https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Bilkees_LatifBilkees Latif - Revision history2026-07-31T12:06:42ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Bilkees_Latif&diff=299003&oldid=prev>AnomieBOT at 17:54, 7 September 20212021-09-07T17:54:43Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2018}}<br />
{{Infobox person<br />
| name = Bilkees Latif<br />
| image = <br />
| imagesize = <br />
| caption = <br />
| birth_date = c. 1931<br />
| birth_place = [[Hyderabad]], [[Hyderabad State]], [[British India]]<br />
| death_date = 27 October 2017 (age 86)<br />
| death_place = [[Hyderabad]], [[Telangana]], India<br />
| othername = <br />
| occupation = Social Worker/Activist, Writer & Artist<br />
| yearsactive = <br />
| known for = Founder Of S.H.E.D Foundation<br />
| spouse = [[I. H. Latif]]<br />
| parents = [[Ali Yavar Jung]]<br>Alys Iffrig<br />
| children = Asad Latif, Asghar Latif & Mariam Sandhu<br />
| awards = [[Padma Shri]]<br />
}}<br />
'''Bilkees Idrees Latīf''' (c. 1931 – 27 October 2017) was an Indian social worker and writer from [[Telangana]],<ref name="Awards for 5 persons from State">{{cite web | url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article383230.ece | title=Awards for 5 persons from State | newspaper=The Hindu | date=26 January 2009 | access-date=27 February 2016}}</ref><ref name="Bilkees Latif on Amazon">{{cite web | url=https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&text=Bilkees+Latif&search-alias=books&field-author=Bilkees+Latif&sort=relevancerank | title=Bilkees Latif on Amazon | publisher=Amazon | date=2016 | access-date=27 February 2016}}</ref> known for her work in the slums of India.<ref name="Fragrance of Forgotten Years">{{cite book | title=Fragrance of Forgotten Years | publisher=Rupa and Co | author=Bilkees I Latif | year=2010 | pages=248 | isbn=978-8186413401}}</ref> She was a founding member of [[Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage|INTACH]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://intach.org/people-fmembers.php|title=INTACH|website=intach.org|access-date=2019-01-12}}</ref><br />
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She is the author of several articles and five books, including ''Essential Andhra Cookbook'',<ref name="Essential Andhra Cookbook">{{cite book | title=Essential Andhra Cookbook | publisher=Penguin | author=Bilkees I Latif | year=1999 | pages=330 | isbn=978-0140271843}}</ref> ''Fragrance of Forgotten Years''<ref name="Fragrance of Forgotten Years" /> and ''The Ladder of His Life : Biography of Air Chief Marshal Idris Latif''.<ref name="The Ladder of His Life : Biography of Air Chief Marshal Idris Latif">{{cite book | url=http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Books/Reviews/820-Ladder.html | title=The Ladder of His Life : Biography of Air Chief Marshal Idris Latif | publisher=KW PUblishers | author=Bilkees I Latif | year=2013 | pages=384 | isbn=978-93-81904855}}</ref> The Government of India awarded her the fourth-highest civilian honour of the [[Padma Shri]], in 2009, for her contributions to society.<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web |url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |title=Padma Awards |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India |date=2016 |access-date=3 January 2016 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6U68ulwpb?url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |archive-date=15 November 2014 }}</ref><br />
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== Background and early life ==<br />
Bilkees Latif was born into an affluent Muslim family of [[Hyderabad State]] in [[India]], the daughter of [[Ali Yavar Jung]], a nobleman of [[Hyderabad State]], by his first wife Alys Iffrig.{{cn|date=September 2021}} Her mother Alys, daughter of a French father and German mother, was raised a Catholic in France. She came to India upon marrying [[Ali Yavar Jung]] and Bilkees was born to them soon afterwards, but the marriage fell apart shortly afterwards. Bilkees's parents were divorced when she was still a child, and both of them went on to marry other people. Very shortly after the divorce, Bilkees's mother married Ali Mohammad Akbar Hyderi, another nobleman of [[Hyderabad State]], and became famous under the name "Alys Hyderi" as a hostess and a socialite.<br />
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Bilkees Latif's father, [[Ali Yavar Jung]], hailed from a landed, aristocratic family of [[Hyderabad State]], one that had served the [[Nizam of Hyderabad]] for several generations. He was a diplomat and educationist, was appointed vice chancellor of [[Osmania University]] by [[Mir Osman Ali Khan|the last Nizam]] in 1946, and as vice-chancellor of [[Aligarh Muslim University]] by the [[Indian National Congress|Congress party]]'s government under [[Indira Gandhi]] in the 1960s. He served at various times as the Indian ambassador to Argentina, Egypt, Yugoslavia, Greece, France, and the United States, and ended his blemishless career as [[Governor of Maharashtra]], again appointed by [[Indira Gandhi]], holding that office for a record seven years (1970–76) until his death in December 1976.<ref name="A Life of service honoured with the Padma Shri award">{{cite web | url=http://emag.youandi.com/Editions/YouandI/issue55/downloads/16_02_2009_045.pdf | title=A Life of service honoured with the Padma Shri award | publisher=You and I - eMag | date=16 February 2009 | access-date=27 February 2016}}</ref> Some time after his divorce from Alys, he had married [[Zehra Ali Yavar Jung]], a lady of background similar to his own, a social worker who was honoured with the [[Padma Bhushan]] in 1973.<br />
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==Marriage==<br />
When she was still in her early teens, Ali Yavar Jung arranged in the usual Indian way for his daughter Bilkees to marry into a family of background similar to his own. The groom, [[I. H. Latif|Idris Latif]], was the son of Hasan Latif, Chief Engineer of [[Hyderabad State]] and the scion of a wealthy, landed Hyderabadi Muslim family. Idris, who was nine years older than Bilquees, was a commissioned officer in the Air Force of the [[British Raj]]. The wedding was held when Bilquis was still in her teens, and the marriage proved to be extremely happy and harmonious. The couple were blessed with three children, two sons, Asghar and Asad, and a daughter, Mariam.<br />
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Bilquees's husband was destined to have a career every bit as distinguished as her father's had been. In 1946, when the [[partition of India]] took place, Idris opted to stay with India. He would rise to become India's first Muslim Chief of Air Staff (head of the Air Force). After retiring from the Air Force, he would be appointed [[Governor of Maharashtra]] and Indian ambassador to France under the patronage of [[Indira Gandhi]] and her [[Indian National Congress|Congress party]].<ref name="Dawat -e- Hyderabad">{{cite web | url=http://www.uppercrustindia.com/oldsite/1crust/one/coverstory.html | title=Dawat -e- Hyderabad | publisher=Upper Crust India | date=2016 | access-date=27 February 2016}}</ref><br />
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Bilquess complemented her husband's career by taking up social work and networking on a level that was rare in India at that time. She owed her networking skills to her mother, a socialite, and her reach in high places to her father. Bilquees came into her own after her husband was appointed governor of Maharashtra in 1982, an office which her father had held for seven years until 1976. During her father's stint, Bilquees (and her step-mother) had already developed a set of social projects, and now, after she returned to the Raj Bhavan in Bombay, she pursued them with renewed vigour. Residents of a certain age will recollect the regularity with which she was featured on television during those years, a time when there was only one TV network in India, the government-owned [[Doordarshan]]. It must be said that she made sincere and hardworking efforts to improve the lives of the poor. She took up only a few projects, but those were works in which she was genuinely interested, and then she put a lot of effort in pursuing them. Her most important social welfare projects was the uplift of the poor in [[Dharavi]],<ref name="A Life of service honoured with the Padma Shri award" /> which was the largest slum in the world. She documented her experiences in her book, ''O Dharavi''.<ref name="Remembering the forgotten">{{cite web | url=http://www.deccanherald.com/content/166436/content/214492/closer-truth.html | title=Remembering the forgotten | publisher=Deccan Herald | date=4 June 2011 | access-date=27 February 2016}}</ref><br />
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Bilkees also wrote several books apart from ''Oh Dharavi.'' Her first book, ''Essential Andhra Cookbook'', is a study of the [[cuisine of Andhra Pradesh]].<ref name="Essential Andhra Cookbook" /> This was followed by ''Fragrance of Forgotten Years'', an autobiographical account of her early years, published in 2010.<ref name="Fragrance of Forgotten Years" /> The same year, she published another book, ''Forgotten'',<ref name="Forgotten">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pINICgAAQBAJ&q=%22O+Dharavi%22+Bilkees | title=Forgotten | publisher=Penguin UK | author=Bilkees I Latif | year=2010 | pages=200 | isbn=9789352141487}}</ref> which narrates the lives of a six notable women from Indian history.<ref name="Remembering the forgotten" /><ref name="The forgotten heroines of India">{{cite web | url=http://www.sify.com/news/the-forgotten-heroines-of-india-news-national-ldimkngjgbcsi.html | title=The forgotten heroines of India | publisher=Sify | date=8 March 2011 | access-date=27 February 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322015255/http://www.sify.com/news/the-forgotten-heroines-of-india-news-national-ldimkngjgbcsi.html | archive-date=22 March 2018 | url-status=dead }}</ref> The latest of her publications, ''The Ladder of His Life'', is the biography of her husband, [[I. H. Latif]], through his Air Force, diplomatic and gubernatorial days.<ref name="The Ladder of His Life : Biography of Air Chief Marshal Idris Latif" /><br />
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Bilquees Latif was awarded the [[Padma Shri]] in 2009, and the citation mentions her work during the 1980s in the slums of [[Mumbai]].<ref name="Padma Awards" /> Bilquees Latif died in October 2017 at the age of 86.<ref>[https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/281017/social-activist-bilkees-latif-no-more.html Social activist Bilkees Latif no more]</ref> She was survived by her husband, who died a few months later in May 2018 aged 95, and by her three children, two sons Asghar and Asad, and a daughter, Mariam.<br />
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== Bibliography ==<br />
* {{cite book | title=Essential Andhra Cookbook | publisher=Penguin | author=Bilkees I Latif | year=1999 | pages=330 | isbn=978-0140271843}}<br />
* {{cite book | title=Fragrance of Forgotten Years | publisher=Rupa and Co | author=Bilkees I Latif | year=2010 | pages=248 | isbn=978-8186413401}}<br />
* {{cite book | title=Forgotten | publisher=Penguin UK | author=Bilkees I Latif | year=2010 | pages=200 | isbn=9789352141487}}<br />
* {{cite book | title=The Ladder of His Life : Biography of Air Chief Marshal Idris Latif | publisher=KW PUblishers | author=Bilkees I Latif | year=2013 | pages=384 | isbn=978-93-81904855}}<br />
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== See also ==<br />
* [[I. H. Latif]]<br />
* [[Ali Yavar Jung]]<br />
{{portal|India}}<br />
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== References ==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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== External links ==<br />
* [https://penguin.co.in/book_author/bilkees-latif/ Bilkees Latif] at [[Penguin India]]<br />
* {{cite web | url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/events/hyderabad/Begum-Bilkees-Latif-felicitated-in-Hyderabad/articleshow/50267960.cms | title=Begum Bilkees Latif felicitated in Hyderabad | publisher=Times of India | work=News report | date=22 December 2015 | access-date=27 February 2016}}<br />
* {{cite web | url=http://www.youandi.com/everlasting-spirit-begum-bilkees-i-latif-0 | title=The Everlasting Spirit Of Begum Bilkees I. Latif | publisher=You & I Magazine | work=Biography}}<br />
{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Social Work}}<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Latif, Bilkees I.}}<br />
[[Category:2017 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian biographers]]<br />
[[Category:21st-century Indian non-fiction writers]]<br />
[[Category:21st-century Indian women writers]]<br />
[[Category:Cookbook writers]]<br />
[[Category:Educators from Telangana]]<br />
[[Category:Indian food writers]]<br />
[[Category:Indian women non-fiction writers]]<br />
[[Category:Women biographers]]<br />
[[Category:Social workers]]<br />
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in social work]]<br />
[[Category:Social workers from Telangana]]<br />
[[Category:Women cookbook writers]]<br />
[[Category:Women educators from Telangana]]<br />
[[Category:Women writers from Telangana]]<br />
[[Category:Writers from Hyderabad, India]]<br />
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian women]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian people]]</div>>AnomieBOT