Khushwant Singh (1915-2014)

He will be best remembered as a satirist, lambasting in somewhat ribald terms the society he lived in.

Khushwant Singh spanned an era: a time before the subcontinent was split and the time after it, as new tensions and rifts created an entirely different environment. His death in New Delhi on March 20, just a year short of his 100^th birthday, also means there will be no further words from the pen he had written with till the end, his last book, The Good, the Bad and the Ridiculous, written when he was 98.

Possibly one of the world’s most prolific writers, with over 80 books under his name, Singh stood unchallenged for decades as India’s most celebrated novelist in the English language. To a considerable extent, he belonged to Pakistan too, born in a Sargodha village in 1915 and educated at Lahore’s Government College. His friendships across the border remained intact till his death. Singh’s first novel, Train to Pakistan, written in 1953, gives a moving, sometimes scathing account of the impact of Partition on villagers — without delving into politics to any great degree. His next novel, in 1959, I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale, touches on conflict caused over the British role in colonial India, as a father and son clash.

Though he touched many intellectual themes and emphasised his essential secularism, Singh will, perhaps, be best remembered as a satirist, lambasting in somewhat ribald terms the society he lived in. His interactions with women were legendary. Often in the midst of controversy, Singh will be known always for his exposure of hypocrisy and sometimes brutal honesty — a trait we do not often see in the culture of our region. Apart from his work as a novelist, he was also a newspaper editor and a columnist, writing on political and non-political figures from both sides of the border.

A winner of one of India’s highest civil awards, the Padma Vibushan, Singh leaves behind a vacuum — but also a body of work that will continue to be read and re-read for a very long time to come. He stood out not only as a writer but also as an individual who said precisely what he believed in.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2014.

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