Khushwant Singh

Khushwant Singh was born to an affluent Sikh family and grew up in the Muslim-majority village of Hadali, then part of British India. His native tongue was Punjabi, but he was also fluent in Urdu and grew up reading the work of Urdu poets. Later, he would become a prolific translator of Urdu poetry. Singh earned a Bachelor of Arts from Government College in Lahore in 1934 before obtaining his law degree from London’s King’s College in 1938. He started his law practice in Lahore on the eve of the Second World War and practiced until the Partition of India in 1947, at which point he moved his family to Delhi and took a position with the Indian Foreign Service as a press attaché. During his four years in the foreign service, he took posts in London and Ottawa and also started to write fiction. He published his first short story collection, The Mark of Vishnu, and Other Stories, in London in 1950. The following year, he began a career as a journalist with All India Radio and spent the next two decades working as an editor of leading publications in India while continuing to publish fiction. From 1980 to 1986, he served in India’s upper house of parliament and was a supporter of Indira Gandhi’s government. He discontinued his support for the prime minister, however, after Indian troops attacked and killed hundreds of Sikhs at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. In addition to Train to Pakistan, Singh is also known for his two-volume work A History of the Sikhs, 1469-1964 (vol. 1, 1963; vol. 2, 1966) and The Company of Women (1999). He received many honors for his work in journalism and fiction, including a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to Indian literature. Singh married his wife Kaval, who died some years before him, in 1939. They had two children—a son named Rahul, and a daughter, Mala. Singh died at the age of 99.