Khushwant Singh

Khushwant Singh

INDIAN WRITER AND JOURNALIST

Khushwant Singh, Indian writer and journalist (born 1915, Hadali?, Punjab, British India [now in Pakistan]—died March 20, 2014, New Delhi, India), produced some of the most provocative and admired English-language fiction and nonfiction in post-World War II India. His debut novel, Train to Pakistan (1956; film 1998), was acclaimed for its exploration of the bloody violence between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs during and shortly after the 1947 partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan. Much of Singh’s work, however, featured his wry sense of humor, which was particularly evident in his TV talk show, Not a Nice Man to Know (1998); his essays, some of which were collected in Not a Nice Man to Know: The Best of Khushwant Singh (1993); and the autobiography Truth, Love and a Little Malice (2002). Singh was born into a prosperous Sikh family and spent his childhood in Hadali and Delhi, where his father and grandfather were involved in building construction. After he graduated (1934) from Government College, Lahore (now in Pakistan), he studied law at King’s College, London (L.L.B., 1938), and at London’s Inner Temple, where in 1938 he qualified as a barrister. He practiced law in Lahore until the partition, when he moved his wife and children to Delhi and joined the Indian Foreign Service. Singh began writing short fiction while serving in diplomatic posts in London and Ottawa; his first story collection, The Mark of Vishnu, and Other Stories, was published in London in 1950. Singh’s literary output included such nonfiction books as The Sikhs (1953), A History of the Sikhs, 1469–1964 (vol. 1, 1963; vol. 2, 1966), Absolute Khushwant: The Low-Down on Life, Death and Most Things in-Between (2010), and The Good, the Bad and the Ridiculous (2013); short-story collections; and novels, notably I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale (1959), Delhi: A Novel (1990), The Company of Women (1999), and The Sunset Club (2010). He also produced English translations of Urdu-language fiction and Sikh scriptural texts. He served as editor of the Illustrated Weekly of India(1969–78) and of the daily newspaper Hindustan Times (1980–83), to which he contributed the satiric column “With Malice Towards One and All.” Singh initially was a strong supporter of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and held a seat (1980–86) in the Rajya Sabha (upper house of the parliament). Singh gradually became disillusioned with Gandhi, however, and returned (1984) the Padma Bhushan that she had conferred (1974) on him after hundreds of Sikhs were killed in an attack by Indian troops on extremists ensconced in the Sikhs’ principal place of worship, the Harimandir Sahib, or Golden Temple, in Amritsar. Singh was later granted (2007) the Padma Vibhushan.