(1912–1948) was a Pakistani
diplomat and writer.
Belonging to the most powerful and rich Arain
family of Lahore, she was born to Mian Shahnawaz and his politically active wife, Begum Jahanara Shahnawaz
. Thus, she was the granddaughter of Sir Muhammad Shafi
, the influential leader from Punjab.
Like her mother, Mumtaz Shahnawaz was drawn into the national movement as a Congress member but slowly shifted her sympathies towards to the Muslim League
. Mumtaz or Tanzee as she was known to her family
and friends was greatly influenced by Jinnah
. Mumtaz Shahnawaz died at the age of 35 in a plane crash months after the creation of Pakistan, en route to New York to represent Pakistan at the UN General Assembly, the first woman in Asia to preside over a legislative session.
Her novel, The Heart Divided
was the first novel on the partition of India
. It tells the story of a Muslim family in North India during the 1940s. It provides a detailed account of Independence and Partition, though it stops short of the Partition riots. She died in 1948; leaving behind a first draft, which her family published unedited 11 years later. Hers is possibly the first English South Asian novel to have been written about Partition
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