Ismat Chughtai
Women Unlimited, an associate of Kali for Women, 2020 - Historical fiction, Urdu - 410 pages
In 1976, at the age of 61, Ismat Chughtai wrote Ek Qatra-e-Khoon, (translated and published as One Drop of Blood: The Story of Karbala). It was based, in her own words, on the marsiyas or elegies, of Mir Anis, one of the greatest marsiya writers of the nineteenth century (1802-1874). Ismat’s subject is the 680 AD battle fought in Karbala, in present-day Iraq, in which the small army of Imam Husain, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the son of Fatima and Ali Ibn Abi Talib, clashes with the mighty forces of Yazid, the reigning Caliph, a corrupt, dissolute, pitiless, leader. In her Preface to the novel, Ismat wrote:
“This is the story of those seventy-two people who took a stand against imperialism in order to defend human rights—
This fourteen-hundred-year-old story is today’s story as well, because man is still man’s greatest enemy—
For today, too, the standard-bearer of humanity is man—
Today, too, when a Yazid raises his head in some part of the world, Husain steps forward and crushes him—
Even today, light wins against darkness.”
