One of the biggest drawbacks of Urdu literature has been its extensive suppression of female narratives, their lives, their ambitions, their dreams, and their struggles. If I ask an average Urdu enthusiast to name ten female Urdu writers or poets, they wouldn’t be able to without looking it up. This shows how patriarchy has been undermining the works of women from different genres of Urdu literature throughout the ages.
Within this system of apex patriarchy there came a woman who wrote so fearlessly that even banning her works and books couldn’t suppress her voice. Unfortunately, the world of Urdu today has forgotten her. This is the story of Rashid Jahan.
Born in 1905 in Aligarh, she was the daughter of Sheikh Abdullah, a pioneer of women’s education and also the founder of the Women’s College in the Aligarh Muslim University. She studied from the same and later became a gynaecologist from the Lady Hardinge Medical College in Delhi.
A communist at heart, she became a member of both the Progressive Writer’s Movement and The Communist Party of India and married a fellow comrade, Mahmud Zafar in ’34.
With A Pen of Revolution
What Rashid wrote was not something out-worldly or strange, but the stark reality of women in the Muslim society around India. Her experiences within the Urdu community coupled with the atrocities she saw around different cities in India made her realise how brutal the society, especially the Muslim society, had become against women.
She was well versed in Islamic history and so could visibly see how the teachings of the religion were being misused under the garb of protecting women, but in the real sense were exploiting women like never before. Her stories were a campaign against this hypocrisy of the society, and especially the male members of it. Her stories also vociferously spoke against the maulvis of the religion who misinterpreted the verses from the Quran to support their oppression towards women.
Angarey in the True Sense
During Rashid’s posting in Lucknow she joined a group of writers called Angarey (Flaming Coals) which was aimed at writing about socio-political issues. It was here where she found a path where she could channel her phenomenal writing skills coupled with the experiences and encounters she had, while working as a gynaecologist, with women from different strata of the society.
In 1932, Angarey released a set of ten short stories which sent tremors down the spines of the orthodox Islamic society. Her’s was one of the ten stories which vividly spoke about sexual matters or sexuality of women in a direct conversational way. For a society where women weren’t allowed to show their face in public, this came as a wrecking ball.
Branded as immoral and immodest, Rashid’s books were banned, a huge number of copies burnt in pyres. But Rashid did not budge. She stood her ground audaciously. In the year 1936, this group of Angarey led to the formation of the Progressive Writer’s Movement in Lucknow, which would go on to include some of the most legendary names in the history of Urdu literature, including Jan Nisar Akhtar, Kaifi Azmi, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmad Faraz, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Amrita Pritam and much more.
Her Legacy – A Gift to Women
Rashid thought never became a common name among Urdu lovers, but left a legacy that inspired millions of women to enter the field of not only Urdu but literature in general. Her never-say-never attitude, courage, and her indomitable spirit became a bar for women in those times to write about the ills of their own societies with valiance and strength.
Her works include Dilli ki Sair, Gareebon ka Bhagwan, Saas Aur Bahu, Asif Jahan ki Bahu, etc. Dilli ki Sair talks about a conversation between two burqa clad women at a railway station. One of her most controversial stories was Parde ke Peeche, which documents a conversation between two women from Sayyad families discussing openly about sex and relationships.
Legendary writers and poets like Ismat Chughtai, Amrita Pritam, and Qurratulain Haider have gone on record to say that Rashid was one of their greatest inspirations.
Ismat Chughtai met Rashid during a conference of the All India Progressive Writer’s Association, and it was her influence that lef to the compelling narratives of stories like Lihaaf. Amrita Pritam’s controversial yet powerful portrayal of women in the societies of Punjab was also inspired by the courage of Rashid.
Rashid Jahan’s works might be buried under the sands of time and patriarchy, but her indomitable spirit and courage still spark embers in the hearts of hundreds of women who yearn to write boldly in the world today.
An excerpt from Rashid Jahan’s ‘Dilli ki Sair’ :
“Yahan se rail mein baithkar Dilli pahunchi aur wahaan unke milne waale koi nigode station master mil gaye. Mujhe asbaab ke paas chhorh ye rafuchakkar huye aur main asbaab pe charhi burqe mein lipti baithi rahi. Ek to kambakht burqa, dusre marduve. Mard to vaise hi kharab hote hai, aur agar kisi aurat ko is tarah baitha dekh le to aur chakkar par chakkar lagaate hai. Paan khaane tak naubat na aayi. Koi kambakht khaase, koi aavaaze kase, aur mera darr ke maare dam nikla jaaye, aur bhookh wo gazab ki lagi huyi ki Khuda ki panaah! Dilli ka station kya hai mua qila bhi itna barha na hoga. Jahaan tak nigaah jaati thi station hi station nazar aata tha aur rail ki patriyaan, engine aur maal gaadiyaan. Sabse zyaada mujhe un kaale mardon se darr laga jo engine mein rahte hai.”
Cover image credits – The Lucknow Observer
Dariya Ke Us Paar 