Amrita Pritam: The poet who dared to live and write unfettered

Words were like leaves falling from a tree in autumn… their rustle was music to my ears ~ 'Raseedi Ticket'

On 31 August, her 106th birth anniversary, India remembered Amrita Pritam (1919–2005), the indomitable voice of Punjabi and Hindi literature, whose words continue to reverberate across generations. Poet, novelist, essayist, memoirist, broadcaster, feminist, and iconoclast, Amrita Pritam’s life was as compelling as her works — an unflinching engagement with love, loss, Partition, memory, and the quest for freedom, both personal and collective.

Not only was she the first prominent woman poet of 20th-century Punjabi literature, but also the first woman to win the Sahitya Akademi Award (1956) and one of the most decorated writers in India’s literary history. Yet, her enduring power lies less in her accolades than in her courage to live and write without fear.

Childhood, loss, and the birth of a writer

Amrita was born in Gujranwala, Punjab (now in Pakistan) to Raj Bibi, a schoolteacher, and Kartar Singh Hitkari, a poet, scholar, and Sikh preacher. Tragedy struck early — her mother died when Amrita was just 11. In her autobiographies, she wrote that this bereavement shattered her faith in God, and she remained an avowed atheist all her life.

Bereft of maternal warmth, she found refuge in her father’s extensive library. Books became her companions, words her music. By 16, she had published her first anthology of poems, Amrit Lehran (Immortal Waves), establishing herself as a precocious literary talent. That same year, as per tradition, she was married to businessman Pritam Singh, though the marriage proved unhappy.

Her early poems were romantic, but as the 1940s progressed, she gravitated towards the Progressive Writers’ Movement, adopting a sharper social consciousness. Her collection Lok Peed (1944) reflected the suffering of the poor during World War II and the Bengal famine.

Partition’s Poet: Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu

Today, a million daughters cry out to you, Waris Shah… look at your Punjab ~ 'Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu'

The defining event of Amrita’s life — and of an entire generation — was the Partition of India in 1947. Uprooted from Lahore, she fled to Delhi with her family amidst horrific violence. These memories crystallised in her most celebrated poem, 'Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu (Today. I Invoke Waris Shah').

In this elegy, she addresses 18th-century Punjabi Sufi poet Waris Shah, asking him to rise from his grave and witness the blood-soaked fields of Punjab, where daughters wept amidst carnage:

Today, a million daughters cry out to you, Waris Shah,
Rise! O narrator of the grieving! Look at your Punjab,
Today, fields are lined with corpses, and blood fills the Chenab

This poem immortalised her as the voice of Partition’s pain, particularly its impact on women.

Pinjar and the female voice of Partition

“Pinjar is not just the story of one woman, but of all those rejected by their own blood.”

Pritam’s Partition novel Pinjar (The Skeleton, 1950) remains one of the most powerful literary testaments of the time. Its protagonist Puro, a Hindu woman abducted by a Muslim man, embodies the trauma of thousands of women who were disowned by their families for being “defiled”.

Unlike nationalist narratives that erased women’s suffering, Pinjar gave voice to their silences, their shame, their resilience. The novel’s 2003 cinematic adaptation, directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi and starring Urmila Matondkar and Manoj Bajpayee, won the National Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration.

Several of her other works — Dharti Sagar te Sippiyan (adapted as Kadambari, 1965) and Unah Di Kahani (adapted as Daaku, 1976) — also reached the silver screen, underscoring her ability to transcend mediums.

Rebel with a pen

My life’s story could fit on the back of a revenue stamp ~ 'Raseedi Ticket'

Amrita’s autobiographies — Kala Gulab (1968), Raseedi Ticket (1976), and Aksharon Kay Saaye (1977) — remain landmarks in Indian literary self-writing.

Raseedi Ticket was particularly scandalous for its candour, as Pritam described her loves, heartbreaks, and intellectual journeys with rare honesty. The title came from her observation that the story of her life could fit on the back of a revenue stamp (raseedi ticket) — yet in truth, her life filled volumes.

Her writing defied the social conventions of a conservative age. She wrote of her fondness for smoking — an acquired intimacy from Sahir Ludhianvi, whose discarded cigarette stubs she would smoke to feel closer to him. “Our smoke mingled in the air as did our breath,” she wrote, unashamed of the scandal this confession caused.

Sahir, Imroz, and the many faces of love

Aaj mera Khuda mar gaya (today, my God died) ~ Diary entry on Sahir’s death

Pritam's personal life was as legendary as her works. Her unrequited love for poet-lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi remains one of Indian literature’s most discussed stories. She once wrote, “Sahir mere Sartre aur main unki Simone thi (Sahir was my Sartre and I his Simone). Yet their relationship was largely one of silence, longing, and absence. When Sahir died in 1980, Amrita wrote in her diary: “Aaj mera Khuda mar gaya."

In contrast, her relationship with artist and writer Imroz was one of companionship and tenderness. They lived together for over four decades, an unconventional arrangement at the time. Imroz designed her book covers, painted her portraits, and cared for her until her final days. Their relationship is beautifully chronicled in Uma Trilok’s Amrita Imroz: A Love Story.

Her poem for Imroz, 'Main Tenun Phir Milangi (I Will See You Again)', written near the end of her life, remains one of the most poignant expressions of eternal love in Indian poetry.

Awards, recognition, and public life

Her words became bridges across nations, languages, and silences.

Over her six-decade career, Amrita authored more than 100 books — poems, novels, short stories, essays, biographies, and Punjabi folk songs.

Her contributions were acknowledged with India’s highest literary and state honours:

• Sahitya Akademi Award (1956) for Sunehadey
• Padma Shri (1969) and Padma Vibhushan (2004)
• Bharatiya Jnanpith Award (1982) for Kagaj Te Canvas
• Sahitya Akademi Fellowship (2004), India’s highest literary recognition
• Punjab Rattan Award, the International Vaptsarov Award (Bulgaria, 1979), and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France, 1987)

She also served as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha (1986–92), bringing her literary and social conscience into the political sphere.

Voice for women and the marginalised

“Man has not yet tasted the friendship and company of a liberated woman as an equal partner.”

Pritam’s feminism was not ideological but lived. In an era when women were expected to remain confined to domestic roles, she divorced her husband, embraced her artistic freedom, and wrote openly about female desire, betrayal, and autonomy.

She challenged patriarchal notions of chastity and honour, foregrounding women’s suffering in Partition narratives, long before academic feminism would highlight the erasure of female voices from history. Her stories like That Man reveal her engagement with power, patriarchy, and identity in nuanced ways.

As she once said, “Man has not yet tasted the friendship and company of a liberated woman as an equal partner. Men and women have not yet met as two independent human beings.”

Final years and legacy

Main tenun phir milangi (I will see you again) ~ Poem for Imroz

Amrita Pritam passed peacefully in her sleep at the age of 86. Her funeral was a quiet affair, as she wished — without speeches or fanfare, attended only by her children and Imroz.

Her literary immortality was further affirmed when Google celebrated her centenary in 2019 with a doodle, calling her “one of history’s foremost female Punjabi writers, who dared to live the life she imagined”.

Why Amrita Pritam still matters

Amrita Pritam’s life and work remain deeply relevant in contemporary India. She confronted the horrors of Partition at a time when silence was the norm. She claimed her right to love unconventionally, even defiantly. She chronicled the inner lives of women with a raw honesty rare in her time.

Her works — whether the haunting lament of 'Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu', the feminist courage of Pinjar, or the tender intimacy of 'Main Tenun Phir Milangi' — continue to inspire readers, writers, and dreamers.

On her 106th birth anniversary, we celebrate Amrita Pritam not merely as a poet or novelist but as a revolutionary spirit who taught us that literature is not just about words — it is about the freedom to live, to feel, to defy, and above all, to remember.

Hasnain Naqvi is a former member of the history faculty at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai