In the Name of Ismat Chughtai: The Progressive And The Playful

This volume brings together insightful and engaging perspectives on Ismat Chughtai's enduring significance as a writer who was at once progressive and playfully subversive. Revisiting her life, work and legacy, the essays explore a rich range of themes—from her dialogues with cinema, literature and cultural politics to her place within the Left imagination of the Bombay film industry.The collection also reads Chughtai alongside Sa'adat Hasan Manto and Ritwik Ghatak to illuminate the cultural memory of Partition, examines her depiction of the intimacy of the zenana as part of the history of the nation, probes her complex persona through psychoanalytic lenses, and reflects on her fiercely independent voice within the literary politics of the Progressive movement.