The Progressive Writers' Association or the Progressive Writers' Movement of India or Anjuman Tarraqi Pasand Mussanafin-e-Hind () or Akhil Bhartiya Pragatishil Lekhak Sangh (Hindi: अखिल भारतीय प्रगतिशील लेखक संघ) was a progressive literary movement in pre-partition British India. Some branches of this writers' group existed around the world besides in India and Pakistan.

These groups were anti-imperialistic and left-oriented, and sought to inspire people through their writings advocating equality among all humans and attacking social injustice and backwardness in the society.

According to the Dawn newspaper, the "Progressive Writers Movement in Urdu literature was the strongest movement after Sir Syed's education movement. The progressives contributed to Urdu literature some of the finest pieces of fiction and poetry. Undoubtedly, they were the trend-setters for the coming generation of writers."

Organizations

  • The Indian Progressive Writers' Association was set up in London in 1935. Both of them invited Syed Fakhruddin Balley (known as Balley Alig) to join. Syed Fakhruddin Balley then initiated work to promote the Association. Many writers and poets like Hameed Akhtar, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Saadat Hasan Manto and Ismat Chughtai joined the Association. On 5 April 1933, Mahmud-uz-Zafar published a statement titled In Defence of Angare: Shall We Submit to Gagging? in The Leader:

<blockquote>The authors of this book do not wish to make any apology for it. They leave it to float or sink of itself. They are not afraid of the consequences of having launched it. They only wish to defend 'the right of launching it and all other vessels like it' ... they stand for the right of free criticism and free expression in all matters of the highest importance to the human race in general and the Indian people in particular... Whatever happen to the book or to the authors, we hope that others will not be discouraged. Our practical proposal is the formation immediately of a League of Progressive Authors, which should bring forth similar collections from time to time both in English and the various vernaculars of our country. We appeal to all those who are interested in this idea to get in touch with us.</blockquote>

The idea of forming a League of Progressive Authors was presented for the first time in this statement which later expanded itself and became 'Indian Progressive Writers' Association'.

In 1936, Sohail Azimabadi set up a branch of the PWA in Patna while Hasrat Mohani set up a similar branch in Kanpur. Shyam Kumari Nehru organised a major conference of the Hindi and Urdu writers in 1937 in Allahabad which was attended by writers such as Maulvi Abdul Haq, Acharya Narendra Dev, Pandit Ram Naresh Tripathi, Shivdan Singh Chauhan, Narendra Sharma, Ramesh Chandra Sinha and Om Prakash Singhal among others. Bishambhar Nath Pande the then secretary of the Allahabad branch of the PWA organised another similar conference in 1938 in Allahabad.

By the summer of 1938, when Anand returned to India after attending the international writers' conference held in Madrid and Barcelona, the association had already become an influential organisation with various regional and linguistic branches.

Second all-India Progressive Writers' Conference

The second conference of the association was held in Calcutta in 1938. The inaugural address of the conference was sent by Rabindranath Tagore who could not attend it due to ill health. Abdul Aleem was elected as the new General Secretary succeeding Zaheer and a newly amended constitution was adopted in the conference. The PWA also launched a monthly bulletin and a quarterly English journal called New Indian Writing.

Third all-India Progressive Writers' Conference

The third conference was organised at the Hardinge Library in Delhi in 1942. Krishan Chander, who was then working for the Delhi Radio Station, was the convener of the conference.

Fourth all-India Progressive Writers' Conference

The fourth all-India conference was held in Bombay from 22 May to 25 May 1943 at the Marwari Vidyalaya Hall. A revised version of the Manifesto was adopted at this conference. Zaheer was elected as the General Secretary of the association with Bishnu Dey and K. A. Abbas as joint secretaries and Mama Varerkar as the treasurer. The central office of the association was also moved from Lucknow to Bombay.

It could be said that the Urdu writers were in the forefront of 'Anjuman Taraqqi Pasand Musannifin', but later on almost all the writers of Indian languages had their own organisations with the same aims and objectives: struggle against British imperialism for the liberation of India from the foreign yoke; struggle against the henchmen of imperialism, land for the tillers of the soil. The organisation regarded socialism as the proper economic system, which could end exploitation.

Post-independence period

India

After the independence of India in 1947, the movement lost its momentum in India. It further declined in growth after the split of the Communist Party in 1964. In 1975, the Association was renamed as the National Federation of Progressive Writers. Since then, the Federation has had four Conferences, at Gaya (1975), Jabalpur (1980), Jaipur (1982) and the Golden Jubilee Conference in Lucknow (1986). The Golden Jubilee Conference was inaugurated by Mulk Raj Anand. Sibte Hasan also attended the conference.

Writers

Prominent members of the movement have included:<!--please keep in alphabetical order-->

  • Shridhar Raina Zar
  • Mirza Adeeb
  • Bhupen Hazarika
  • Hameed Akhtar
  • Majaz Lucknawi
  • Sahir Ludhianvi
  • Zafar Mairaj
  • Josh Malihabadi
  • Sadat Hassan Manto