Author
Akhtar Mohiuddin
Akhtar Mohiuddin
Akhtar Mohiuddin (1928–2001) was a Kashmiri novelist, playwright, and short story writer whose work marks modernism in Kashmiri literature. His book Doud Dag (Suffering and Pain; untranslated) is considered the first novel written in Kashmiri language. Akhtar was given the Sahitya Akademi Award, India’s most prestigious literary award, in 1958 for his short story collection Sath Sangar (Seven Peaks; untranslated). The Government of India conferred on him the Padma Shri award, India’s fourth-highest civilian honour, in 1968, which he later returned as a sign of protest against the hanging of Maqbool Bhat, a Kashmiri separatist leader.
Translator
Mehdi Khawaja
Mehdi Khawaja
Mehdi Khawaja is a writer and translator based in Srinagar, Kashmir. He is the winner of Armory Square Prize for Translation 2025. Mehdi divides his time between writing/translating and working with traditional Kashmiri crafts.
Original language
Kashmiri
Publishing status
Translation extract
About the book
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About the book
The story revolves around Mr. X and Mrs. X, whose marriage is based on convenience rather than love. The novel builds its tension and explores the inner psychological dilemmas of the characters primarily through dialogues rather than a traditional narrative of events. The novel also explores social, moral, and psychological struggles in Kashmiri society during the 1970s – a context that remains relevant today.
What our readers say
“What happens to questions of truth and morality in a politically corrupt environment where people suffer from epistemic and other modalities of violence? What happens when a traditional society is used as an experimental laboratory to test the veracity of anti-people regimes? These are the questions that the Kashmiri novelist Akhtar Mohiuddin engages with in his novel To Each Their Own Hell, which explores the subtle dynamics of power, manipulation, and rising political and personal ambitions.
Set in a contentious era of Kashmir’s history, a time marked by violence, corruption, media propaganda, and authoritarianism, the novel examines a clash of worldviews, the traditional and the modern, the rise of despotism, and processes of dehumanisation as its characters navigate a politically corrupt environment.
At a time globally marked by the rise of authoritarianism, media propaganda, and transactional politics, Akhtar Mohiuddin’s novel, brilliantly translated by Mehdi Khawaja, resonates far beyond Kashmir, in places where power, violence, authoritarianism, corruption, and moral bankruptcy prevail. The translation is a valuable addition to South Asian literature in translation, as it speaks to contemporary concerns across the globe while giving Kashmiri fiction a new direction.”
–Ashaq Parray Hussain
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