Khushwant Singh Explained

Khushwant Singh
Birth Name:Khushal Singh
Birth Date:1915 2, df=yes
Birth Place:Hadali, Punjab Province, British India
(now in Punjab, Pakistan)
Death Place:New Delhi, India
Nationality:Indian
Alma Mater:Government College, Lahore (B.A.)
University of London (LL.B.)
Occupation:Lawyer, journalist, diplomat, writer, politician
Relatives:Sardar Sujan Singh (grandfather)
Lakshmi Devi (grandmother)
Sir Sobha Singh (father)
Viran Bai (mother)
Sardar Ujjal Singh (uncle)
Bhagwant Singh (brother)
Brigadier Gurbux Singh (brother)
Daljit Singh (brother)
Mohinder Kaur (sister)
Kanwal Malik (spouse)
Rahul Singh (son)
Mala (daughter)
Sir Teja Singh Malik (father-in-law)
Awards:Rockefeller Grant
Padma Bhushan
Honest Man of the Year
Punjab Rattan Award
Padma Vibhushan
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
All-India Minorities Forum Annual Fellowship Award
Lifetime Achievement Award
Fellow of King's Collegehttps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/khushwant-singh-awarded-fellowship-of-kings-college-london/articleshow/28825274.cms
The Grove Press Award
Notable Works:The History of Sikhs
Train to Pakistan
Delhi: A Novel
The Company of Women
Truth, Love and a Little Malice: An Autobiography
With Malice towards One and All
Why I Supported the Emergency: Essays and Profiles
Khushwantnama, The Lessons of My Life
Punjab, Punjabis & Punjabiyat: Reflections on a Land and its People
The Mark of Vishnu and Other Stories
The Portrait of a Lady

Khushwant Singh FKC (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write Train to Pakistan in 1956 (made into film in 1998), which became his most well-known novel.[1] [2]

Born in Punjab, Khushwant Singh was educated in Modern School, New Delhi, St. Stephen's College, and graduated from Government College, Lahore. He studied at King's College London and was awarded an LL.B. from University of London. He was called to the bar at the London Inner Temple. After working as a lawyer in Lahore High Court for eight years, he joined the Indian Foreign Service upon the Independence of India from British Empire in 1947. He was appointed journalist in the All India Radio in 1951, and then moved to the Department of Mass Communications of UNESCO at Paris in 1956. These last two careers encouraged him to pursue a literary career. As a writer, he was best known for his trenchant secularism,[3] humour, sarcasm and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioural characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit. He served as the editor of several literary and news magazines, as well as two newspapers, through the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1980 and 1986 he served as Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India.

Khushwant Singh was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974;[4] however, he returned the award in 1984 in protest against Operation Blue Star in which the Indian Army raided Amritsar. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award in India.[5]

Early life

Khushwant Singh was born in Hadali, Khushab District, Punjab (which now lies in Pakistan), in a Sikh family. He was the younger son of Sir Sobha Singh, who later witnessed against Bhagat Singh, and Veeran Bai. Births and deaths were not recorded in his time, and for him his father simply made up 2 February 1915 for his school enrollment at Modern School, New Delhi.[6] But his grandmother Lakshmi Devi asserted that he was born in August, so he later set the date for himself as 15 August.[1] Sobha Singh was a prominent builder in Lutyens' Delhi.[7] His uncle Sardar Ujjal Singh (1895–1983) was previously Governor of Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

His birth name, given by his grandmother, was Khushal Singh (meaning "Prosperous Lion"). He was called by a pet name "Shalee". At school his name earned him ridicule as other boys would mock him with an expression, "Shalee Shoolee, Bagh dee Moolee" (meaning, "This shalee or shoolee is the radish of some garden.") He chose Khushwant so that it rhymes with his elder brother's name Bhagwant.[8] He declared that his new name was "self-manufactured and meaningless". However, he later discovered that there was a Hindu physician with the same name, and the number subsequently increased.[9]

He entered the Delhi Modern School in 1920 and studied there till 1930. There he met his future wife, Kanwal Malik, one year his junior.[6] He studied Intermediate of Arts at St. Stephen's College in Delhi during 1930-1932.[10] He pursued higher education at Government College, Lahore, in 1932,[11] and got his BA in 1934 by a "third-class degree".[12] Then he went to King's College London to study law, and was awarded an LL.B. from University of London in 1938. He was subsequently called to the bar at the London Inner Temple.[13] [14]

Career

Khushwant Singh started his professional career as a practicing lawyer in 1939 at Lahore in the Chamber of Manzur Qadir and Ijaz Husain Batalvi. He worked at Lahore Court for eight years where he worked with some of his best friends and fans including Akhtar Aly Kureshy, Advocate, and Raja Muhammad Arif, Advocate. In 1947, he entered the Indian Foreign Service for the newly independent India. He started as Information Officer of the Government of India in Toronto, Canada, and moved on to be the Press Attaché and Public Officer for the Indian High Commission for four years in London and Ottawa. In 1951, he joined the All India Radio as a journalist. Between 1954 and 1956 he worked in Department of Mass Communication of the UNESCO at Paris.[15] [16] From 1956 he turned to editorial services. He founded and edited Yojana,[17] an Indian government journal in 1951–1953; The Illustrated Weekly of India, a newsweekly;The National Herald.[18] [19] He was also appointed as editor of Hindustan Times on Indira Gandhi's personal recommendation.[20]

During his tenure, The Illustrated Weekly became India's pre-eminent newsweekly, with its circulation raising from 65,000 to 400,000.[21] After working for nine years in the weekly, on 25 July 1978, a week before he was to retire, the management asked Singh to leave "with immediate effect". A new editor was installed the same day. After Singh's departure, the weekly suffered a huge drop in readership.[22] In 2016 Khushwant Singh enters Limca Book of Records as a tribute.[23]

Politics

From 1980 to 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.[24] In 2007, the Indian government awarded Khushwant Singh the Padma Vibhushan.

As a public figure, Khushwant Singh was accused of favouring the ruling Congress party, especially during the reign of Indira Gandhi. When Indira Gandhi announced nation-wide-emergency, he openly supported it and was derisively called an 'establishment liberal'.[25]

Singh's faith in the Indian political system was shaken by the anti-Sikh riots that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination, in which major Congress politicians are alleged to be involved; but he remained resolutely positive on the promise of Indian democracy[26] and worked via Citizen's Justice Committee floated by H. S. Phoolka who is a senior advocate of Delhi High Court.

Singh was a votary of greater diplomatic relations with Israel at a time when India did not want to displease Arab nations where thousands of Indians found employment. He visited Israel in the 1970s and was impressed by its progress.[27]

Personal life

Khushwant Singh was married to Kanwal Malik. Malik was his childhood friend who had moved to London earlier. They met again when he studied law at King's College London, and soon got married.[2] They were married in Delhi, with Chetan Anand and Iqbal Singh as the only invitees.[28] Muhammad Ali Jinnah also attended the formal service.[29] They had a son, named Rahul Singh, and a daughter, named Mala. His wife predeceased him in 2001.[18] Actress Amrita Singh is the daughter of his brother Daljit Singh's son – Shavinder Singh and Rukhsana Sultana. He stayed 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.[30]

Religious belief

Singh was a self-proclaimed agnostic, as the title of his 2011 book Agnostic Khushwant: There is no God explicitly revealed. He was particularly against organised religion. He was evidently inclined towards atheism, as he said, "One can be a saintly person without believing in God and a detestable villain believing in him. In my personalised religion, There Is No God!"[31] He also once said, "I don't believe in rebirth or in reincarnation, in the day of judgement or in heaven or hell. I accept the finality of death."[32] His last book The Good, The Bad and The Ridiculous was published in October 2013, following which he retired from writing.[33] The book was his continued critique of religion and especially its practice in India, including the critique of the clergy and priests. It earned a lot of acclaim in India.[34] Khushwant Singh had once controversially claimed that Sikhism was a form of "bearded Hinduism".[35]

Death

Singh died of natural causes on 20 March 2014 at his Delhi residence, at the age of 99. The President, Vice-President and Prime Minister of India all issued messages honouring Singh.[36] He was cremated at Lodhi Crematorium in Delhi at 4 in the afternoon of the same day. During his lifetime, Khushwant Singh was keen on burial because he believed that with a burial we give back to the earth what we have taken. He had requested the management of the Baháʼí Faith if he could be buried in their cemetery. After initial agreement, they had proposed some conditions which were unacceptable to Singh, and hence the idea was later abandoned.[37] He was born in Hadali, Khushab District in the Punjab Province of modern Pakistan, in 1915. According to his wishes, some of his ashes were brought and scattered in Hadali.[38]

In 1943 he had already written his own obituary, included in his collection of short stories Posthumous. Under the headline "Sardar Khushwant Singh Dead", the text reads:

He also prepared an epitaph for himself, which runs:

He was cremated and his ashes are buried in Hadali school, where a plaque is placed bearing the inscription:

Honours and awards

Literary works

Books

Short story

Play

Television Documentary: Third World—Free Press (also presenter; Third Eye series), 1983 (UK).[68]

See also

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Sengupta. Somini. Khushwant Singh, provocative Indian journalist, dies at 99. 25 February 2018. The New York Times. 20 March 2014.
  2. News: Subramonian. Surabhi. India's very own literary genius Khushwant Singh passes away, read his story. 7 May 2015. dna. Diligent Media Corporation Ltd.. 20 March 2014.
  3. News: TNN. Khushwant Singh, journalist and writer, dies at 99. 21 March 2014. The Times of India. 20 March 2014.
  4. Web site: Padma Awards . Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India . 2015 . 21 July 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20151015193758/http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf . 15 October 2015 .
  5. News: TNT. Those who said no to top awards. 7 May 2015. The Times of India. 28 January 2008.
  6. Book: Singh. Rahul. Dharker. Anil. Icons: Men & Women Who Shaped Today's India. 2008. Lotus Collection, an imprint of Roli Books. New Delhi. 978-81-7436-612-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=sNFbBAAAQBAJ&q=khushwant+singh+15+august+1915&pg=PT94. The Man in the Light Bulb: Khushwant Singh.
  7. Book: Singh. Ranjit. Sikh Achievers. 2008. Hemkunt Publishers. New Delhi. 978-8-17-01036-53. 168.
  8. News: Singh. Khushwant. The Kh Factor. 7 May 2015. Outlook. 19 February 2001.
  9. News: Singh. Khushwant. DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY. https://web.archive.org/web/20150518065759/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061125/asp/opinion/story_7045213.asp. dead. 18 May 2015. 7 May 2015. The Telegraph. 25 November 2006.
  10. Book: Singh, Khushwant. The Fiction of St. Stephen's. 2000. Ravi Dayal Publisher. 81-7530-030-2 . Chatterji, Lola . New Delhi. v-vi. Forward. 45799950.
  11. Web site: The Tribune, Chandigarh, India – Khushwant Singh 1915 — 2014 Selected Columns. The Tribune. 1 March 2020.
  12. News: Massey. Reginald. Khushwant Singh obituary. 20 March 2014. The Guardian. 1 March 2020. en-GB. 0261-3077.
  13. Vinita Rani, "Style and Structure in the Short Stories of Khushwant Singh. A Critical Study. ", PhD Thesis
  14. Book: Singh. Khuswant. Bhattacharjea. Aditya. Chatterji. Lola. The Fiction of St. Stephen's. 2000. Ravi Dayal Publisher. New Delhi. 978-8-17-53003-09. v.
  15. News: Press Trust of India. Khushwant Singh could easily switch roles from author to commentator and journalist. 21 March 2014. The Indian Express. 20 March 2014.
  16. Web site: Life and times of Khushwant Singh l. India Today. 21 March 2014.
  17. Web site: Yojana . 18 September 2013.
  18. News: PTI. Khushwant Singh, renowned author and journalist, passes away. 21 March 2016. The Economic Times. Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.. 20 March 2014.
  19. News: Khushwant Singh, 1915-. 21 March 2016. The South Asian Literary Recording Project. The Library of Congress (New Delhi). 2016.
  20. Web site: History repeating at Shobhana Bhartia's Hindustan Times. Dev. Atul. The Caravan. en. 3 May 2020.
  21. Book: Not a Nice Man To Know. Farewell to the Illustrated Weekly. Nandini Mehta. Khushwant Singh. Penguin Books. 1993. 8. On 25 July 1978, one week before he was to retire, he was abruptly asked to leave with immediate effect. Khushwant quietly got up, collected his umbrella, and without a word to his staff, left the office where he had worked for nine years, raising the Illustrated Weekly circulation from 65,000 to 400,000. The new editor was installed the same day, and ordered by the Weekly management to kill the "Farewell" column..
  22. Web site: Khushwant Singh's Journalism: The Illustrated Weekly of India . 4 August 2006 . Sepiamutiny.com . 9 August 2009.
  23. Web site: Tribute – Khushwant Singh. Limca Book of Records. 20 June 2016. 8 August 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160808171944/http://www.limcabookofrecords.in/record-detail.aspx?rid=1079. dead.
  24. Web site: Those who said no to top awards. The Times of India. 20 January 2008. 5 November 2008.
  25. Web site: Why I Supported Emergency Outlook India Magazine. Outlook India . 3 May 2020.
  26. Singh, Khushwant, "Oh, That Other Hindu Riot of Passage," Outlook Magazine, November, 07, 2004, available at http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-khushwantsing071104.htm
  27. Web site: THIS ABOVE ALL : When Israel was a distant dream . The Tribune . 18 October 2003 . 27 March 2014 . Singh, Khushwant.
  28. Book: Singh, Khushwant. Khushwant Singh's Big Book of Malice. 2000. Penguin Books. 0-14-029832-0. New Delhi. 126. 45420301.
  29. Book: Singh, Khushwant. Khushwant Singh: An Icon of Our Age. 2000. Jiya Prakashan. 79. en.
  30. News: Making history with brick and mortar . https://archive.today/20121205200651/http://www.hindustantimes.com/Making-history-with-brick-and-mortar/Article1-745801.aspx . dead . 5 December 2012 . . 15 September 2011 .
  31. Web site: Nayar. Aruti. Staring into The Abyss: Khushwant Singh's Personal Struggles With Organized Religion. sikhchic.com. 21 March 2014.
  32. Web site: Khuswant. Singh. How To Live & Die. Outlook. 16 August 2010.
  33. Web site: Veteran Writer and Novelist Khushwant Singh passes away at 99. news.biharprabha.com. 20 March 2014.
  34. Web site: Tiwary . Akash . 21 March 2014 . Khushwant Singh's demise bereaves India of its most articulate agnostic . 21 March 2014 . The Avenue Mail.
  35. Book: Arora, Subhash Chander . Turmoil in Punjab Politics . Mittal Publications . 1990 . 9788170992516 . 188.
  36. Web site: President, Prime Minister of India condole Khushwant Singh's Demise. Indo-Asian News Service. news.biharprabha.com. 20 March 2014.
  37. Web site: Excerpt: How To Live & Die . Outlook India . 23 March 2014.
  38. Web site: Train to Pakistan: 2014. F. S.. Aijazuddin. 24 April 2014. Dawn. Pakistan.
  39. Web site: Khushwant Singh awarded Fellowship. King's College London. 21 March 2014.
  40. Web site: Mukherjee. Abishek. Khushwant Singh and the cricket connection. The Cricket Country. 20 March 2014 . 21 March 2014.
  41. News: Akhilesh honours Khushwant-Singh. 21 March 2014. The Times of India.
  42. Web site: Khushwant Singh . . 21 March 2014.
  43. Book: Singh, Khushwant. A History of the Sikhs. Princeton University Press. 1963.
  44. Broomfield . J. H. . 1964 . A History of the Sikhs . Khushwant Singh . The Journal of Modern History . en . 36 . 4 . 439–440 . 10.1086/239500 . 0022-2801.
  45. Web site: Bobb . Dilip . 15 November 1984 . Book reviews: 'Tragedy of Punjab' and 'Bhindranwale, Myth and Reality' . 8 September 2022 . India Today . en.
  46. Web site: Nath . Aman . 15 June 1984 . Book review: Khushwant Singh's 'The Sikhs' . 8 September 2022 . India Today . en.
  47. Book: Singh, Khushwant . The Collected Short Stories of Khushwant Singh . 2005 . Orient Blackswan . 978-81-7530-044-6 . en.
  48. Book: Singh, Khushwant . More Malicious Gossip . 18 September 2006 . Harper Collins . 978-93-5029-290-7 . en.
  49. Book: Singh, Khushwant . Sex, Scotch And Scholarship . 2004 . HarperCollins . 978-81-7223-469-0 . en.
  50. Web site: 6 February 2022 . Poetic Injustice . 8 September 2022 . Outlook India . en.
  51. Book: Singh, Khushwant . Khushwant Singh's Big Book of Malice . 2000 . Penguin Books India . 978-0-14-029832-1 . en.
  52. Book: Singh, Khushwant . India: An Introduction . 2003 . HarperCollins . 978-81-7223-548-2 . en.
  53. Web site: 20 March 2014 . Khushwant Singh's 10 most talked about books . 8 September 2022 . The Times of India . en.
  54. Web site: 20 March 2014 . With Malice Towards One and All: Best of Khushwant's columns . 8 September 2022 . Hindustan Times . en.
  55. Book: Singh, Khushwant . A History of the Sikhs . . 1966 . 2.
  56. Book: Singh, Khushwant. A History of the Sikhs: 1469–1838. Oxford University Press. 2004. 2, illustrated. 434. 9780195673081. 7 July 2009.
  57. Book: Singh, Khushwant. A History of the Sikhs: 1839–2004. Oxford University Press. 2005. 2, illustrated. 547. 978-0195673098. 7 July 2009.
  58. Web site: The Sunday Tribune - Books . 8 September 2022 . The Tribune.
  59. Web site: Haider . Raana . 2 June 2018 . A Review of The Sunset Club . 8 September 2022 . The Daily Star . en.
  60. Book: Singh, Khushwant . Gods and Godmen of India . 2003 . HarperCollins . 978-81-7223-533-8 . en.
  61. Web site: The Sunday Tribune - Books . 8 September 2022 . The Tribune.
  62. Web site: 12 October 2012 . Book excerpt: The Freethinker's Prayer Book . 8 September 2022 . Hindustan Times . en.
  63. Web site: Khushwantnama . 8 September 2022 . Free Press Journal . en.
  64. Web site: 16 August 2018 . New book brings together Khushwant Singh's best on Punjab and its people . 8 September 2022 . The Times of India . en.
  65. Web site: 22 June 2016 . Review: The Portrait of a Lady by Khushwant Singh - Travelling Through Words . 8 September 2022 . en-US.
  66. Web site: 1989 . The collected short stories of Khushwant Singh . 8 September 2022 . worldcat.org.
  67. Web site: 18 March 2017 . Khushwant Singh's "The Wog" Free Essay Example . 8 September 2022 . StudyMoose . en-US.
  68. Web site: Third Eye: Third World – Free Press?. https://web.archive.org/web/20140322030359/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b6e144baa. dead. 22 March 2014. British Film Institute. 21 March 2014.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Khushwant Singh".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.