Who was Amrita Pritam, the Transcendental Writer?

Amrita Pritam is a name that stands the test of time within Indian writers. 

She was an accomplished novelist and poetess who primarily wrote in Hindi and Punjabi.

With over 100 books of poetry, fiction, biographies, and essays to her name, Amrita proved her worth as a writer in unforgettable ways. 

She has also penned a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography. 

Amrita was mostly inspired by the Partition of India and explored themes of the loss of humanity and oppression towards women.

For these ideas, she was considered one of the most progressive, transcendental writers of her time.

DESIblitz is proud to explore her life and career, taking you on a journey through Amrita Pritam’s legacy.

Early Life & Marriage

Born as Amrita Kaur, Amrita Pritam was part of a Khatri Sikh family. She was born on August 31, 1919.

Amrita was the only child of her parents. Her mother, Raj Bibi, was a schoolteacher. Meanwhile, her father, Kartar Singh Hitkari, was also a poet, scholar, and literary editor.

When Amrita was aged 11, her mother sadly passed away. Following this, she and her father moved to Lahore. 

Her mother’s death also influenced Amrita Pritam’s shift to atheism. She would remain an atheist for the rest of her life.

In an attempt to overcome her loneliness, Amrita took to writing and published her first anthology, Amrit Lehran in 1936. She was 16 years old. 

1936 was also the year when she married Pritam Singh. He was an editor who Amrita became engaged to while she was still a child. 

They had a son and a daughter together. However, the marriage deteriorated when Pritam allegedly began a relationship with the playback singer Sudha Malhotra.

Consequently, Amrita began a romance with the artist and writer, Inderjeet Imroz, with whom she spent 40 years of her life.

Writing & Influences

Between 1936 and 1943, Amrita Pritam published many collections of poems. 

She started her career as a romantic poetess but soon became part of the Progressive Writers’ Movement which was a literary movement in British India before the Partition.

This movement aimed to inspire people with the advocation of equality and fighting against human injustice. 

In her collection, Lok Peed (1944), Amrita criticises the economy that was decimated after the 1943 Bengal famine. 

Around this time, she also participated in social causes and brought the first Janta Library in Delhi.

Before Partition, Amrita briefly worked on a radio station in Lahore.

In 1947, over a million people died in the communal violence of the Partition. As a result, when she was aged 28, Amrita Pritam became a Punjabi refugee.

While pregnant with her son, she expressed her feelings of anger and devastation in the poem Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu. 

The piece addresses the Sufi poet Waris Shah, who is famous for writing the tragic story of Heer and Ranjah.

Until 1961, Amrita worked in the Punjabi sector of All India Radio. She divorced her husband in 1960 and after this, her work became notably more feminist.

The influences and themes in her writing included unhappy marriages and in 1950, she published her novel, Pinjar.

In the novel, she created the iconic character of Puro, who stands against oppression towards women.

The book was developed into a 2003 film of the same name starring Urmilla Matondkar and Manoj Bajpayee.

Later Life, Awards & Legacy

Amrita Pritam was the first recipient of the Punjab Rattan Award. 

For her poem, Sunehade, widely touted as her magnum opus, she won the 1956 Sahitya Akademi Award. 

She was the first woman to win the accolade for a Punjabi work. In 1982, for Kagaz Te Canvas, she won the Jnanpith Award. 

In 2004, Amrita was bestowed with the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award and she also won the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, India’s highest literary award.

Throughout her life, Amrita also received several honorary degrees from many universities including Delhi, Jabalpur, and Vishwa Bharati.

Via her career editing the monthly literary magazine, Nagmani, she met her partner Inderjeet Imroz.

Imroz designed many of her book covers and she was the focus of several of his paintings. 

Their romance is also the subject of the book, Amrita Imroz: A Love Story.

Commenting on her relationship with Imroz, Amrita declares:

“For me, now there is only one name which is the essence of my soul, my inner meditation: Imroz.”

In the late 1960s and 1970s, Amrita published several autobiographies including Kala Gulab (1968), Rasidi Ticket (1976), and Aksharon Kay Saayee.

Amrita Pritam is noted for being a free woman, who challenged norms and stereotypes of women in a patriarchal society.

She was often pictured smoking and was highlighted for being a female atheist who lived independently with a man to whom she was not married.

These elements make Amrita Pritam one of the most progressive writers in South Asian history. She also transcended borders with admirers in India and Pakistan.

At the age of 86, on October 31, 2005, Amrita died in her sleep. Her son, Navraj Kwatra, was murdered in his apartment in 2012. Three men were acquitted of the crime due to a lack of evidence.

Amrita Pritam remains a literary icon, who has written some of the most enduring texts in South Asian literature.

This includes Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, and Bangladeshi communities. 

Detailing her passion for writing, Amrita says: “To gain something, you have to be willing to lose something.

“You have to be willing to make sacrifices to nourish your passions.

“What is also required is a lot of conviction in your pursuits.

“I wanted to be able to write at all costs, and I did.”

In the realm of iconic writers who have transcended borders and created history, Amrita Pritam will always shine in glory.