Popati Hiranandani

Popati Hiranandani (17 September 1924 – 16 December 2005) was an Indian writer who authored more than sixty books in Sindhi language during her life. She was an essayist, fiction writer, poet, educationist, feminist and social activist. She made significant contributions to Sindhi literature before and after the partition of India. She won several awards including the Sahitya Akademi Award (1982), Woman of the Year Award (1988), and the Gaurav Puraskar (1990) among others. She was born on 17th September 1924 in a Hindu Amil family of Hyderabad, Sindh. Her father Ramchand Hiranandani was a forest officer. She was the second eldest of seven children, and lost her father at the age of ten. She studied at Kundan Mal High School and Miran College Hyderabad. In order to support her family, she joined as a music teacher at Kundan Mal High School and Pigit Girls School Hyderabad, while continuing her studies simultaneously. After graduating from Banaras Hindu University in 1943 with a distinction in Sanskrit, she began teaching languages and literature. She retired as chairperson of Sindhi Department of Kishinchand Chellaram College, Bombay (now Mumbai). During the last years of her service at this college, she also taught and supervised postgraduate students of the Bombay University. In 1970, she was nominated as a member of a panel of advisors of the Audition Committee of All India Radio, Bombay. In the same year, she was nominated as a member of the Advisory Board for Sindhi, Ministry of Education, Government of India. In 1972, she was selected as a member of Sahitya Akademi's Advisory Board for Sindhi. In 1974, she served as Secretary of All India Sindhi Language and Literary Association. In 1977, she was a member of the selection committee for Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terminology and in 1979 as a member of the selection committee of the Union Public Service Commission. In 1988, she was the convener of the Sahitya Akademi's Advisory Board.