Razia Khan

Razia Khan (1936 – 28 December 2011) was a Bangladeshi novelist.

Career

Khan wrote Bot tolar Upannayash in 1958. Her adolescence was spent reading Tagore, Sharat Chandra Chatterji, Gorky, Shaw, Galsworthy, Marx and Engels.^[1]

She took great interest in acting and performed on both the radio and the stage. She also earned fame for recitation and as a presenter on the radio. An exceptionally brilliant student of English literature, Razia Khan obtained first class first in both Honours and master's degrees, went to the University of Birmingham, UK, on a scholarship from the British Council for higher studies. On her return she joined the editorial board of the then Pakistan Observer (renamed the Bangladesh Observer after the independence), but soon left to join the English Department of Dhaka University which set her career path.

Khan died in a city hospital of Dhaka, Bangladesh on 28 December 2011.

Works

Novels

• Bot-tolar Uponyas (Novel of the Wayside, 1959)
• Anucalpa (The Alrternative,1959)
• Proticitra (The Blue-Print, 1975)
• Citra-kabya (Picturesque Verses, 1980)
• He Mahajiban (O! Eternal Life, 1983)
• Draupadi (1992)
• Padatik (The Pedestrian, 1996)

Awards

• P.E.N. Drama Award (1956)
• Pope Gold Medal (as Distinguished Student of Dhaka university, 1957)
• Bangla Academy Award (1975)
• Qamar Mushtari Gold Medal (1985)
• Lekhika Shangha Gold Medal (1986)
• Ekushey Padak (1997)
• Druhee Katha-shahityak Abdur Rouf Choudhury Memorial Award (1999)

References

Further reading

• Hashmi, Alamgir (2005). "Khan, Razia (1935-)". In Benson, Eugene; Conolly, L. W. Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Literatures in English. London: Routledge – via Credo Reference.