Already a celebrated Urdu writer in Pakistan, Intizar Hussain was propelled to international attention in his eighties after the translation of one of his novels into English. Written in the 1970s, Basti (the Urdu word for “human settlement”) explored the bloodshed and dislocation of the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 — an event in which millions of people were driven from their homes and a million died. It was also a period through which Hussain had lived.
The story was told through the eyes of a young man, Zakir, who grows up in a paradise of brightly coloured birds and greenery before being thrust in to a world of violence and burning cities: “Sometimes I have absolutely no idea where I am, in what place.” It was shortlisted for the Man Booker international prize in 2013.
Hussain said he took inspiration from Chekhov and Kafka for his writing but also drew heavily on oral traditions, especially Indian, Persian and Arabic folklore. Critics sometimes accused him of being nostalgic. Never one to mince his words, Hussain barked back: “I do not care if I’m not contributing to national development in the popular sense. I’m a story writer and not a reformer. Those writers who think they are reforming society, I wish them good luck in their efforts.”
Intizar Hussain was born in a sleepy village near Aligarh in northern India in “1922, or 1923 or perhaps 1925,” he said. His father, a Shia Muslim, was a learned and religious man who educated his son in a madrassa.
As a boy he used to spend his spare time wandering through the woods and mango groves picking fruit but also devouring the small collection of books his father kept. He read avidly Arabian Nights. “It was a book readily found in all homes, though girls were not encouraged to read it as people thought it would impact their morality. ”
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He studied Urdu literature at a university in Meerut, where his family moved. They lived in a house on the edge of the Muslim neighbourhood. “We were surrounded by Hindu mohallas [neighbourhoods], with small doors opening right into Hindu areas. We all lived comfortably. When we went on the roof to fly kites, we used to run uninhibitedly over Hindu roofs, with not a shred of worry.”
During the process of partition, he left for Lahore, which became part of Pakistan, taking with him his mattress, some clothes and books. “The riots were fierce and intense, and everybody had to leave their homes and look for shelter, wondering where to take refuge,” he recalled. “We weren’t ready emotionally to leave our basti (town), but the riots were so widespread that even those amongst us who did not want to go, had to move.”
In Lahore, where he was joined by his family, he worked as a journalist and columnist in Urdu and English for Express and Dawn. He claimed never to have missed a deadline. He also wrote five novels and hundreds of short stories. He married Aliya Begum, who died in 2004; the couple had no children.
Hussain never used the internet or computers but wrote his weekly column in long hand. He didn’t carry a mobile phone. “The only modern gadget I use for my writing is the landline telephone.” He adored the mixed Mughal and colonial architecture of Lahore where he frequented the teahouses and debated the future of the new country’s literature. He was often to be seen at literary festivals. The Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid, who wrote The Reluctant Fundamentalist, recalled that he was “always observing, observing, and readying his mind to put the shambles around him into words”.
Intizar Hussain, writer, was born on December 7, 1923. He died on February 2, 2016, aged 92