Krishna Sobti, born in Gujarat (West Punjab, in present-day Pakistan) on February 18, 1925, is a well-known Hindi fiction writer. Krishna Sobti’s style and idiom impart an authentic touch to whatever theme and situation she portrays. The essence of her creativity lies in her honesty and eagerness to reach the truth and to look into things, rather than at them.
Sobti guards her freedom as a writer and as an individual zealously. “You can take liberties with yourself only if you create a large space for yourself, a vast sky,” she says emphasizing the writer’s neutrality in that space.
Empathy towards her characters is a notable feature of her writings. Krishna Sobti also writes under the name Hashmat and has published Hama Hashamat, a compilation of pen portraits of writers and friends. She also had a brief brush with the audio-visual medium, having served as a consultant for Buniyad, a television serial on partition.
She received the Sahitya Akademi Award for her novel Zindaginama. Suffused with the ethos and ambience of pre-partition rural Punjab, this novel of epic dimensions is a visual and dramatic recall of early memories in episodic form. A critic, has referred to it as the most comprehensive, sympathetic, and sensitive treatment in Hindi literature of the peasants since Premchand. Her other novels are Dara Se Bichuri, Mitro Marajani, Surajmukhi Andhere Ke. Some of her well-known short stories are Nafisa, Sikka Badal Gaya, Badalom Ke Ghere. Sobti eka sohabata includes her major selected works. Sobti has also received the Shiromani Award in 1981 and Hindi Academy Award in 1982.
