic imagery. The palm tree, the henna plant, dogs, cats and pigeons refer not only to the behaviors of characters but also the whole Muslim society. The novel starts at dawn, with "twilight" referring to the rise of the sun as well as the rise of the protagonist Mir Nihal's living standards. By contrast, descriptions of twilight at evening in the closing sentences portray the overall downfall and destruction of not only the family of Mir Nihal but also the Mughal Empire altogether. The novel was not published until after the intervention of the prominent English writer

E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author. He is best known for his novels, particularly '' A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910) and '' A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous shor ...

References

External links

Free downloadable pdf version of the novelTwilight in Delhi Summary and Analysis
Novels set in Delhi 1940 debut novels Indian novels Novels about colonialism Books about Delhi 20th-century Indian novels {{1940s-hist-novel-stub