Ahmed Ali (1910-1994), multitalented, bilingual writer, poet, scholar,
translator, critic, and anthologist, is one of the stalwarts in the South Asian
literary sphere. A founder of the All India Progressive Writer's Association
(AIPWA) and best-known for the classic portrait of Delhi, Twilightin Delhi
(1940), Ali's life and work is informed by a tremendous idealism that inspired a
whole generation of writers and intellectuals. As a literary figure, he
epitomized a compelling cosmopolitan sensibility and opened up the South Asian
literary sphere to the West, easily bridging East-West boundaries through his
modernist outlook and anti-parochial stance.
In this volume, Mehr Afshan Farooqi introduces us to Ali's world and