“I am still labelled as the writer of Lihaaf. The story brought me so much notoriety that I got sick of life. It became the proverbial stick to beat me with and whatever I wrote afterwards got crushed under its weight.” So said Ismat Chughtai in her book ‘A Life in Words: Memoirs’[1]about how the short story changed her life, and not for good.
‘Lihaaf’[2], the controversial short story by Ismat Chugtai was published in the year , way before Independence, in an Urdu Literary Journal titled Adaab-i-Latif. It was about repressed sexual desires and the exploitation of another’s body to fulfil oneself.
When I first came across ‘Lihaaf’, I was 18 years old. Being a student of Gender and Intersectional studies, I was proud that Ismat Chughtai’s writing had the power to break barriers of patriarchy and bring to light the untouched subject of female desire and sexuality. Her writing talks about women’s bodies not as an object of the male gaze but rather as independent entities. Though heavily scrutinised, her writings ‘lifted the veil’ over the controversial and made the invisible the subject of discussion.
Begum Jaan in the story can be seen as a sexually-deprived woman w
Ismat Chugtai
{Translated from Urdu by M. Asaduddin)
IN WINTER when I put a quilt over myself its shadows on the wall seem to sway like an elephant. That sets my mind racing into the labyrinth of times past. Memories come crowding in.
Sorry. I’m not going to regale you with any romantic tale about my own quilt. It’s hardly a subject for romance. It seems to me that the blanket, though less comfortable, does not cast shadows as terrifying as the quilt, dancing on the wall.
I was then a small girl and fought all day with my brothers and their friends. Often I wondered why the hell I was so aggressive. At my age my other sisters were busy drawing admirers while I fought with any boy or girl I ran into!
This was why when my mother went to Agra she left me with an adopted sister of hers for about a week. She knew well that there was no one in that house, not even a mouse with which I could get into a fight. It was severe punishment for me! So Amma left me with Begum Jaan, the same lady whose quilt is etched in my memory like the scar left by a blacksmith’s brand. Her poor parents agreed to marry her off to the Nawab who was of ‘ripe years’ because he was very virtuou
इस्मत चुगताई की विवादित कहानी &#;लिहाफ&#;
जब मैं जाड़ों में लिहाफ़ ओढ़ती हूँ, तो पास की दीवारों पर उसकी परछाईं हाथी की तरह झूमती हुई मालूम होती है और एक दम से मेरा दिमाग़ बीती हुई दुनिया के पर्दों में दौड़ने भागने लगता है. न जाने क्या कुछ याद आने लगता है. माफ़ कीजिएगा, मैं आप को ख़ुद अपने लिहाफ़ का रोमान अंगेज़ ज़िक्र बताने नहीं जा रही हूँ. न लिहाफ़ से किसी क़िस्म का रोमान जोड़ा ही जा सकता है. मेरे ख़याल में कम्बल आराम देह सही, मगर उसकी परछाईं इतनी भयानक नहीं होती जब लिहाफ़ की परछाईं दीवार पर डगमगा रही हो. ये तब का ज़िक्र है जब मैं छोटी सी थी और दिन भर भाइयों और उनके दोस्तों के साथ मार कटाई में गुज़ार दिया करती थी. कभी कभी मुझे ख़याल आता कि मैं कमबख़्त इतनी लड़ाका क्यूँ हूँ. इस उम्र में जब कि मेरी और बहनें आशिक़ जमा कर रही थीं मैं अपने पराए हर लड़के और लड़की से जो तुम बेज़ार में मशग़ूल थी. यही वजह थी कि अम्माँ जब आगरा जाने लगीं, तो हफ़्ते भर के लिए मुझे अपनी मुँह बोली बहन के पास छोड़ गईं. उनके यहाँ अम्माँ ख़ूब जानती थी कि चूहे का बच्चा भी नहीं और मैं किसी से लड़ भिड़ न सकूँगी. सज़ा तो ख़ूब थी!
(Lihaf Story by Ismat Chughtai)
हाँ तो अम्माँ मुझे बेगम जान के पास छोड़ गईं. वही बेगम जान जिनका लिहाफ़ अब तक मेरे ज़हन में गर्म लोहे के दाग़ की तरह महफ़ूज़ है. ये बेगम जान थीं जिनके ग़री
Introduction
Lihaf is an Urdu short story that made Ismat Chughtai popular for its controversies. Because it was branded as a feminist work (feminism – not attacking men but the social structures. It also involves the freedom to express �sexuality� which is not right according to society) and was banned.
A Terrifying Memory
The story is a �terrifying� memory of an unnamed narrator that happened during her childhood. The memory pops up when she takes the quilt to cover herself in the winter.
When other girls were engaged in �girly� games, the narrator was engaged in fighting with her brothers and her brother�s friends (with the opposite sex). Once when her mother went to Agra, she was left with her mother�s adopted sister- Begum Jaan�s house.
Begum Jan & Her Husband
Begum Jaan was married to a Nawab of �ripe years� (very old man), because of his virtuous nature – that is he didn�t visit prostitutes. (That is he was not interested in women but in young men).
After marriage Begum was �tucked away in the house with his possessions and promptly forgot her�. She did try to draw his attention but �Nawab didn�t budge an inch�.
Yearning for Love
She spent
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