Ahmed Ali (1 July 1910 in Delhi – 14 January 1994 in
Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...
) ( ur, احمد علی ) was a
Pakistani novelist,
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
, critic,
translator
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
,
diplomat
A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...
and
scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...
. A pioneer of the modern Urdu short story, his works include the short story collections: ''
Angarey
Angarey or Angaaray (translated alternatively as "Embers" or "Burning Coals") 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 general ...
'' (Embers), 1932; ''Hamari Gali'' (Our Lane), 1940; ''Qaid Khana'' (The Prison-house), 1942; and ''Maut Se Pehle'' (Before Death), 1945. His other writings include ''
Twilight in Delhi
''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's changing social, political, and cultural climate following colonialism.
Plot summary
T ...
'' (1940), his first novel in the English language.
[Profile of Ahmed Ali (writer) on Encyclopædia Britannica]
Retrieved 31 August 2019
Biography
Born in Delhi,
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
, Ahmed Ali was educated at
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...
and
Lucknow University
The University of Lucknow (informally known as Lucknow University, and LU) is a public state university based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Founded in 1920, the University of Lucknow is one of the oldest government owned institutions of higher edu ...
; in the latter "having achieved the highest marks in English in the history of the university." From 1932 to 1946, he taught at the leading Indian universities including
Allahabad University
, mottoeng = "As Many Branches So Many Trees"
, established =
, type = Public
, chancellor = Ashish Chauhan
, vice_chancellor = Sangita Srivastava
, head_label ...
and his alma mater in
Lucknow
Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...
. He also joined the Bengal Senior Educational Service as professor and head of the English Department at
Presidency College, Calcutta
Presidency University, Kolkata (formerly known as Presidency College, Kolkata) is a second major public state aided research university located in College Street, Kolkata. Considered as one of best colleges when Presidency College was affili ...
(1944–47) and was the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, from 1942 to 1945. Following that, he was the
, as appointed by the British government of India. In 1948, when he tried to return home after the
(then India's ambassador to China) would not allow it because Ali had not indicated his preferences as a government employee; that is, whether to remain in India or transfer to Pakistan. As a result, he was forced to go to Pakistan.