SUMMARY OF LESSON MARCH BY KHUSHWANT SINGH
Answers
Khushwant Singh (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]
Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh at a reading in New Delhi
Khushwant Singh at a reading in New Delhi
Born
Khushal Singh
2 February 1915
Hadali, British India (now in Khushab District, Punjab, Pakistan)
Died
20 March 2014 (aged 99)
New Delhi, India
Occupation
Journalist, writer, historian, critic
Alma mater
St. Stephen's College, Delhi
King's College London (as issued by University of London) Modern School (New Delhi)
Relatives
Sobha Singh (father)
Born in Punjab, Khushwant Singh was educated in New Delhi, and 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,[3] humour, sarcasm and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behaviour 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 bestowed with the Padma Bhushan in 1974.[4] 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.[5]
Early life
Career
Edit
Khushwant Singh started his professional career as a practising lawyer in 1939. He worked at Lahore Court for eight years. In 1947 he entered Indian Foreign Service for the newly independent India. He started as Information Officer of the Government of India in Toronto, Canada. He was 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.[12][13] From 1956 he turned to editorial services. He founded and edited Yojana,[14] an Indian government journal in 1951 -1953; The Illustrated Weekly of India, a newsweekly; and two major Indian newspapers, The National Herald and the Hindustan Times.[15][16] During his tenure, The Illustrated Weekly became India's pre-eminent newsweekly, with its circulation raising from 65,000 to 400000.[17] 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".[17] A new editor was installed the same day.[17] After Singh's departure, the weekly suffered a huge drop in readership.[18] In 2016 Khushwant Singh enters Limca Book of Records as a tribute.[19]
Answer:
A brave and passionate book, The End of India is a wake-up call for every citizen concerned about his or her own future, if not the nation's. When Khushwant Singh witnessed the violence of Partition nearly seventy years ago, he believed that he had seen the worst that India could do to herself.