Bhisham Sahni | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1915-08-08)8 August 1915 |
| Died | 11 July 2003(2003-07-11) (aged 87) |
| Occupation |
|
| Nationality | Indian |
| Period | 1955–2003 |
| Relatives | Balraj Sahni (brother) Parikshit Sahni (nephew) Anand–Sahni family |
| Political party | Communist Party of India |
Bhisham Sahni (8 August 1915 – 11 July 2003) was an Indian writer, playwright inHindi and an actor, most famous for his novelTamas ("Darkness"/'Ignorance") and the television screenplayadaptation of the same name, a powerful and passionate account of thepartition of India. He was awarded thePadma Bhushan for literature in 1998,[1] andSahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2002. He was the younger brother of the noted Hindi film actor,Balraj Sahni.
Bhisham Sahni was born on 8 August 1915 inRawalpindi, inundivided Punjab. He earned a master's degree in English literature fromGovernment College in Lahore, and a Ph.D. fromPunjab University, Chandigarh in 1958.
He joined thestruggle for Indian independence. At the time ofpartition, he was an active member of theIndian National Congress and organized relief work for the refugees when riots broke out in Rawalpindi in March 1947. In 1948 Bhisham Sahni started working with theIndian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), an organization with which his brother,Balraj Sahni was already closely associated. He worked both as an actor and a director. At a later stage, he directed a dramaBhoot Gari.[2] This was adapted for the stage by film director, screenwriter, novelist, and journalistKhwaja Ahmed Abbas. As an actor, he appeared in several films, includingSaeed Mirza'sMohan Joshi Hazir Ho! (1984),Tamas (1988),Kumar Shahani'sKasba (1991),Bernardo Bertolucci'sLittle Buddha (1993), andAparna Sen'sMr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002).
As a result of his association with IPTA, he left the Congress and joined theCommunist Party of India. Thereafter, he leftBombay forPunjab where he worked briefly as a lecturer, first in a college atAmbala and then atKhalsa College, Amritsar. At this time he was involved in organizing the Punjab College Teachers’ Union and also continued with IPTA work. In 1952 he moved to Delhi and was appointed Lecturer in English at Delhi College (nowZakir Husain College),University of Delhi.
From 1956 to 1963 he worked as a translator at theForeign Languages Publishing House inMoscow, and translated some important works into Hindi, includingLev Tolstoy’s short stories and his novelResurrection. On his return to India, Bhisham Sahni resumed teaching at Delhi College, and also edited the reputed literary magazineNai Kahaniyan from 1965 to 1967. He retired from service in 1980. Sahni was fluent inPunjabi,English,Urdu,Sanskrit, andHindi.
Bhisham Sahni was associated with several literary and cultural organizations. He was General Secretary of theAll India Progressive Writers Association (1975–85) and Acting General Secretary of theAfro-Asian Writer’ Association and was also associated with the editing of their journalLotus. He was the founder and chairman of SAHMAT, an organization promoting cross-cultural understanding, founded in memory of the murdered theatre artist and activistSafdar Hashmi.
Bhisham Sahni's epic workTamas (Darkness/Ignorance 1974) is a novel based on the riots of 1947partition of India which he witnessed atRawalpindi.[3]Tamas portrays the horrors of senseless communal politics of violence and hatred; and the tragic aftermath – death, destruction, forced migration and the partition of a country. It has been translated toEnglish,French,German,Japanese and many Indian languages includingTamil,Gujarati,Malayalam,Kashmiri,Marathi andManipuri.Tamas won the 1975Sahitya Akademi Award for literature and was later made into atelevision film in 1987 byGovind Nihalani. Two of his masterpiece stories, "Pali" and "Amritsar Aa Gaya Hai", are also based on the partition.
Sahni's prolific career as a writer also included six other Hindi novels:Jharokhe (1967),Kadian (1971),Basanti (1979),Mayyadas Ki Madi (1987),Kunto (1993) andNeeloo,Nilima,Nilofar (2000)., over hundred short stories spread over ten collections of short stories, includingBhagya Rekha (1953),Pahla Patha (1956),Bhatakti Raakh (1966),Patrian (1973),Wang Chu (1978),Shobha Yatra (1981),Nishachar (1983),Pali (1989), andDaayan (1996); five plays includingHanoosh,Kabira Khada Bazar Mein,Madhavi,Muavze,Alamgeer, a collection of children's short storiesGulal Ka Keel. But his novel namedMayyadas Ki Mari (Mayyadas's Castle) was one of his finest literary creations, the backdrop of this narrative is historical and depicts the age when theKhalsa Raj was vanquished in Punjab and the British were taking over. This novel is a saga of changingsocial order and decadent set of values.[4] He wrote the screenplay for Kumar Shahani's film,Kasba (1991), which is based onAnton Chekhov's story "In the Gully". Although Sahni had been writing stories for a long time, he received recognition as a story writer only after the publication of his story "Chief Ki Daawat" (The Chief’s Party) in theKahani magazine in 1956.[5]
Bhisham Sahni wrote his autobiographyAaj Ke Ateet (Today's Pasts,Penguin 2016) and the biography of his brotherBalraj Sahni,Balraj My Brother (English).[6]
Bhisham Sahni was one of the most prolific writers ofHindi literature.Krishan Baldev Vaid said, "His voice, both as a writer and a man, was serene and pure and resonant with humane reassurances. His immense popularity was not a result of any pandering to vulgar tastes but a reward for his literary merits—his sharp wit, his gentle irony, his all-pervasive humor, his penetrating insight into character, his mastery as a raconteur, and his profound grasp of the yearnings of the human heart.[10]
Noted writer,Nirmal Verma, stated, "If we see a long gallery of unmatched characters in his stories and novels, where each person is present with his class and family; pleasures and pains of his town and district; the whole world of perversions and contradictions; it is because the reservoir of his (Bhisham Sahni's) experience was vast and abundant. At the request of his father – would anyone believe? – he dabbled in business, in which he was a miserable failure. With his high-spirits and passion for life of the common people, he traveled through villages and towns ofPunjab with theIPTA theatre group; then began to teach to earn a living; and then lived in theUSSR for seven years as aHindi translator. This sprawling reservoir of experience collected in the hustle-bustle of various occupations ultimately filtered down into his stories and novels, without which, as we realize today, the world of Hindi prose would have been deprived and desolate. The simplicity of his work comes from hard layers of experience, which distinguish and separate it from other works of simplified realism. ... Bhisham Sahni is able to express the terrifying tragedy ofPartition with an extraordinary compassion in his stories. "Amritsar Aa Gaya Hai" (We have reachedAmritsar) is one such exceptional work where Bhisham gets away from the external reality and points to the bloody fissures etched on people's psyche. This is possible only for a writer who, in the darkness of historic events has seen the sudden 'accidents' that happen inside human hearts from up close. ... After reading his last collection of storiesDaayan (Witch), I was amazed that even after so many years there seemed no repetition or staleness in his writing. Each of his stories seemed to bring something sudden from newer directions, which was as new for him as it was unexpected for us. That Bhisham never paused, never halted in such a long creative journey is a big achievement; but what is bigger perhaps is that his life nurtured his work and his work nurtured his life, both nurtured each other continuously.[11]
Kamleshwar, "Bhisham Sahni's name is etched so deeply into the twentieth century of Hindi literature that it cannot be erased. WithIndependence and till the 11th July 2003, this name has been synonymous with Hindi story andplaywriting. Bhisham Sahni had gained such an unmatched popularity that all kinds of readers awaited his new creations and each and every word of his was read. There was no need to ask a general reader if he had read this or that writing by Bhisham. It was possible to begin a sudden discussion on his stories or novels. Such a rare readerly privilege was either available toPremchand or, afterHarishankar Parsai, to Bhisham Sahni. This too is rare that the fame he received from Hindi should, during his lifetime, become the fame for Hindi itself.[12]
During his lifetime, Bhisham Sahni won several awards including Shiromani Writers Award,1979, Uttar Pradesh Government Award forTamas, 1975, Colour of Nation Award at International Theatre Festival, Russia for the playMadhavi (performed byRashi Bunny), 2004, Madhya Pradesh Kala Sahitya Parishad Award, for his playHanush, 1975 the Lotus Award from the Afro-Asian Writers' Association, 1981 and theSoviet Land Nehru Award, 1983, and finally thePadma Bhushan for literature in 1998, Shalaka Samman, New Delhi 1999–2000,Maithlisharan Gupta Samman, Madhya Pradesh, 2000–2001,Sangeet Natak Academy Award 2001,Sir Syed National Award for best Hindi Fiction Writer 2002, and India's highest literary award theSahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2002.[13]
On 31 May 2017,India Post released a commemorative postage stamp to honour Sahni.[14]
