Krishan Chander

He also wrote screen-plays for Bollywood movies to supplement his meagre income as an author of satirical stories. Novels (including the classic: Ek Gadhe Ki Sarguzasht, 'Autobiography of a Donkey') have been translated into over 16 Indian languages and some foreign languages, including English. His short story "Annadata" (The Giver of Grain – an obsequious appellation used by Indian peasants for their feudal land-owners), was made into the film Dharti Ke Lal (1946) by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas – which led to his being offered work regularly as a screenwriter by Bollywood, including such popular hits as Mamta (1966) and Sharafat (1970). He wrote his film scripts in Urdu.

• Name — Krishan Chander Chopra • Born — 23 November 1914 • Birthplace — Bharatpur, Rajputana, British India (now in Rajasthan, India) • Died — 8 March 1977 • Occupation — Writer • Spouses — Vidyawati Chopra and Salma Siddiqui • Place of death — Bombay, Maharashtra, India • Education — Forman Christian College, Lahore

Krishan Chander was born in Bharatpur, Rajasthan where his father worked as a doctor. The family originally belonged to Wazirabad District Gujranwala, of undivided Punjab, India. Chander spent his childhood in Poonch, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, where his father worked as the physician of Maharaja Poonch. His novel Shakast (Defeat) is related to Kashmir's partition. Mitti Ke Sanam, one of his most popular novels, is about the childhood memories of a young boy who lived with his parents in Kashmir. His another memorable novel is "Gaddar", which is about the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. In this novel, he brilliantly picturised the sufferings of the people during that time through a selfish young man's feelings, who himself was a gaddar (betrayer). His short stories are the stories of Kashmiri villages, as well as those of displaced expatriates and rootless urban man. He used Pahari (dialect of people living in Poonch) words while writing in Urdu. In the 1930s, he studied at Forman Christian College, Lahore and edited the English section of the college house magazine, and was at that time interested in English writings. As the then editor of the Urdu section of the magazine, Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi was instrumental to his career in having got published, in the year 1932, Chander's first Urdu short story, "Sadhu".

His literary masterpieces on the Bengal famine and the savagery and barbarism that took place at the time of the partition of India in 1947 are some of the finest specimens of modern Urdu literature, but at other times, too, he continued relentlessly to critique the abuse of power, poverty and the suffering of the wretched of the earth; but above all he never stopped protesting casteism, fanaticism, communal violence and terror. He was a humanist and a cosmopolitan.

• Dharti Ke Lal (1946) story • Andolan (1951) screenplay and story • Tamasha (1952) dialogue • Dev Anand in Goa (1955) screenplay and dialogue • Do Phool (1958) dialogue • Delhi Junction (1960) dialogue • Mamta (1966) dialogues • Sharafat (1970) screenplay and dialogue • Do Chor (1972) dialogue • Manchali (1973) dialogue • Hamrahi (1974) story and dialogue writer • Ram Bharose (1977) dialogue

Krishan Chander Chopra had married twice. His first wife was Vidyawati Chopra, a lady from a decent family belonging to his own Khatri community, and the match was arranged by their families in the usual Indian way. They had three children together, two daughters and one son. Chander later took a second wife, and he was her second husband. This was a divorced Muslim woman, Salma Siddiqui, daughter of Rasheed Ahmed Siddiqi, an Urdu academic. Siddiqui was the mother of a son born of her earlier marriage, and the boy was raised in Chander's household. No children were born of the relationship between Chander and Siddiqui. Krishan Chander died working at his desk in Mumbai on 8 March 1977. He had just started to write a satirical essay entitled Adab baray-e-Batakh (Literature for a duck), and wrote just one line Noorani ko bachpan hi se paltoo janwaron ka shauq tha. Kabootar, bandar, rang barangi chiriyaan… (since childhood Noorani was fond of pet animals such as pigeons, monkeys, multi-coloured birds…). Before he could complete the sentence, he succumbed to a massive heart attack. A Fountain Park in the town of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir has been renamed Krishan Chander Park, Poonch in his memory. His statue has also been erected in the middle of that garden.

Krishan Chander is recorded as screenwriter, writer and playwright.