Khushwant Singh

Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian novelist, lawyer,journalist and politician. Born and raised in Hadali, Punjab (now in Pakistan), he studied law at St. Stephen's College,Delhi, and King's College London. After working as a lawyer in Lahore 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, 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 1980-1986 he served as Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India.

Khushwant Singh was decorated with the Padma Bhushan in 1974. But 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.

Books

• The Mark of Vishnu and Other Stories, (Short Story) 1950
• The History of Sikhs, 1953
• Train to Pakistan, (Novel) 1956
• The Voice of God and Other Stories, (Short Story) 1957
• I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale, (Novel) 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, (Short Story) 1967
• Black Jasmine, (Short Story) 1971
• Tragedy of Punjab, 1984
• Delhi: A Novel, (Novel) 1990
• Not a Nice Man to Know: The Best of Khushwant Singh, 1993
• We Indians, 1993
• Women and Men in My Life, 1995
• Declaring Love in Four Languages, by Khushwant Singh and Sharda Kaushik, 1997
• India: An Introduction, by Khushwant Singh
• The Company of Women, (Novel) 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, (Novel) 2010
• Gods and Godmen of India, 2012 I
• Agnostic Khushwant: There is no God, 2012
• The Good, the Bad and the Ridiculous, 2013 (Co-authored with Humra Qureshi)

Short story collections

• 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
• The Strain
• Success Mantra
• A Love Affair In London
• ना काहू से दोस्ती ना काहू से बैर

Play

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


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