Akhtar Husain

Akhtar Husain (1912-1992, ) also known as Dr Akhtar Husain Raipuri was a Pakistani scholar, journalist and lexicographer.

Early life Akhtar Husain was born in the district of Raipur in the British Indian Empire, now within the state of Chhattisgarh, Republic of India. He was born to Saiyyed Akbar Husain, an engineer stationed in Raipur. His mother Mumtazunnisa was a publisher in women's journals. She died at age twenty-six when Akhtar was just three. Later in life, he also acquired knowledge of Spanish.

Education and career In order to pursue further education, Husain moved to Calcutta, which at the time was also a major center for publication in Bengali, Hindi and Urdu. But after leaving there in 1932, Husain went on to translate popular works of Bengali poet Qazi Nazrul Islam into Urdu. According to Husain, Babu Moolchand and Maulvi Abdul Huq were his two major life influences. Akhtar Husain witnessed the historic 1936 meeting of Sahitya Parishad in which Mahatma Gandhi declared that Hindi rather than Hindustani (which includes Urdu and technically Caribbean Hindustani as well) be the national language of India upon independence.

By 1942, Husain became Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, Amritsar. Mutually, he also translated a three volume autobiography of Gorky. He also continued to write short stories (Zindagi ka Mela). By 1945, Husain worked as an assistant in the education department at Simla, where he also got the opportunity to work for Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

In Pakistan, Husain continued working in the educational fields, where he worked as secretary. Dissatisfied with the political direction Pakistani society had headed for, he took up a job at UNESCO where he retired from in 1972.