|
Khushwant Singh is a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, "With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, is among the most widely-read columns in the country.
An important Indo-Anglian novelist, Singh is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humor, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioral characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit. He served as editor of several well-known literary and news magazines, as well as two major broadsheet newspapers, through the 1970s and 1980s.
He was born in Hadali District Khushab, Punjab (which now lies in Pakistan), in a Sikh family. His father, Sir Sobha Singh, was a prominent builder in Lutyens' Delhi.
He was educated at Modern School, New Delhi, Government College, Lahore, St. Stephen's College in Delhi and King's College, London, before reading for the Bar at the Inner Temple.
Singh has edited Yojana, an Indian government journal; The Illustrated Weekly of India, a newsweekly; and two major Indian newspapers, The National Herald and the Hindustan Times. During his tenure, The Illustrated Weekly became India's pre-eminent newsweekly . After Singh's departure, it suffered a huge drop in readership.
From 1980 through 1986, Singh was a member of Rajya Sabha,the upper house of the Indian parliament. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974 for service to his country. In 1984, he returned the award in protest against the siege of the Golden Temple by the Indian Army. In 2007, the Indian government awarded Singh the Padma Vibhushan.
Singh is said to wake up at 4 am each day and write his columns by hand. His works range from political commentary and contemporary satire to outstanding translations of Sikh religious texts and Urdu poetry. Despite the name, his column "With Malice Towards One and All" regularly contains secular exhortations and messages of peace. In addition, he is one of the last remaining writers to have personally known most of the stalwart writers and poets of Urdu and Punjabi languages, and profiles his recently deceased contemporaries in his column. One of the most striking aspects of his weekly writings is his outright honesty; he will openly admit to his weaknesses and mistakes, along with an acceptance of his declining health and physical abilities in more recent times.
As a public figure, Singh has been accused of favoring the ruling Congress party, especially during the reign of Indira Gandhi. He is better viewed as an establishment liberal. Singh's faith in the Indian political system has been shaken by events such as anti-Sikh riotsthat followed Indira Gandhi's assassination, in which major Congress politicians are alleged to be involved. But he has remained resolutely positive on the promise of Indian democracy and worked via Citizen's Justice Committee floated by H. S. Phoolka who is a senior advocate of Delhi High Court.
He has a son and a daughter. He is the maternal grandfather of actress Amrita Singh. He stays in "Sujan Singh Park", near Khan Market New Delhi, Delhi's first apartment complex, built by his father in 1945, and named after his grandfather.
Honors and awards
§ Padma Bhushan, Government of India (1974)[He returned the decoration in 1984 in protest against the Union government's siege of the Golden Temple, Amritsar)
§ Honest Man of the Year, Sulabh International (2000)
§ Punjab Rattan Award, The Government of Punjab (2006)
§ Padma Vibhushan, Government of India (2007)
§ Sahitya academy fellowship award by Sahitya academy of India (2010)
Books
§ The Mark of Vishnu and Other Stories, 1950
§ The History of Sikhs, 1953
§ Train to Pakistan, 1956
§ The Voice of God and Other Stories, 1957
§ I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale, 1959
§ The Sikhs Today, 1959
§ The Fall of the Kingdom of the Punjab, 1962
§ A History of the Sikhs, 1963
§ Ranjit Singh: The Maharajah of the Punjab, 1963
§ Ghadar 1915: India's first armed revolution, 1966
§ A History of the Sikhs, 1966 (2nd edition)
§ A Bride for the Sahib and Other Stories, 1967
§ Black Jasmine, 1971
§ Tragedy of Punjab, 1984
§ Delhi: A Novel, 1990
§ Sex, Scotch and Scholarship: Selected Writings, 1992
§ Not a Nice Man to Know: The Best of Khushwant Singh, 1993
§ We Indians, 1993
§ Women and Men in My Life, 1995
§ Uncertain Liaisons; Sex, Strife and Togetherness in Urban India, 1995
§ Declaring Love in Four Languages, by Khushwant Singh and Sharda Kaushik, 1997
§ The Company of Women, 1999
§ Truth, Love and a Little Malice (an autobiography), 2002
§ With Malice towards One and All
§ The End of India, 2003
§ Burial at the Sea, 2004
§ Paradise and Other Stories, 2004
§ A History of the Sikhs: 1469-1838, 2004
§ Death at My Doorstep, 2005
§ A History of the Sikhs: 1839-2004, 2005
§ The Illustrated History of the Sikhs, 2006
§ Why I Supported the Emergency: Essays and Profiles, 2009
§ The Sunset Club, 2010
Short stories
§ The Mark of Vishnu and Other Stories. London, Saturn Press, 1950.
§ The Voice of God and Other Stories. Bombay, Jaico, 1957.
§ A Bride for the Sahib and Other Stories. New Delhi, Hind, 1967.
§ Black Jasmine. Bombay, Jaico, 1971
§ The Collected Stories. N.p., Ravi Dayal, 1989.
§ The Portrait of a Lady
Play
Television Documentary: Third World—Free Press (also presenter; Third Eye series), 1982 (UK)
Source Wikipedia
|
