Asghar Wajahat

Syed Asghar Wajahat, known as Asghar Wajahat (born 5 July 1946), is a Hindi scholar, fiction writer, novelist, playwright, an independent documentary filmmaker and a television scriptwriter, who is most known for his novel Saat Aasmaan and his play, Jis Lahore Nai Vekhya, O Jamya E Nai, about an old Punjabi Hindu woman who gets left behind in Lahore, after the Partition of India, and then refuses to leave.

He has published five collections of short stories, six collections of plays and street plays, and four novels.

Early life and education Syed Asghar Wajahat was born on 5 July 1946 in the city of Fatehpur, in Fatehpur district, Uttar Pradesh. He completed his MA (Hindi) in 1968, and his PhD in 1974, also from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). Later he did post-doctoral research at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi (1981–83).

Academic career

He joined Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, in 1971 as a lecturer of Hindi, and later became a professor and head of the department of Hindi. He was also the director of the A.J. Kidwai Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia.

Writing

By 1960, while still studying at the Aligarh Muslim University, he had already started writing. He has published twenty books including five novels, six full-length plays, five collections of short stories, a travelogue, a collection of street plays and a book on literary criticism. He has been placed among the top ten Hindi writers according to a survey conducted by Outlook in 2007.

His work has been translated into Indian and other languages. A collection of his short stories in English, Lies: Half told has been published. An Italian translation of his stories was published by Centro de Studio de documentation, Universitá degli Studio de Venezia, in 1987.

Wajahat writes for newspapers and magazines. He was guest editor of BBC Hindi for three months in 2007. He has been associated with Hindi literary magazines like Hans and Vartaman Sahitya as guest editor for their special issues on "Indian Muslims: Present and Future" and "Pravasi Sahity".

Wajahat has been involved in Hindi cinema as a scriptwriter since 1975. One of his plays was adapted by Rajkumar Santoshi in a film titled Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh in 2023. He has made documentary films, including a short film about the literary form, the Urdu ghazal.

Awards

He has been honoured by several literary organisations for his contribution to Hindi literature. Indu Sharma Katha Samman, a London-based organisation, gave him the Best novel of the year award in 2005 for his novel Kaisi Aagi Lagai. Wajahat was awarded the 31st Vyas Samman in 2021 for his play Mahabali. The award, presented by the K.K. Birla Foundation, recognises outstanding literary work in Hindi. Mahabali explores the relationship between Mughal emperor Akbar and poet Tulsidas, questioning who the true "Mahabali" is.

Plays

Jis Lahore Nai Vekhya, O Jamya E Nai

His most noted Partition play, Jis Lahore Nai Vekhya, O Jamya E Nai, was first performed under the direction of Habib Tanvir in 1989, who subsequently took the play to Karachi, Lahore, Sydney, New York and Dubai.