Attia was born in Lucknow into the liberal Kidwai clan of Oudh. Her father Shahid Hosain Kidwai, was the Cambridge-educated Taluqdar of Gadia, and her mother, Begum Nisar Fatima came from the Alvi family of Kakori. From her father she inherited a keen interest in politics and nationalism. From her mother's family of poets and scholars she drew a knowledge of Urdu, Persian and Arabic. She was the first woman from her background to graduate from Lucknow University, after having attended La Martiniere School for Girls and Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow.[5]
Hosain grew up in two cultures, reading the canon of English and European literature as well as the Quran.[3]
Attia Hosain aged 15Attia came of age as the struggle for independence was gaining strength.[4] Attia's father was a friend of Motilal Nehru at the Inns of Court. In 1933, Attia was encouraged by Sarojini Naidu, "my own ideal of womanhood from childhood", and attended the All India Women's Conference in Calcutta.[2]
In her own words, Attia said, "I had been very influenced by the political thoughts of the Left in the Progressive Writers' Movement, through my friends Mulk Raj Anand, Sajjad Zaheer and Sahibzada Mahmuduzaffar and was asked by Desmond Young to write for The Pioneer."[6] She also wrote for The Statesman, Calcutta.
She married her cousin, Ali Bahadur Habibullah, her mother's sister's son, against the wishes of their families. They had two children, Shama Habibullah and Waris Hussein. In the early 1940s the couple moved to Bombay, where Ali Bahadur was in government service, first in the Textile Commission and later as Supply Commissioner for South East Asia after the outbreak of World War II.
She turned her home into an extension of her childhood open house, a Lakhnavi "adda", a gathering that attracted an eclectic crowd of people, writers, filmmakers, members of social and business world of the city, which expanded to include her husband's more western world. A young Raj Thapar was brought in by her future husband Romesh Thapar to meet Attia, whom he called 'the only woman with a man's mind."[7]
Ali Bahadur Habibullah moved to England with his family in 1947, before India became independent, posted to the Indian High Commission, in the newly created Trade Commission. When India was partitioned into India and Pakistan, the division of the country and the separation of two religious communities caused Attia great pain. "We belong to a generation that has lived with our hearts in pieces," she said.
Later in life she wrote: "Here I am, I have chosen to live in this country which has given me so much; but I cannot get out of my blood the fact that I had the blood of my ancestors for 800 years in another country."[5]
