Shaukat Siddiqui

Early life and career

Siddiqi was born on 20 March 1923 in a literary family of Lucknow, India. He gained his early education in his home town and earned a B.A. in 1944 and an M.A. (Political Science) in 1944. After the partition of India, he migrated to Pakistan in 1950 and stayed in Lahore, but soon permanently settled in Karachi. His early days in Pakistan were full of financial trouble and political opposition, which he soon overcame. He accompanied Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on several foreign tours.

He was an active member of the Pakistan Writers' Guild and a member of the Progressive Writers Association which was then and still is a part of the larger organization, the Progressive Writers Movement in the India-Pakistan subcontinent. Shaukat Siddiqi worked at the news-desks of the Times of Karachi, Pakistan Standard, and the Morning News. He finally rose to be the editor of the Daily Anjaam, the Weekly Al-Fatah and the Daily Musawat of Karachi, before bidding goodbye to journalism in 1984.

Literary work

Siddiqi's first short story, "Kon Kisi Ka", appeared in Weekly Khayyam in Lahore, Pakistan. In 1952, his first collection of short stories, Teesra Admi, was brought out and proved to be a great success. Subsequently, other collections of short stories followed: Andhere Dur Andhere (1955), Raaton Ka Shehar (1956) and Keemya Gar (1984).

His magnum opus is Khuda Ki Basti (God's Own Land), which has appeared in 50 editions and been translated into 26 languages. It has been dramatised time and again. Its English translation was by David Mathews of London University.

The novels Kamin Gah (1956), Jangloos (in three volumes, 1988), and Char Deewari (1990) are fictionalized accounts of his childhood in Lucknow, India.

Awards and recognition

Death and legacy

He died on 18 December 2006 in Karachi at the age of 83, leaving behind a wife, two sons and three daughters.