Hosain, Attia (1913-1998), was an Indian novelist and short-story writer. She wrote about the privileged Muslim world in which she grew up, as well as about the lives of Indians from other, poorer backgrounds. Critics have acknowledged her work to be among the finest in modern Indian literature, though her achievement was not recognized until late in her life, during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Only two of her books were published in her lifetime, Phoenix Fled (1953), a collection of short stories, and Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961), a novel. Sunlight on a Broken Column tells the story of a young Indian Muslim woman’s life, and deals with the conflicts between the personal and the political spheres, and between tradition and modern life. Both books were written in English.
Attia Hosain was born on Oct. 13, 1913, in Lucknow, in what is now Uttar Pradesh state. She was also educated in Lucknow. She left India in 1947 and moved to England, where she became a broadcaster, and acted in the London theater. She died on Jan. 25, 1998.
