Rahman Abbas

Rahman Abbas won India’s highest literary honour, the Sahitya Akademi Award, in 2018 for his fourth Urdu novel, Rohzin. He has also won four state Sahitya Akademi awards for his novels. Rahman is the author of ten books, including six novels. When his first novel was published, Islamists had accused him of spreading obscenity through his work and had filed a case against his novel. He was forced to resign from his job at a Muslim institution. Rahman fought a court trial for over ten years and was acquitted in 2016 of the obscenity charges. Rohzin has been translated into German, English and Hindi, and received the prestigious LitProm Grant managed by the Swiss and German governments. It was also longlisted for the JCB Prize and shortlisted for the Muse India 2023 GSP Rao Translation Award. On the Other Side was originally published in 2011 under the title Khuda Ke Saaye Mein Aankh Micholi and won the Maharashtra State Urdu Sahitya Academy Award. Rahman lives in Mumbai.