Rudauli
Rudauli is a town, tehsil and a municipal board in Faizabad district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Rudauli is 50 km west of the district headquarters Ayodhya.
Geography
Rudauli is located at . It has an average elevation of 105&nb ...
, in Uttar Pradesh. Her family were
zamindar
A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...
s. Her brother, Asrar-ul-Haq "
Majaz
Asrar-ul-Haq (19 October 1911 – 5 December 1955), better known as Majaz Lakhnawi, was an Indian Urdu poet. He is known for his romantic and revolutionary poetry. He composed '' ghazals'' and ''nazms'' in Urdu. He was the maternal uncle of p ...
" was also a notable Urdu poet, and another brother,
Ansar Harvani
Ansar Harvani is an Indian politician. Harwani opposed the partition of India. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh as a member of the Indian National Congress
The Indian N ...
, was a member of the Indian independence movement and an elected Member of Parliament. Her sister, Safia Akhtar was also a writer and critic, and her nephew is lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar.
Writing and career
She earned her B.A. in Economics in Lucknow. She went on to earn an M.A. in Economics from Aligarh Muslim University, becoming their first woman graduate, in 1947. She later earned a second Masters from the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
. Salim taught economics at several public universities in India, including her alma mater, Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh, and Jamia Millia Islamia, in Delhi.
She was a well-known author, publishing several notable novels, a memoir, and volumes of poetry in Urdu. Her memoir of her time in Aligarh, as a student, titled, ''Shorish-e-Dauran'' was published in 1995. She wrote a second memoir about her siblings, titled ''Ham Saath The'' (We Were Together), which is considered a significant contribution to women's' writing in Urdu. In addition, Salim wrote two popular novels, ''Parchhaiyon Ke Ujale'' (Lights of Shadows) and ''Hardam Rawan Hai Zindagi (Life is Always on the Move).'' Both novels were set in her hometown of Rudali in Uttar Pradesh. A critical essay about her brother's Majaz's work and life, titled 'Majaz, My Brother' is also considered a significant contribution to Urdu literary criticism.