Life
Famously known as Bannay Mian, Zaheer was born in Lukhnow, the former state of Oudh on November 5, 1905. He was one of the four sons of Sir Syed Wazir Hasan, former Chief Justice of the Oudh Chief Court. Following into his father's footsteps he studied law at Oxford and became a barrister. His brother Syed Ali Zaheer was India's Ambassador to Iran. He was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India and later in 1948, the Communist Party of Pakistan, along with Faiz Ahmad Faiz. Both were later jailed in Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case along with Mohammad Husain Ata, Zafarullah Poshni and others. Major General Akbar Khan was allegedly the main conspirator. He was extradited to India in 1954 and revived his activities in the country through Progressive Writers' Association, Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) and Afro-Asian Writers' Association. Sajjad Zaheer was also a founder and leading figure of the three associations. 2005 was observed as his birth centenary year.
A collection of short stories, Angaray, which had stories by Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali, Rashid Jahan and Mahmud-uz-Zafar was published in 1932 and was immediately banned in India by the British Government in 1933, "for hurting the religious susceptibilities of a section of the community." This gave rise to the All-India Progressive Writers' Movement & Association of which both Sajjad Zaheer and Ahmed Ali were co-founders. The first official conference of the Association was held in Lucknow in 1936 which was presided over by Munshi Premchand.
His wife Razia Sajjad Zaheer, was an Urdu short story writer and novelist and they had four daughters. The eldest daughter, Najma Zaheer is a Prof. Emiretus of Biochemistry at JNU and is an expert in Diabetes. Second daughter, Naseem Bhatia, is an academic. Third daughter, Nadira Zaheer is probably the leading theatre artist in India and married to the Bollywood star-turned politician Raj Babbar. Arya Babbar and Juhi Babbar are his two grandchildren from Nadira Zaheer. The youngest daughter, Noor Zaheer is a trained Kathak dancer and author of the best seller - My God is a Woman. His grandson from Noor Zaheer, Sanjog Zaheer Gupta, works in the Television industry as the Content Head for Life OK, Star TV's new Hindi entertainment channel, which is famous for programmes like Mahadev and Saubhagyavati Bhava?
Sajjad Zaheer died on 13 September 1973, at the age of 68, while attending a conference of Afro Asian writers at Alma Ata, Kazakhstan (then one of the republics of USSR).
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