AMN /
Renowned Urdu fiction writer Joginder Paul passed away today. He was 91. Paul’s fictional works are widely read across the Urdu world.
In all his writings he exposed social ills and all his characters are full of life and their struggles. He has won all the important awards that an Urdu writer can achieve.
Joginder Paul was born in Sialkot in present day Pakistan and migrated to India at the time of Partition. His mother tongue is Punjabi, but his primary and middle school education was in Urdu medium.
Pal has written the story of the common man’s tragedy in his novel for which he is not liable, but has to face those harsh circumstances because of others. In this novel, the writer has told the story of those people who initiates for a good life on the same island where they were sentenced for ‘kala paani’.
He did his M.A. in English literature, which he taught until he retired as the principal of a post-graduate college in Maharashtra. Mr. Paul chose to put his creative expression in Urdu language, as he believes that Urdu is ‘not a language but a culture’ and for him writing is to be in the culture. He was part of the Progressive Urdu Writers’ Movement.
Among his works, Dharti ka lal (1961), Main kyun socum (1962), Mati ka idrak (1970), Khudu Baba ka maqbara (1994), Parinde (2000), Bastiyan (2000) (all short stories), Amad va raft (1975), Bayanat (1975) (both novelettes), Be muhavara (1978), Be irada (1981) (both short fiction), Nadid (1983), Khavab-i-rau (1991) (both novels) are most sought after.