Ismat Chughtai: Google celebrates the writer’s 107th birthday with a doodle

Today marks Ismat Chughtai’s 107th birthday, an Indian female Author who was a champion of free speech, gender equality and social liberation through her often radical writing. Dubbed as the ‘Grand Dame of Urdu fiction’, Google celebrates her birthday with a doodle today. Raised in a Muslim housed a the ninth out of 10 children, her best known writings encouraged liberation and questioned double standards. She was deeply interested in using her writings and talent to advocate for human rights. Her most famous stories include the short story ‘Lihaf’ (The Quilt)- a controversial story revolving on the homosexual relationship between an upper class woman and her servant and narrated by a young girl, and ‘Gainda’ (Marigold), which told the story of a domestic worker falling in love outside the caste system. She was also friends with equally radical of her time Saadat Hasan Manto as their stories often talked about pre and post partition India with brutal honesty. Her stories still continue to be feted as groundbreaking in the way they portrayed women, caste and relationships in in her era. Chughtai’s plays are still adapted and put on stage and continue to be popular among readers and viewers. Chughtai was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1976 In recognition of her literary accomplishments and her fearless dedication to her beliefs. Today, she continues to be regarded as a national feminist icon.