{{Short description|Indian writer (1921–1996)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}} {{Use Indian English|date=September 2018}}
{{Infobox writer | name = Amrit Rai | native_name = | image = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1921|09|03}} | birth_place = Lamhi, Banaras State, British India | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1996|08|14|1921|09|03}} | death_place = Allahabad | pseudonym = | occupation = Writer | language = Hindi, Urdu | nationality = Indian | notableworks = | spouse = | children = | signature = | years_active = | relatives = Munshi Premchand (father) }}
'''Amrit Rai''' (3 September 1921 – 14 August 1996) was an Indian writer, poet and biographer in both the Hindi and Urdu styles of the Hindustani language. He is the son of Munshi Premchand, a pioneer of modern Urdu literature and of Hindi literature.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Kumar |first=Kuldeep |date=2021-09-13 |title=Munshi Premchand’s younger son Amrit Rai was an important writer and translator in his own right |url=https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/art/remembering-amrit-rai-the-raj-kapoor-of-hindi-literature/article36430246.ece |access-date=2025-05-28 |work=The Hindu |language=en-IN |issn=0971-751X}}</ref> A prolific writer, Rai made his literary debut with novel ''Beej'' in 1952 and went on to write an acclaimed biography of his father, Premchand, ''Kalam ka Sipahi'' (1962),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Amratray |url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.514644 |title=Premchand Kalam Ka Sipahi |date=1962}}</ref> which later won him the Sahitya Akademi award for 1963.<ref name="today" />
== Career == Rai co-edited ''Chitthi Patri'' (1962), a two-volume book on the letters of Premchand along with his biographer, Madan Gopal. In 1982, he donated a collection of his father's 236 letters to the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) at Teen Murti House, Delhi.<ref>{{cite web|title=New light on Premchand|work=The Hindu|url=http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/new-light-on-premchand/article3750272.ece|date=10 August 2012|accessdate=2013-10-30|archive-date=3 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203075639/http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/new-light-on-premchand/article3750272.ece|url-status=live}}</ref> His ''A House Divided'' is an influential account of how the shared Hindi/Hindavī linguistic tradition became differentiated into Modern Standard Hindi and Urdu.<ref name=":0" />
== Death == Rai died in Allahabad, in August 1996 at the age of 75. He had suffered a paralytic stroke earlier in March.<ref name=today>{{cite web| title = Amrit Rai, prolific Hindi writer & son of Munshi Premchand, passes away in Allahabad| publisher = India Today| url = https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/signposts/story/19960915-amrit-rai-prolific-hindi-writer-son-of-munshi-premchand-passes-away-in-allahabad-764263-2012-10-16| date = 16 October 2012| access-date = 2013-10-30| archive-date = 26 March 2014| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140326042400/http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/amrit-rai-prolific-hindi-writer-%26-son-of-munshi-premchand-passes-away-in-allahabad/1/283239.html| url-status = live}}</ref>
==Bibliography== * Rai, Amrit. ''Premchand: A Life''. Harish Trivedi, translator. New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1982. * Rai, Amrit. ''A House Divided: The Origin and Development of Hindi/Hindavi''. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984.
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Sahitya Akademi Award For Hindi}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rai, Amrit}} Category:1921 births Category:1996 deaths Category:Writers from Prayagraj Category:Indian male novelists Category:Hindi-language Indian writers Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Hindi Category:20th-century Indian novelists Category:20th-century Indian biographers Category:Jawaharlal Nehru Fellows Category:Novelists from Uttar Pradesh Category:Indian male biographers {{india-writer-stub}}