1. Attia Hosain was a British-Indian novelist, author, writer, broadcaster, journalist and actor.
17 Facts About Attia Hosain
1. 2.
Attia Hosain was a woman of letters and a diasporic writer.
3.
Attia Hosain wrote in English although her mother tongue was Urdu.
4.
Attia Hosain wrote the semi-autobiographical novel Sunlight on a Broken Column and a collection of short stories titled Phoenix Fled.
5.
Attia Hosain's career began in England in semi-exile making a contribution to post-colonial literature.
6.
Attia Hosain was the first woman from her background to graduate from Lucknow University, after having attended La Martiniere School for Girls and Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow.
7.
Attia Hosain grew up in two cultures, reading the canon of English and European literature as well as the Quran.
8.
Attia Hosain came of age as the struggle for independence was gaining strength.
9.
Attia Hosain's father was a friend of Motilal Nehru at the Inns of Court.
10.
In 1933, Attia Hosain was encouraged by Sarojini Naidu, "my own ideal of womanhood from childhood", and attended the All India Women's Conference in Calcutta.
11.
Attia Hosain married her cousin, Ali Bahadur Habibullah, her mother's sister's son, against the wishes of their families.
12.
Attia Hosain turned her home into an extension of her childhood open house, a Lakhnavi "adda", a gathering that attracted an eclectic crowd of people, writers, filmmakers, members of social and business world of the city, which expanded to include her husband's more western world.
13.
In London, where a diaspora of displaced people had gathered in a post-war world, Attia Hosain became a Qissa-go, the storyteller of her own roots.
14.
Attia Hosain's stories appeared in the English magazine Lilliput and the American Journal, the Atlantic Monthly.
15.
Attia Hosain Hosian was reborn as a writer enjoying a considerable reputation.
16.
Attia Hosain did not apologize for English as her chosen language of expression.
17.
Attia Hosain struggled for harmony between the languages, cultures and beliefs that surrounded her and drew strength from socialism, humanism and enlightened Islam, although she accepted no philosophy without rigorous analysis.