Kartar Singh Duggal (1 March 1917 – 26 January 2012) was an Indian writer who wrote in Punjabi,

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, and English. His works include short stories, novels, dramas and plays. His works have been translated into Indian and foreign languages. He has served as director of the

All India Radio All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani (), is India's state-owned public broadcasting, public radio broadcaster. Founded in 1936, it operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broa ...

. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

in 1988. In 2007, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour given by

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of the Indian government. Its off ...

, India's National Academy of Letters.Anita Desai among Sahitya Akademi Fellows
''The Hindu''. 23 February 2007.Kartar Singh Duggal gets Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
6 May 2007.

Early life and education

He was born in Dhamyal,

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

District, (now in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

) to Mr Jiwan Singh Duggal and Mrs Satwant Kaur. He was married to Ayesha Duggal (formerly Ayesha Minhaj), a medical doctor. He received his M.A. Honours in English at Forman Christian College,

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

Career

Duggal started his professional career with

(AIR). He worked there from 1942 to 1966 in various jobs including Station Director. For the AIR, he wrote and produced programmes in Punjabi and other languages. In addition, he authored a large number of plays and dramas. He was the Secretary/Director, National Book Trust, India from 1966 to 1973. From 1973 to 1976, he served as an Information Advisor at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (Planning Commission). He has founded many institutions, including: * Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation *Institute of Social and Economic Change,

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

*Zakir Husain Educational Foundation Duggal had been a member of many literary and cultural centres including being the President of Punjabi Sahitya Sabha ( Punjabi Literary Society),

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. He was nominated Fellow of the

Punjabi University Punjabi University is a collegiate state public university located in Patiala, Punjab, India, Punjab, India. It was established on 30 April 1962 and is only the second university in the world to be named after a language, after Hebrew Universit ...

in 1984. He was also honoured with a nomination to the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

( Indian Parliament Upper House) in August 1997. He died on 26 January 2012 after a brief illness.

Work

Duggal has authored twenty-four collections of short stories, ten novels, seven plays, seven works of

literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

, two poetry collections and an autobiography. Many of his books have been adopted by various universities for graduate studies. Among his works are:

Short stories

*''Birth of a Song'' (in English) *''Come Back My Master'' (in English) *''Dangar'' (Animal) *''Ikk Chhit Chananh Di'' (One Drop of Light) *’’ swere sar’’ *’’pipal patea’’ *''Nawan Ghar'' (New House) *''Sonar Bangla'' (Golden Bungalow) *''Tarkalan Vele'' (In the Evening) *''Jeenat Aapa''(A Muslim girl) *''A Room 10'x 8'

Poetry

*''Veehveen Sadi te Hor Kavitaavaan'' (Twentieth Century and Other Poems) *''Kandhe Kandhe'' (Shore Shore)

Novels

*''Sarad Poonam Ki Raat'' (A Cold Full Moon Night) *''Tere Bhanhe'' (Your Wishes) *''Nails and flesh'' (1969) *"Man Pardesi"(1982) *"Ab Na Bassoon ih gaon" (Hindi-1996)

Other works

*''Sat Natak'' (True Nanak) (One-Act Play) *''Band Darwaaze'' (Closed Doors) *''Mitti Musalmaan Ki'' (A Muslim's Earth) *''Philosophy and Faith of Sikhism'', Himalayan Institute Press, 1988. . *'' Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir'', New Delhi: National Book Trust, 1999. .

Awards

Kartar Singh Duggal has been bestowed by many awards throughout his career, including: *Padma Bhushan *Sahitya Akademi Award *Ghalib Award *Soviet Land Award *Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award *Bhai Mohan Singh Vaid Award *Bhartiya Bhasa Parishad Award *Punjabi Writer of the Millennium, Award of Government of Punjab * Bhai Vir Singh Award (1989) presented by the Vice-President of India for outstanding literary contribution *Praman Patra (1993) presented by the Chief Minister of Punjab for outstanding contribution to Punjabi literature *Sahir Award (1998)by Adeeb International (Sahir Cultural Academy) Ludhiana, India He is well travelled. He has visited Bulgaria, North Korea, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, the UK and the U.S. He resided in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

after retirement and spent his time reading. The

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

has 118 of his works.

References

External links

Kartar Singh Duggal, Biography

* ttps://www.andrewwhitehead.net/partition-voices-ks--ayesha-duggal.html K.S. and Ayesha Duggal talking about their experiences of Partition, their romance, and the plight of abducted women {{DEFAULTSORT:Duggal, Kartar Punjabi-language writers 1917 births 2012 deaths Writers from Punjab, India People from Rawalpindi District Forman Christian College alumni All India Radio people Indian autobiographers Punjabi Sikhs Indian literary critics Indian male dramatists and playwrights Indian male short story writers Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Punjabi Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship 20th-century Indian short story writers 20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Indian male writers People from Punjab Province (British India)