17 Facts About Sajjad Zaheer

Sajjad Zaheer was a Marxist ideologue and a radical revolutionary who worked in both India and Pakistan.

Sajjad Zaheer got his BA degree from the University of Lucknow in 1924.

Sajjad Zaheer then left for New College, Oxford for further studies.

Sajjad Zaheer attended the second Congress of the League against Imperialism held in Frankfurt, where he met influential leaders like Viren Chattopadhyay, Saumyendranath Tagore, N M Jaisoorya and Raja Mahendra Pratap.

Sajjad Zaheer started the newspaper Bharat in 1930 in England.

Sajjad Zaheer graduated from Oxford University with a degree in BA in 1931.

Sajjad Zaheer became Uttar Pradesh state secretary of the Communist Party of India as well as a member of the working committee of the Congress in 1936.

Sajjad Zaheer was nominated in charge of the Delhi branch of the CPI in 1939 and was jailed for two years during the Second World War for opposing Indian participation in it.

Sajjad Zaheer helped to organize the Indian People's Theatre Association and the All India Kisan Sabha.

Sajjad Zaheer remained in jail for four years and upon release was given Indian citizenship by Jawaharlal Nehru.

Sajjad Zaheer revived the All India Progressive Writers' Association, became secretary of the Indian chapter of the Afro-Asian Writers' Association, and worked as editor of Awami Daur and the daily Hayat.

Sajjad Zaheer died in 1973 while attending a literary conference in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan.

Sajjad Zaheer started his literary career with a collection of short stories, in 1932.

Sajjad Zaheer wrote Roshnai, a history-cum-memoir of the early days of the progressive movement, Zikr-e-Hafiz, a critical look at the works of the legendary Persian poet Hafiz, and a collection of poems in vers libre called Pighla Neelam.

Sajjad Zaheer was an avid translator, producing Urdu versions of Tagore's Gora, Voltaire's Candide and Shakespeare's Othello.

Sajjad and his wife Razia Sajjad Zaheer had four daughters, including Naseem Bhatia, who holds a PhD in history from a Russian university.

Sajjad Zaheer was a Muslim and is buried in the Jamia Nagar cemetery of Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi.