Lihaaf

Last updated
"Lihaaf"
Short story by Ismat Chughtai
CountryIndia
Language Urdu
Genre(s) Short story
Publication
Published inAdab-i-Latif
Publication type Literary journal
Publication date1942

"Lihaaf" ("The Quilt") is an Urdu short story written by Ismat Chughtai which was published in the Urdu literary journal Adab-i-Latif in 1942. In the coming decades, it was widely anthologised and faced an obscenity trial. [1] It is one of Chughtai's well known works. [2]

Contents

The story deals deals with suggestive lesbianism, but also with the insulated and suffocating life of a neglected wife in a feudal society as well as sexual abuse.

Storyline

The story is told from the point of view of a small girl who is the niece of the protagonist, the beautiful Begum Jaan. Begum Jaan has had a very depressing life after marriage. Her husband, the Nawab, was much older than her and was thought to be extremely respectable for never having had any encounters with prostitutes. But it is soon revealed that it is because he is interested in boys. Begum Jaan starts to wither but is saved by Rabbu, her masseuse. Rabbu is a servant girl who is not so pretty but very skilled with her hands. She is constantly massaging Begum Jaan’s body in some way. When the narrator is left at Begum Jaan's place by her mother, she realises that despite her past admiration of love for Begum Jaan, there lie many secrets with her.

At night, shadows in the form of an elephant formed by the quilt of Begum Jaan leaves the narrator in fear. In the absence of Rabbu, Begum Jaan’s behaviour changes as she is irritated and sad. The stay at her aunt’s house leaves the narrator traumatised when Begum Jaan not only sexually abuses her in Rabbu’s absence but also when she turns on the light one night as the quilt is shaking and ends up seeing something she didn’t want to see. It is never revealed what that is as the story ends abruptly.

All this sheds light on the relationship between the two women which is hinted at throughout the story but never explicitly confirmed.

Reception

The publication of "Lihaaf" ("The Quilt") led to much controversy, uproar and an obscenity trial, where Ismat had to defend herself in the Lahore Court. She was asked to apologize and refused, winning the case after her lawyer said that the story makes no suggestion to a sexual act, and prosecution witnesses could not point out any obscene words: the story is merely suggestive and told from perspective of a small girl. [1] Years later, she mentioned in detail the court trial in her memoir, Kaghazi Hai Pairahan (A Life in Words: Memoir). [3]

The short story became a landmark for its early depiction of sex, at the time, a taboo in modern Indian literature, let alone Urdu literature. [4] [5]

Film adaptations

Fire, a 1996 Hindi film directed by Deepa Mehta and starring Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das was loosely based on the short story. [6] The short story was adapted to short film by the same name directed by Rohan Sonawane. [7] Lihaaf: The Quilt is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language period drama film based on the story; directed by Rahat Kazmi, starring Anushka Sen, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Mir Sarwar, Sonal Sehgal, Shoib Nikash Shah, Namita Lal and Virendra Saxena. [8] The film Dedh Ishqiya is loosely based on the story and references it in dialogue. [9]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

A tawaif was a highly successful entertainer who catered to the nobility of the Indian subcontinent, particularly during the Mughal era. The tawaifs excelled in and contributed to music, dance (mujra), theatre, and the Urdu literary tradition, and were considered an authority on etiquette. Tawaifs were largely a North Indian institution central to Mughal court culture from the 16th century onwards and became even more prominent with the weakening of Mughal rule in the mid-18th century. They contributed significantly to the continuation of traditional dance and music forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saadat Hasan Manto</span> Indian Urdu novelist, playwright and writer

Saadat Hasan Manto was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author born in Ludhiana, who was active in British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ismat Chughtai</span> Indian Urdu writer and filmmaker (1915–1991)

Ismat Chughtai was an Indian Urdu novelist, short story writer, liberal humanist and filmmaker. Beginning in the 1930s, she wrote extensively on themes including female sexuality and femininity, middle-class gentility, and class conflict, often from a Marxist perspective. With a style characterised by literary realism, Chughtai established herself as a significant voice in the Urdu literature of the twentieth century, and in 1976 was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah</span> Pakistani diplomat (1915–2000)

BegumShaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah was a Bengali Pakistani politician from Bengal, diplomat and author. She was the first Muslim woman to earn a PhD from the University of London. She was Pakistan's ambassador to Morocco from 1964 to 1967, and was also a delegate to the United Nations.

Shabkhoon was an Urdu literary magazine started in June 1966 in Allahabad, India. The magazine was founded and edited by poet and author Shamsur Rahman Faruqi who used to work on it along with his job at the Indian Postal Service. The journal covered the modernist (jadidiyat) voice in Urdu literature at a time when the literary scene was dominated by progressive literature and was hailed as "the harbinger of modernism in Urdu". The Magazine was calligraphed by a scribe (katib) Salimullah Naiyer. Forty years after being started, the journal was published for the last time in June 2006. Though it was popular, it ceased publication owing to editor Shamsur Rahman Faruqi's failing health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rashid Jahan</span>

Rashid Jahan was an Indian writer and medical doctor known for her Urdu literature and trenchant social commentaries. She wrote short stories and plays and contributed to Angarey (1932), a collection of unconventional short stories written in collaboration with Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali, and Mahmuduz Zafar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qurratulain Hyder</span> Indian Urdu writer (1928-2007)

Qurratulain Hyder was an Indian Urdu novelist and short story writer, an academic, and a journalist. One of the most outstanding and influential literary names in Urdu literature, she is best known for her magnum opus, Aag Ka Darya, a novel first published in Urdu in 1959, from Lahore, Pakistan, that stretches from the fourth century BC to post partition of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Krishan Chander</span> Indian writer

Krishan Chander was an Indian Urdu and Hindi writer of short stories and novels. Some of his works have also been translated into English. He was a prolific writer, penning over 20 novels, 30 collections of short stories and scores of radio plays in Urdu, and later, after partition in 1947, took to writing in Hindi as well. He also wrote screen-plays for Bollywood movies to supplement his meagre income as an author of satirical stories. Krishan Chander's novels have been translated into over 16 Indian languages and some foreign languages, including English.

<i>Garm Hava</i> 1973 Indian drama film

Garm Hava is a 1973 Indian drama film directed by M. S. Sathyu, with Balraj Sahni as the lead actor.

Ahmad Siddiq, better known by his pen name Majnun Gorakhpuri, was an Urdu short story (Afsana) writer, poet and literary critic.

<i>Ishqiya</i> 2010 film by Abhishek Chaubey

Ishqiya (transl. Passionate) is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language black comedy film starring Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi and Salman Shahid. It was directed by Abhishek Chaubey in his directorial debut, cinematography by Mohana Krishna, and was produced by Raman Maroo and Vishal Bhardwaj. The film was released on 29 January 2010.

<i>Dedh Ishqiya</i> 2014 film by Abhishek Chaubey

Dedh Ishqiya is a 2014 Indian black comedy film directed by Abhishek Chaubey and starring Arshad Warsi, Naseeruddin Shah, Madhuri Dixit, Huma Qureshi and Vijay Raaz. Produced by Raman Maroo of Shemaroo Entertainment and by Vishal Bharadwaj, it is a sequel of Ishqiya (2010).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rashid ul Khairi</span> Urdu novelist and social reformer

Allama Rashid-ul-Khairi, born as Mohammad Abdur Rashid and largely known as Musavire Gham , was a social reformer from British India. He is also one of the most celebrated literary names of Urdu literature. Khairi blended reformist and didactic teachings with literary works and is considered among the pioneers of Urdu short story. He was the father of urdu novelist Sadiq ul Khairi and grandfather of prominent jurist Haziqul Khairi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sukrita Paul Kumar</span> Indian poet, critic, and academician

Sukrita Paul Kumar is an Indian poet, critic, and academician. She has been the chief editor of Cultural Diversity, Linguistic Plurality and Literary Traditions of India - a textbook prescribed by the University of Delhi for course use in its Honours B.A. programme.

Rekhti, is a form of Urdu feminist poetry. A genre developed by male poets, it uses women's voices to talk about themselves. It was formed in 19th-century Lucknow, then part of the State of Awadh. The poet Saadat Yaar Khan Rangin is credited with its creation.

Begum Masroor Jahan was an Indian novelist and short-story writer in the Urdu language. For her contributions to literature, she was awarded the Uttar Pradesh Urdu Akademi Awards in 2010 and 2015, and the Hindustan Times Women's Award in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rekhta (website)</span> Literary web portal for Urdu Literature

Rekhta is an Urdu literary web portal started by Rekhta Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Urdu literature. The Rekhta Library Project, its books preservation initiative, has successfully digitized approximately 200,000 books over a span of ten years. These books primarily consist of Urdu, Hindi and Persian literature and encompass a wide range of genres, including biographies of poets, Urdu poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. The collection originates from public and research libraries in the Indian subcontinent. It serves content in multiple scripts such as Devanagari, Roman and, primarily, Nastaliq. It hosts books from centuries earlier and is recognized as the largest website in the world for the preservation of Urdu literature.

Angarey or Angaaray is a collection of nine short stories and a one act play in Urdu by Sajjad Zaheer, Rashid Jahan, Mahmud-uz-Zafar and Ahmed Ali first published in 1932 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the Progressive Writers' Movement in Indian literature. The release of the book was marked by protests and it was subsequently banned by the government of the United Provinces a few months after publication.

<i>Shama</i> (magazine)

Shama was a monthly Indian Urdu-language film and literary magazine published from 1939 to 1999. Considered the world's biggest chain of Urdu-language magazines at the time, the Shama group published several other famous magazines and digests including Sushama (Hindi), Khilauna, Dost aur Dosti, Bano, Sushmita, Mujrim, Doshi, A'inah, Shabistan and Rasia Kashidakari. The magazine was a household name and has been described as a "movement of Urdu which gave birth to a new tradition".

References

  1. 1 2 Priyamvada Gopal (2012). Literary Radicalism in India: Gender, Nation and the Transition to Independence. Routledge. pp. 65–88. ISBN   978-1-134-33253-3.
  2. Rekhta Foundation (2023-12-01). "Ismat Chughtai". rekhta. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
  3. Arunima Mazumdar (Jan 30, 2014). "Ismat Chughtai, a 'woman' above all". The Times of India. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
  4. Sisir Kumar Das (1 January 1995). History of Indian Literature: 1911-1956, struggle for freedom : triumph and tragedy. Sahitya Akademi. pp. 348–. ISBN   978-81-7201-798-9.
  5. Nilanjana S. Roy (24 February 2012). "Homosexuality in India: A Literary History". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
  6. Gopinath, Gayatri (2005). Impossible Desires. Durham and London: Duke University press.
  7. Mjst, Rabia (12 September 2014). "Ismat chughtai's lihaaf". Dailymotion. Retrieved 2016-02-10.
  8. "'Lihaaf' wins international acclaim with an award in US". The Times of India. 31 August 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  9. "Why Dedh Ishqiya is aadhaa lesbian love". The Economic Times. 2014-01-16. ISSN   0013-0389 . Retrieved 2023-07-16.