British Rule in the Subcontinent, Literary Movements, and the Authors of the Partition Period: Qudrat Ullah Shahab

Abstract

Due to the rapid development of events since the 19th century alongside the British rule of the Indian subcontinent, genres such as novels and short stories were left out of Urdu literature. At that time, poetry had a great influence on mobilizing the masses, and a poetry-oriented trend had occurred in Urdu literature. However, at the beginning of the 20th century when Qudrat Ullah Shahab lived, an important Urdu literature writer and subject of the article, stories and novels are seen to have gained popularity alongside the poetry genre. Although prose had come about from Western literary figures in this period, these writers had dealt with stories specific to their own regions. As the people found their lives in these works, prose also consolidated its place in literature. Qudrat Ullah Shahab lived between 1920-1986, the period thatwitnessed the division of Pakistan and India, and succeeded in reflecting the painful life stories of this period in his stories as best he could. This study aims to introduce the life, literary personality, and works of Qudrat Ullah Shahab as one of the important writers of the Indian subcontinent who lived through the Partition period and was especially famous for his autobiography titled Shahabnama. Before talking about the author in this context, mentioning the situation of the subcontinent and the literary movements regarding the types of prose in his period would be appropriate.

Keywords

• british rule
• urdu literature
• qudrat ullah shahab