Krishan Chander was an Urdu and Hindi Afsaana Nigaar or short story writer. He wrote mainly in Urdu, but was well-versed in Hindi and English. He was a prolific writer, penning over 20 novels, 30 collections of short stories and scores of radio plays in Urdu and later, after partition of the country, took to writing mainly in Hindi. He also wrote screen-plays for Bollywood movies to supplement his meagre income as an author of satirical stories.
Background
About his place of birth Krishan Chander wrote: "Lahore is a place where I was born, where I was educated, where I started my literary career, where I achieved fame. For people of my generation it is difficult to forget Lahore. It shines in our heart like a jewel – like the fragrance of our soul". Apart from his love for Lahore actually he was born in Wazirabad, District Gujranwala, British India (now in Pakistan).
Education
He edited the English section of the college house magazine.
Career
Krishan Chander always wrote to give voice to those who ordinarily would not be considered important enough to be heard. His literary masterpieces on the Bengal famine and the savagery and barbarism in 1947 are some of the finest specimens of modern Urdu literature, but at other times too he continued relentlessly to critique the abuse of power, poverty and the suffering of the wretched of the earth; but above all he never stopped protesting casteism, fanaticism, communal violence and terror. He was born a Hindu but lived his life as just a human being.
Some say his stories were predicable, because the heroes and villains in them were known as soon as one had an idea of the class background of his characters. Such a view is grossly misleading and unwarranted.
One of his most popular novel "Mitti Ke Sanam" is about the childhood memories of a young boy who lived with his parents in Kashmir. His famous "Afsanay" (short stories) are the stories of Kashmiri villages, as well as those of displaced expatriates and rootless urban man. He used Pahari (dialect of people living in Poonch) words while writing in Urdu.
His literary masterpieces on the Bengal famine and the savagery and barbarism that took place at the time of the partition of India in 1947 are some of the finest specimens of modern Urdu literature, but at other times too he continued relentlessly to critique the abuse of power, poverty and the suffering of the wretched of the earth; but above all he never stopped protesting casteism, fanaticism, communal violence and terror. He was a humanist and a cosmopolitan.
Krishan Chander's novels have been translated into over 16 Indian languages and some foreign languages, including English.
In 1932 Chander wrote his first Urdu short story "Sadhu".