Twilight in Delhi

1940 novel by Ahmed Ali

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Twilight in Delhi" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

Twilight in Delhi Author| Ahmed Ali

|

Original title| Twilight in Delhi
Language| English
Publisher| Hogarth Press (Britain)

Publication date

| 1940 (first edition)
Publication place| British India
Media type| Print
Part of a series on

Progressive Writers' Movement

Members

Urdu writers

* Sajjad Zaheer
* Ahmed Ali
* M. D. Taseer
* Hajrah Begum
* Rashid Jahan
* Razia Sajjad Zaheer
* Abdul Aleem
* Faiz Ahmad Faiz
* Majaz
* Ahmad Faraz
* Ismat Chughtai
* Saadat Hasan Manto
* Kaifi Azmi
* Jan Nisar Akhtar
* Shamim Karhani
* Shahid Ahmad Dehlvi
* Josh Malihabadi
* Sahir Ludhianvi
* Majrooh Sultanpuri
* Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum
* Ali Sardar Jafri
* Akhtar ul Iman
* Majnun Gorakhpuri
* Firaq Gorakhpuri
* Sibte Hassan
* Habib Jalib
* Ale Ahmad Suroor
* Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi
* Akhtar Husain
* Fikr Taunsvi
* Habib Tanvir
* Salma Siddiqui
* Krishan Chander
* Khatir Ghaznavi
* Muhammad Ali Siddiqui
* Sulaiman Areeb
* Hameed Akhtar
* Shaukat Siddiqui
* Salaam Machhalishahari
* Aziz Qaisi
* Khawar Rizvi
* Hajra Masroor
* K. A. Abbas
* Mohiuddin Qadri Zore

English writers

* Mulk Raj Anand
* Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya

Bengali writers

* Somen Chanda
* Pramod Ranjan Sengupta
* Bishnu Dey

Punjabi writers

* Amrita Pritam
* Ahmad Rahi

Hindi writers

* Premchand

Kashmiri writers

* Mahjoor
* Rehman Rahi
* Dinanath Nadim
* Amin Kamil
* Pran Kishore Kaul
* Ghulam Nabi Khayal
* Ghulam Rasool Santosh

Marathi writers

* Mama Varerkar

Notable works

* Angarey
* Atish Paray
* Twilight in Delhi
* Manto Ke Afsanay
* Dhuan

Related Organisations

* Communist Party of India
* Indian People's Theatre Association

* v
* t
* e

Twilight in Delhi is Ahmed Ali's first novel, originally published in English by the Hogarth Press in Britain in 1940. The novel addresses India changing social, political, and cultural climate following colonialism.[1]

## Plot summary

[edit]

The novel is set around 1911 to 1919 in Delhi. Ahmed Ali has vividly drawn the picture of old Delhi and its Muslim inhabitants of that era. He depicts the themes of disintegration, degeneration, alienation, gender and social conflicts, nostalgia, the downfall of the Mughal emperors, and the effects of colonialism and imperialism on Indian Muslims in Delhi.

The novel is shot through with rich symbolic imagery. The palm tree, the henna plant, dogs, cats and pigeons refer not only to the behaviors of characters but also the whole Muslim society. The novel starts at dawn, with "twilight" referring to the rise of the sun as well as the rise of the protagonist Mir Nihal's living standards. By contrast, descriptions of twilight at evening in the closing sentences portray the overall downfall and destruction of not only the family of Mir Nihal but also the Mughal Empire altogether.

The novel was not published until after the intervention of the prominent English writer E. M. Forster.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna (2003). A history of Indian literature in English. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 185\. ISBN 978-1-85065-680-7.

## External links

[edit]

* Free downloadable pdf version of the novel
* Twilight in Delhi Summary and Analysis

This article about a historical novel of the 1940s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template