- Bhisham Sahni
Infobox Writer
name = Bhisham Sahni
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birthdate = birth date|1915|08|08
birthplace =Rawalpindi
deathdate = Death date and age|2003|07|11|1915|08|08
deathplace =Delhi , IND
occupation =Author ,Playwright , Activist
nationality =
period = 1955-2003
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website =Bhisham Sahni (
August 8 1915 -July 11 ,2003 ) was aHindi writer, playwright, and actor, most famous for his novel and television screenplay "Tamas" ("Darkness"), a powerful and passionate account of thePartition of India . He was awarded thePadma Bhushan for literature in 1998, andSahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2002.He was the brother of the noted Hindi film actor,
Balraj Sahni .Biography
Bhisham Sahni was born on Aug 08, 1915 in
Rawalpindi . Later he earned a master's degree in English at Government College inLahore , and also attendedKhalsa College, Amritsar .He joined the struggle for Indian independence, and was jailed for his participation in the
Quit India Movement of 1942. Upon Partition, he and his PunjabiHindu family were forced to move toAmritsar .In the late 1940s, he worked with his brother as a stage performer in
Mumbai with the Indian People's Theatre Association. In 1950, he became a lecturer in English atDelhi College .From 1957 to 1963, he lived in
Moscow and worked as a translator from Russian to Hindi, during the period he translated twenty-five books from Russian into Hindi, including Tolstoy's Resurrection. In addition to those languages, Sahni was fluent in English,Urdu ,Sanskrit , and Punjabi.He was general secretary of the Progressive Writers Association, and was the founder and chairman of 'SAHMAT', an organization promoting cross-cultural understanding, founded in memory of the murdered theatre artist and activist
Safdar Hashmi .Late in life, he appeared in several films, including Saeed Mirza's "
Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! " (1984), "Tamas" (1986), Kumar Shahani's "Kasba" (1991),Bernardo Bertolucci 's "Little Buddha " (1993) andAparna Sen 's "Mr. and Mrs. Iyer " (2002).Literary works
Based on the 1947
Partition of India riots he witnessed atRawalpindi [ [https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no21939.htm Tamas] ] , Bisham Sahni wrote his epic work "Tamas"(Darkness, 1974), a novel portraying the terror-stricken Hindu exodus from Muslim majority areas, though the overall theme remained the human-story behind the entire carnage. It has been translated to English, and several Indian languages including Gujarati, Kashmiri, and Manipuri.Tamas won the 1975
Sahitya Akademi Award for literature , and was later made into a television film in 1987 byGovind Nihalani . Two of his masterpiece stories 'Chief ki davat' and 'Amritsar aa gaya hai' are also based on the Partition.Sahni's prolific career as a writer also included five other Hindi novels, over hundred short stories spread over nine collections of short stories, (including Bhagya Rekha (1953), Pahla patha (1956), Bhatakti rakha (1966), and Nischar (1983)); a collection of children's short stories 'Gulal ka khel', six plays including Hanusa (1977), Kabira khara bazar mein (1981), Madhavi (1982) and Muavze (1993), his autobiography "Aaj ke Ateet" (Pasts of the Present), and the biography of his brother
Balraj Sahni , "Balraj My Brother," (English). [ [http://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/bhishamsahni.html Bhishma Sahni at U.S. Library of congress] ]During his life time, Bisham Sahni won several wards including Shiromani Writers Award,1979, Uttar Pradesh Government Award for Tamas, 1975, Madhya Pradesh Kala Sahitya Parishad Award, for his play 'Hanusa', 1975 the Lotus Award from the Afro-Asian Writers' Association, 1981 and the Soviet Land Nehru Award, 1983, and finally the
Padma Bhushan for literature in 1998, and India's highest literary award theSahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2002 [ [http://www.sahitya-akademi.org/sahitya-akademi/awa2.htm Sahitya Akademi Fellowships] ] .Quote
"If people knew each other, they would find it hard to hate."
References
*cite news
first=Rajendra
last=Sharma
url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2015/stories/20030801003612900.htm
title= A life of commitment: Bhisham Sahni, 1915 - 2003
work=Frontline magazine
date=2003-07-19
accessdate=2006-08-22
*cite news
first=Ashwini
last=Bhatnagar
url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030727/spectrum/main1.htm
title= Commoners' chronicler
work=The Tribune (Chandigarh)
date=2003-07-27
accessdate=2006-08-31External links
*http://theatredirector.blog.com/Madhavi%20solo%20-Review%20Hindustan%20Times/
*imdb|0756380
* [http://foundationsaarcwriters.com/indiawriter47.htm 'The Boss Came to Dinner' at Foundation of SAARC writers]
* [http://www.rediff.com/movies/2003/jul/12bhishm.htm Govind Nihalani speaks of Bhisham Sahni and Tamas]
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