Bhisham Sahni: Today's Pasts (A Memoir)

Rawalpindi in the first few decades of the twentieth century is a prosperous, busting town, witnessing the first stirring of the freedom movement. It is in this place and time that a delicate child grows into adolescence, at the heart of an unusual family. Adulthood and the horrific business of Partition drive the young man to Bombay, then Ambala and finally Delhi. As he gathers life experience, he hones his politics and talent as writer.we observe the making of one of the icons of modern Indian literature: Bhisham Sahni.

In addition to being the story of Sahni’s life and art, Today’s Pasts also chronicles the great cultural high points of modern India: the IPTA, the Progressive Writers’ Association, the Nayi Kahani movement. The stars of Hindi and Urdu literature enter and exit the text as friends and familiars.

In Bhisham Sahni’s hands a life story is transformed into a history of our present one life bears witness to the tale of nation.

Bhisham Sahni (1915-2003) was an iconic writer who transformed the landscape of Hindi literature. His oeuvre encompassed novels, plays, short stories and essays, Tamas, his best-known novel, won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975 and was subsequently adapted into a National Award-winning film by Govind Nihalani. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1998. And the Shalaka Samman, the Delhi government’s highest literary prize, in 1999.

Snehal Shingavi is assistant professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin, where he specializes in teaching South Asian literatures in English, Hindi and Urdu. He is the author of The Mahatma Misunderstood,and has most recently translated the iconic short-story collection Angaaray to wide spread acclaim.