Bano Qudsia
Bano Qudsia
Bano Qudsia
Bano Qudsia (born 1928) is a writer, intellectual, playwright and spiritualist from Pakistan who
is regarded among the best Urdu novelists and short story writers of modern times. She is best
known for her novel Raja Gidh. She writes for television and stage in both Urdu and Punjabi
languages. She is the wife of famous novelist Ashfaq Ahmed.
Bano Qudsia is recognized as a trendsetter in the realm of television plays. Some of them gained
immense popularity across the border because of their vitality, warmth and courage. Strife is one
word she would like to banish from the dictionary. She attributes the hostilities raging across the
world to the Intolerance and selfishness of the human race.
Life
Bano moved with her family to Lahore during the Partition of India. Her father, a landlord with a
Bachelor's degree in agriculture, died when Bano was very young. She attended school in
Dharamsala in eastern India before moving to Lahore. Her mother was an educationist, and this
inspired the young Bano to develop a keen interest in academics, which turned her into a
conscientious student. Her marriage to Ashfaque Ahmad consummated the artist in her, though
she says she never discusses any of her works with her husband nor has the writer-spouse ever
tried to influence her writings. "We work very independently. Writing a book is like bearing a
child and you do not share that with anyone. God is your only confidant. It is also like falling in
love. You keep it personal and private."
Education
Bano says she has had a passion for writing for as long as she can remember. As a student, she
wrote for college magazines and other journals. Her memories of her days at Kinnaird College in
Lahore, from where she graduated, are still quite vivid. She talks of the literary inspiration that
was a hallmark at Kinnaird's campuses during those days. Though her stay at Kinnaird went a
long way in sharpening her scholarly skills, Bano felt an incessant need to polish her expressions
in Urdu, the only language with which she could reach the minds of the people. So in 1951, she
completed her M.A. degree in Urdu from the Government College Lahore with distinction.
Works and Honors
Author of innumerable short stories, novelettes, television and radio plays, besides some
memorable stage plays, Bano's writings have a strong association with life's vicissitudes.
The strength of conviction in her prose is unmistakable. Her short stories like Baz Gasht, Amar
Bail, Doosra Darwaza and Twajju ki Talib, the latter, a stimulating collection of short stories,
have mustered a vast readership. Of her novels, none has received as much recognition as Raja
Gidh which centers around the forbidden truth. The plot builds around the symbol of a vulture, a
bird of prey, that feeds on dead flesh and carcasses. The moral sought implies that indulgence in
the forbidden leads to physical and mental degeneration.
Some of her best plays include Tamasil, Hawa key Naam, Seharay and Khaleej. The plight of
women and other socio-economic issues have often been the subject of her television serials that
have inspired families wherever they have been aired. The Graduate Award for Best Playwright
was conferred on Bano in 1986, followed by the same award for three consecutive years from
1988 to 1990. In 1986, she was also given the Taj Award for Best Playwright. Bano can expound
endlessly on the myriad aspects of life without risking to bore her audience. Her articulation and
diction add to the charm of her discourse.
Rather critical of the deviation of today's woman from her natural role of mother and home
keeper, Bano decries what she terms 'a woman's unsolicited and disoriented escape from
responsibility.' Interestingly, though, she blames men for plotting a conspiracy to push women
out of the house, her only domain. "And women fall easy prey to this trap. Men of the post-
industrialization era gave women a taste of luxurious lifestyles and then instigated them to step
out of the house and earn that lifestyle. The woman developed a taste for what she thought was
freedom for her, but which actually bonded her as a labourer and a breadwinner."
She cites the example of the woman who does the dishes in her home. "This woman is more
liberated than your modern women, since she does not suffer from any conflicts of the 'self'.
Poverty is all that hurts her and she is not caught in a rat race to prove something to herself or
carve out an identity for herself. Her existence is identity enough." Bano also feels that what she
calls women's 'strength of softness' has been lost in their struggle to prove themselves equal to
men. What women take as their weaknesses are in fact their strengths, she believes.
Bano Qudsia planned to co-author a book with her (now late) husband. Her obligations towards
her family are much more important for her than her work. "My husband (now late), my three
sons and daughter-in-law have all been very kind to me and have always showered their
affections on me. So, how can I ever put anything else before them?"
Having lived a fulfilling life, which Bano ascribes to the benevolence of those around her, she
kept herself busy caring for her husband, the writer Ashfaque Ahmad. She is now working on her
present literary undertaking - a novel which she plans to title Dastan Serai, after her home. "I
formally started work on this novel in 1992. Prior to this, I had worked on it during the 1950s.
The novel is set against the backdrop of Partition and revolves around the theme of intention and
motivation. It highlights the importance of intention as the key determinant behind every act."
Book
Atish Zeir Pa, Adhi Baat, Aik Din, Amr Bail, Assey Passey, Bazgasht, Chahar Chaman, Dast
Basta, Dosra Darwaza, Dusra Qadam, Foot Path Ki Ghaas, Haasil Ghaat, Read online, Hawwa
Key Naam, Kuch Aur Nahi, Marde Abresham, Maum Ki Gallian, Naqabal e Zikr, Piya Naam Ka
Diya, Purwa, Purwa and Aik Din, Raja Gidh, Saman-e-Wajood, Shehr-e-bemisaal, Sudhraan,
Suraj Mukhi, Tamaseel, Tawjha Ki Talib and Dastan Sarei.
List of Dramas
Chota Shehar Baray, Phir Achanak Youn Hua, Lagan Apni Apni, Aadhee Baat, Foot Paath Ki
Ghaas, Aasay Paasay, Tamaseel, Hawa kay Naam, Dusra Qadam, Sidhran, Suraj Mukhi, Piya
Nam ka Diya
Death
Bano Qudsia died on 4 February 2017 at the Ittefaq Hospital in Lahore at the age of 88. Her son
Aseer Ahmed informed that she died around the time for Maghrib prayers (after sunset). She was
buried at Lahore on 5 February and prayer services were held at Model Town, Lahore.
Awards and Achievements
She won Life Time Achievement Awards, Kamal-e-Fun Award, Best Playwright Award, Taj
Award, Sitara-i-Imtiaz and Hilal-i-Imtiaz. On February 4, 2017 – heaven possessed her soul and
her services towards literature would be eternally adored and her name with her intellectual
legacy inscribed among the innumerable stars in the firmament of Urdu Literature.
Bano Qudsia has authored numerous short stories and novels, as well as plays for the stage, radio
and television. Her writings focus on social issues and her tele-serials are mostly based on the
plight of women. She has an uncanny knack for reaching into the deep recesses of the minds of
real-life characters and spreading the find all over for the reader to make sense out of it. This
helps the readers or the viewers to easily empathize with the characters.
Unlike other women writers, who almost invariably view the female vantage point and write
from that perspective, Bano Qudsia has time and again displayed her ability to also think and
write from a man's point of view. Though her most famous novel is Raja Gidh, which is
tangentially different from the other Urdu novels, Hasil Ghaat is yet another unique offering by
the writer of Baz Gasht, Amar Bail, Doosra Darwaza and Twajju ki Talib. Her writing style is
offbeat but attractive, and delves into the psychological rather than physical aspect of human life,
attitudes rather than happenings.
Raja Gidh
Raja Gidh (1981) is the first full-length novel written by Bano Qudsia. The literal meaning of the title
Raja Gidh are Vulture King. The title, however, has also been translated as The King Buzzard by
Prof. Masood Ashraf Raja (2007). The novel apparently relates the story of the unfulfilled love
of two characters Seemi Shah and Qayyum who remain under the influence of a deep
melancholy and a sense of nostalgia due to their failure in love while the deeper meaning of the
novel suggest the theme of Halaal and Haraam, where the bird vulture symbolically stands for
the practice of Haraam or the forbidden. There are many elements in the novel, both objective
and subjective, which make it a romantic tale. Apart from its romantic appeal, the novel also
raises many psychological, moral and philosophical questions concerning the relationship of men
and women in the Pakistani society.
Raja Gidh is generally hailed as one of the best novels ever written in Urdu language (Khokhar
2000). Though the novel is a master piece and reflects Qudsia’s creativity, yet certain critics
censure Qudsia for being deeply influenced by her husband Ashfaq Ahmed. The presence of a
male narrator in Raja Gidh made some critics to even say that the novel was in fact written by
Ahmed rather than Qudsia. Khokhar in this regard believes that whenever Qudsia endeavors to
resolve various issues related to Sufism under the influence of her husband’s Sufi tendencies, she
complicates the issues rather than resolving them. He also shows his concern about Qudsia’s
tendency for the frequent use of English words in her writing which gives a foreign touch to her
plays and novels.
Conclusion
Elements and characteristics like preference of emotions over intellect, love for nature
and the unattainable beauty, imaginative expression, melancholy, individualism,
unconventional treatment of plot, and delineation of the supernatural, are spread
throughout Raja Gidh and can be observed quite vividly. All these qualities significantly
resemble the characteristics of the writings of the English Romantic Age and establish
Raja Gidh as predominantly a romantic novel.
Reference
Ijaz, Z. (2017, December 11). Bano Qudsia - Biography, Family, Education, Career & Dramas
Info. Retrieved from https://www.pakpedia.pk/bano-qudsia
Khokhar, A. (2000). Dunya Ki Naamvar Khavateen. Lahore: Fiction House.
Qudsia, B. (1981). Raja Gidh. Lahore: Fiction House.
Compton-Ricktt, A. (1963). Ahistory of English literature. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons
Ltd.
Miles, R. (1999). The eye of power: ideal presence and Gothic romance. Gothic Studies.
Kermode, F. (2002). Romantic image. New York: Routledge Classics.
Drabble, M. (2001) The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 5th Ed.Oxford: Oxford UP.