THE MAN BEHIND THE PERSONA: Khushwant Singh
Author(s): ARVINDAR SINGH
Source: India International Centre Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 1 (SUMMER 2017), pp. 110-122
Published by: India International Centre
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26317529
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THE
THEMAN
MANBEHIND
BEHIND
THE
THE PERSONA
PERSONA
Khushwant
Khushwant Singh
Singh
ARVINDAR
SINGH
He has the knack of seeming to speak directly to the reader, shrugging
himself out of the confines of the printed page, putting his arm across
your shoulders so that you almost sense the knobbly feel of a tweed sleeve,
almost smell the tart whiff of Scotch as he leans forward to impart a
particularly juicy confidence.
—-Jug Suraiya on Khushwant Singh's 80th birthday
players
players ononthe
theIndian
Indianliterary
literaryscene
sceneforfor
wellwell
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60 years.
60 years.
BornHe hadin 1915,
had aa large circleofKhushwant
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fairfair
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of critics
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Theobject
objectofofthis
thispiece
pieceis isto tocritically
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analyse
his works
his works
without
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beingtoo
toojudgemental,
judgemental,bybypresenting
presenting
bothboth
sidessides
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of coin
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the scholarly
scholarlyand
andnot-so-scholarly
not-so-scholarlyofferings
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manman
who who
was was
columnist,
columnist,historian,
historian,writer,
writer,editor
editorandand
parliamentarian,
parliamentarian,
all rolled
all rolled
into one.
During his early years as a lawyer, and later on diplomatic
assignments, Khushwant Singh was to have a variety of experiences
which would indeed help mould him into a writer of note. As a
lawyer, he developed the habit of observing detail, which stood him
in good stead as a writer. His constant lament was the many wasted
years in the legal profession and diplomacy when he should have
probably answered his first calling of being a writer.
EARLY WRITINGS AND TRAIN TO PAKISTAN
Khushwant the writer has always been a bit of an enigma. He was
consistent in many things but also inconsistent in several ways.
Summer 2017, Volume 44, Number 1
110
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ARVINDAR SINGH : THE MAN BEHIND THE PERSONA
He can be clubbed under various heads
of the columnist and historian stand out
stormy exit from the Indian High Com
Officer-in-Charge of Public Relations) whe
relationship with the High Commiss
Khushwant began writing his well-know
(1956), which was first published under
the village in the plot of the novel. His
that Train to Pakistan was undoubtedly
in his opinion his father was a one-nove
was holding a competition for the best wo
Khushwant submitted the manuscript of
friend's name as Krishna Menon was one
competition with a prize of USD 100 and
book. Tatty Bell, wife of the British High
the book, told him that nobody would pub
publishing. When he got the news of th
first person he told and she rewarded h
recorded in his inimitable style that he fo
Train to Pakistan has as much explicit
novel, which could have been express
sophisticated form, given the nature of th
wrote that when he asked his mothers opin
had read it, she had only one word to say,
chap)! The book also has haunting descri
various forms which took place during Par
his depiction of the scene in the village aft
arrives from across the border:
The village was stilled in a deathly silence
else what the odour was. They all knew. The
time. The answer was implicit in the fact th
from Pakistan.
Like most classic fiction, Train to Pakis
characters Khushwant had encountered
The Communist ideologue, Iqbal, was m
whose father, Sir Alma Latifi, was an ICS o
magistrate, was actually Middha, a city m
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lie QUARTERLY
with women were part of Lahore lore o
Singh, the stud and dacoit, was in reality
household who had had an affair with No
Manzur Qadir's home. Writing a Forewor
special edition of the book, Khushwant sa
The only conclusion that we can draw from
Partition in 1947 is that such things mus
And the only way to prevent their recurren
integration of people of different races, religio
the subcontinent.
Train to Pakistan, famous as it may be, lacks the kind of human touch
present in Khushwant's second novel, I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale.
Published in 1961, it depicts Punjab in 1942-43 at the height of the
Quit India Movement. Its main protagonist, Sher Singh, son of Buta
Singh, a magistrate loyal to the Raj, gets involved with gun-toting
revolutionaries, much to his father's chagrin. Another character,
Madan Chand, has amorous designs on a number of women,
some of which succeed. The book has its fair share of hilarity and
authentically describes the ambience of a district town in Punjab (in
this case, Amritsar) during the period.
A HISTORY OF THE SIKHS: HIS MOST SCHOLARLY WORK
After a stint with UNESCO in Paris and as editor of Yojana
magazine (which was a government publication to popularise the
achievements of the Five Year Plans), Khushwant Singh, through
an American project scout whom he met in Delhi, received a grant
from the Rockefeller Foundation to write a definitive history of the
Sikhs. The two-volume A History of the Sikhs has been recognised
in the literary world as his most cerebral contribution. As veteran
journalist and former editor of Statesman S. Nihal Singh says,
Ά History of the Sikhs was Khushwant's most scholarly work,
undoubtedly.'1
This historical set of books is both encyclopaedic and racy
in content. In the Preface to these volumes Khushwant wrote: This
work is the first attempt to tell the story of the Sikhs from their
inception to the present day....The story of the Sikhs is the story of
the rise, fulfilment and collapse of Punjabi nationalism.' The Times of
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ARVINDAR SINGH : THE MAN BEHIND THE PERSONA
India described it as 'the indispensable reference
sociological understanding of the Sikh condit
of London had this to say: 'Singh has done a goo
history into informed reading.'
Besides other aspects of Sikh history, A Histo
a very lucid depiction of the evolution of the A
Sahib), the holy book of the Sikhs. Khushwant n
on the Sikh scripture: 'The main appeal of the G
is its non-esoteric character and its utter simplic
Khushwant Singh's contribution as a c
community undoubtedly towers over all his o
himself mentioned in his autobiography, at the en
Sikhs he appended two words in Latin: Opus E
is Done).
EDITOR OF THE ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY OF INDIA
In 1969, Khushwant Singh became editor of T
of India, which at the time was a rather conserv
Bennett and Coleman, Times of India Group, and
It is said that on the first day in the office of
on duty mistook him for a rather informally d
to him, Sahib abhhee ayya nahin (the Boss is not
informed that he was speaking to the boss.
When he took over the magazine, Khus
things in mind. He set out to inform, to amu
turned around a rather staid publication b
provocative politics, a bit of gossip, tantalising
like. His son recalls that he was a good comm
sense what the reading public desired. Among th
gave the magazine a big boost in circulation w
various communities of India such as the Chi
Lingayats, Memons, Bohras, Maheshwaris an
a few. Soon, the Weekly's circulation topped
published by Bennett and Coleman.
Nevertheless, Khushwant displayed a t
inconsistency during his Weekly tenure. In
pieces as Editor he wrote that had she not bee
daughter, Indira Gandhi's academic record
her for even a Class III officer's job in he
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However, his friendship with the family of
Fatma Zakaria (whose husband, Rafiq, was
and a minister in Maharashtra), changed th
Laxman cartoon coronated Indira Gandhi the
Weekly cover.
But Khushwant went over the top when it
the heir apparent, Sanjay Gandhi, in the run-u
infamous Emergency (1975-77). In a cover st
May 1975, a month before Emergency was
writing on Sanjay Gandhis controversial Ma
declared that the car would be wholly indig
?6000, being much cheaper than the other Indi
and run at 18 km to the litre. Besides that, he
years' time the factory would roll out 50,00
little Marutis should be seen on the roads of
a month or two later they will be running
Kanyakumari.' Years later in his autobiography,
Malice, Khushwant admitted he had been taken
factory was only a couple of corrugated roof s
so-called prototype, which he drove, was no
up. Contrast this to his article in the Weekly,
that the Maruti assembly lines were buzzing w
known fact, however, that Sanjay Gandhi could
car, and the Congress government in 1980 sign
Suzuki Motors of Japan for passenger car prod
Maruti was retained.
in the independence uay issue 01 tne weemy in iy/o,
Khushwant went a few steps further. He put Sanjay Gandhi on the
cover of the magazine with a fawning heading—'Sanjay Gandhi: The
Man Who Gets Things Done'—with the accompanying interview
done by Khushwant himself. It appears that he did most of the
talking, with Sanjay's replies brief and noncommittal. On being
asked how much his grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, had influenced
him, Sanjay replied, Ί cannot recall any specific way in which he
influenced me.' To the question about the books that had made an
impact on him, Sanjay answered, Ί cannot think of any.' He did,
however, express himself in favour of compulsory sterilisation and
the presidential form of government. Sanjay Gandhi was projected
as a man of few words.
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ARVINDAR SINGH : THE MAN BEHIND THE PERSONA
In October 1976, the Editor's page had Khushwant once m
eulogising the crown prince of Emergency India:
He has no truck with shady characters or sycophants; he is a
teetotaller, he lives a simple life, he speaks little, he speaks in a
honest and forthright manner, his words are not hot air but charged
with action. ... His Youth Congress has done more work in thes
last two years than the main Congress could do in the last fiv
years. Above all, he is the first Congress leader who has taken on
himself the unpleasant task of cleaning and purging the party of its
ills. More power to Sanjay!
Speaking about his over-enthusiastic praise of the Gandhi
during the Emergency, Rahul feels that Khushwant was fairly
politically speaking—the Gandhis were able to get around
and it is also true that he could be easily swayed by emoti
He recalls that the family was very upset about it. S. Nihal
believes that during this period it was obvious that Khush
was swayed by sentiment and lacked the objectivity requir
a political commentator.2 On the whole, this particular ph
Khushwant's journalistic career is probably when it hit its
ebb. It must be borne in mind that this is not an unknown
phenomenon in the literary world. Graham Greene and Gabriel
Garcia Marquez showered words of great praise on the Panamanian
dictator, General Omar Trujillo, and the Cuban dictator, Fidel
Castro, respectively. Salman Rushdie's The Jaguar Smiles was clearly
a public relations exercise on behalf of the ruling Sandinistas
of Nicaragua. These instances of an author straying from the
well-established feeling of love for liberty may be attributed to a
susceptibility to flattery and envy for the man of action. Perhaps
this applied to Khushwant, vis-à-vis Sanjay Gandhi. Thus it came to
pass that Khushwant Singh was dubbed Khushamat Singh (Courtier
Singh), following this episode.
Be that as it may, Khushwant Singh took The Illustrated
Weekly to dizzying heights of circulation. From 60,000 copies,
it had zoomed to 400,000 by the end of his tenure. He was
unceremoniously shown the door by the Jains of the Bennett and
Coleman Group, under pressure from the Janata government
in 1978, because of his continued support for Mrs. Gandhi and
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the Congress, which was then in opposit
Prime Minister Morarji Desai's son, Kanti,
the proprietor of Bennett and Coleman, to
rumoured that he had written a nasty piece
Consequently, he was asked summarily to le
due date of his relinquishing charge, and his f
In reality, there was nothing malicious in t
later published in Sunday magazine of the
Group. It may be said without a shadow of
stint as editor of The Illustrated Weekly w
Singh a household name in the country.
MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT AND THE PUNJAB PR
The Gandhis were back in power by January
government fell, a victim of its internal s
Singh was rewarded with the editorship of
membership of the Rajya Sabha. His time i
coincided with the rise of terrorism in Pu
of the Golden Temple in 1984 by the army
Sikh pogrom after the assassination of the
Indira Gandhi.
Khushwant, as was his wont, was quite
matters, both when he spoke in the House and
those years. He also returned the Padma Bhush
him, to the President after the army's action i
Prophetically, Khushwant wrote after Op
operation at the Golden Temple),
It will take a long time for the bloodstains to be
the marble pankarma and the buildings around t
will take even longer for the sullen resentment
hearts of the Sikh community to subside.
He ridiculed the White Paper published by t
Punjab issue as a cover up, says Rahul. Yet K
a memorable tribute to Indira Gandhi in Parliament.
I know of no other woman who combined in her appearance regal
dignity with feminine charm as she did and answered Hillaire
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ARVINDAR SINGH THE MAN BEHIND THE PERSONA
Belloc's description of a beautiful woman: 'Her face was li
king's command when all the swords are drawn.'
When the Rajiv-Longowal accord was signed in 1985, K
was one of those who wholeheartedly welcomed it alon
decision of the government to hold provincial elections
the same year. Although terrorism did not abate fo
decade more, Khushwant was unrelenting in his condem
the scourge. In June 1989, he bemoaned the fact that
terrorists were now killing newspaper hawkers of Hind
who were unprotected and probably did not even
newspapers themselves. Talking about the Hind Samac
he went on to say that
I have had many differences with them. I think they were w
in asking Punjabi Hindus to declare Hindi as their mother to
opposing the Punjabi Suba and supporting Operation Blu
However, since they felt they were right, they had every right
so. That is what freedom of the press is all about.
When terrorism ended in Punjab in the 1990s, Khushw
could be counted among the happiest people as he had often
the view that Khalistan would be formed over his dead body
POPULAR COLUMNS AND SELECTED WRITINGS
Any reference to Khushwant Singh inevitably throws u
of his columns, particularly With Malice Towards One and
appeared every Saturday in Hindustan Times. His popul
writing began with the Editor's Page during his years at Th
Weekly. The Malice column was followed by Gossip Sweet a
the now defunct Sunday magazine. Another, This Above A
in The Tribune of Chandigarh and the now defunct Sunday
Apart from these publications the columns reappeared
newspapers across the length and breadth of the count
various languages as well.
In these columns, as well as in select articles, Khu
could be caustic in his comments about the living
besides lavishing praise, more often than not, on the fa
example, he once mentioned that the debutant Pakista
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Fatima Bhutto, was so ravishingly beaut
take his eyes off her' when she came to cal
The piece he wrote on V K. Krishna Meno
is another case in point. Rahul Singh me
held to be the best article he wrote for a m
impact. In a hilarious as well as acerbic r
in the Indian High Commission in Lond
Khushwant, to whom Menon took an in
Menons relationship with a certain Briga
Soon, the Brigadier and his wife began t
entertainment and the like, and Khushw
left out of the wining and dining. (I hav
the reason Khushwant harboured a gr
Eventually, the Brigadiers wife slippe
Menons affair with his secretary, Kamla
the tongue lashing of her life. Khushwa
this context: 'His vocabulary was enriche
working classes. "Bitch" and "slut" ca
However, the story had a happy ending as
that Menon was a family friend besides bei
Another humorous piece he wrote dur
'Prohibit Prohibition'. Here, Khushwant say
to a major thoroughfare in Mumbai and sho
nahin toh gaddi chhor do (give me my soda
the seat of power). Mockingly, he describ
pegs in public till the police marches him o
By scrapping prohibition, the Maharashtra gov
my ambition to become the first battliwala
were a little confused. I am reminded of a P
no point in giving somebody a tumbler of m
mix goat droppings in it! Surely the chaps in
have been high on toddy or feni when they dr
everyone above 21 to get a permit to buy liquo
Khushwant also ridiculed A. G. Noorani
journalist, in a pen portrait. Noorani, w
companion during his Mumbai years, tried
with certain ladies, but without success. In
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ARVINDAR SINGH : THE MAN BEHIND THE PERSONA
a certain American woman who told Noorani t
married she committed adultery. This led to a
confessing to Khushwant that the lady was pro
relationship with him. Khushwant tried to dis
notion by pointing out that American women ofte
without meaning them. But Noorani continued
pursuit. Soon the woman was calling Khushwant
get Noorani off her back. There were many such
equally unromantic endings,' noted Khushwant.
well-known journalist Anees Jung were to meet
in mind. The result was pretty disastrous. They
and waited in separate restaurants for each oth
bumping into each other while exiting the hot
argued rather ferociously till they reached their
another scintillating piece written about 20 yea
commented on the sexual behaviour of Indian women:
Hindu women are cold and chaste; Muslim, Sikh and Tribal women
are hot and often promiscuous...women of Andhra Pradesh use
crude and lascivious words during the sex act, and delight at being
abused and addressed lasciviously. Women of Bihar are secretive
and Tamil Nadu rather placid.
From this it would appear that Khushwant had bedded women from
all the states of India. It was not so. This was just the image he liked
to create of himself as a man who was colourful in many ways.
LATER WRITINGS AND AN ASSESSMENT OF THE MAN BEHIND
THE PERSONA
In 1990, Khushwant Singh published Delhi, a novel dedicated to
the city of his dwelling. Displaying his trademark gift for literary
humour and a professional historian's grip over narrative from the
era of the Mughals to modern times, it is told through the life of a
journalist fallen on bad times (partly based on his own life) and a
eunuch who plays a major role in the journalists life.
Khushwant's autobiography, Truth, Love and. a Little Malice,
published in 2002 after a long, legal wrangle with Maneka Gandhi,
was a vivid and transparent account of his life but did not reveal
anything particularly new about him, except in anecdotal vein.
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One interesting section is Khushwants expla
an agnostic. He points out that a vast majority
tax evaders, liars and thugs believe in God, w
of non-believers are people who avoid hurt
or cheating. As an example of the hypocris
mentions an amusing saying ascribed to the Si
known for its rigid attachment to spiritual
trading practices:
Jhooth ve assen bolney aan, Ghat ve aseen tolne
Padshah, Teyra naa ve aseen lainey aan
We admit we tell lies, we also give short measur
of Kings, we also take your name.
His other later works of fiction include The
narration of the life of a Delhi-based wealth
Kumar, and his many erotic escapades with a v
Burial At Sea (although the main protagonist is
a thinly disguised account of the lives of the N
The Sunset Club (about three elderly friends—
a Sikh—who converge every evening at Del
their fantasies and foibles), was published in
All said and done, Khushwant Singh was
likes of which will not be seen in literary circ
come. You could criticise him vehemently, or p
but you could not ignore him. To be fair to
brickbats and bouquets with the same equa
story, which he loved to repeat, he received
with only one line as the address—Khushwan
The postal department had no problem in find
S. Nihal Singh recalls that when he w
Commentary, after having been the South Asi
Statesman, Khushwant had only one comment,
not covered in the book!' Nihal Singh says th
a lot in his esteem because of the fact that on
had left instructions with both his children
Dayal, to hold a cocktail party at his residen
his philosophy of life—that while men and
go, life must move on. Kuldip Nayar, who
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ARVINDAR SINGH : THE MAN BEHIND THE PERSONA
Sahib as Khushwant had taught him when he
LLB, says that Khushwant never forgot a fri
strong rumour during the Emergency that N
from The Indian Express, Khushwant offered
Illustrated Weekly with equal remuneration. Rah
that despite giving the impression of being a fu
to tippling, he was quite a strict disciplinarian w
example, he was upset when Rahul cut his hair s
Another aspect, which has not been muc
was his love for nature. In 1997, he co-authored
with Suddhasattwa Basu in which he entertained the reader with
a graphic description of the seasons, its birds and plants, of every
month of the calendar in India.
Khushwant Singh must always be given recognition, I feel, for
standing up for communal harmony and not mincing words about
leaders and people responsible for communal violence and riots.
Following the Gujarat riots of 2002, he hit out in various columns
and writings against the collusion of the then state government,
headed by Narendra Modi, with the rioters. Soon after, he wrote in
Hindustan Times:
What can one expect from an administration that has openly sided
with murderers? Far from putting the perpetrators down with an
iron hand, the government colluded with the mischief-makers
as its police and its chief minister were imbued with the spirit
of badla (revenge). It is also clear that the revenge was so vicious
and effective because it was also pre-planned. ... The Sanghwalas
were never interested in bringing communities together; with a
triumphant Modi as their mentor, they will repeat the Gujarat
experiment all over India, unless we stop them.
Like his condemnation of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, his outspoken
writings on the 2002 Gujarat pogrom also fell on deaf ears. His
prediction did come true to a good extent; Narendra Modi assumed
office as prime minister in 2014. Khushwant by then was no longer
alive. It would have been interesting to know his reaction to Modi
assuming office and his later actions. I have no doubt that he would
not have hesitated to impart some home truths to the strong man
from Gujarat.
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Khushwant will also be remembered
cordial relations between India and Pakistan. Rahul mentions that
even when he was frail and old he would always open his doors to
any visitor from Pakistan. When Rahul visited Pakistan, taxi drivers
declined to take fares from him when they discovered whose son he
was. He believes this was because they felt his father was someone
well known in India who genuinely wanted the two neighbouring
countries to have amicable relations; and Khushwant could not care
a damn about some right-wing critics who kept telling him to go
back to Pakistan.
Despite his controversial stand on the Emergency and his
rather unconventional comments about women, Khushwant Singh
will endure as a writer who has left his mark on the sands of time.
An appropriate tribute to Khushwant was made by Asghar Qadir,
son of Manzur Qadir, the former Foreign Minister of Pakistan, and
whom Khushwant often described as his closest friend:
Above all, Khushwant was human. It is surprising how few humans
there are in the mass of humanity and how little humanity there
is in humans. He did not act against humans but for them. ... He
and my father used to ferry Hindus and Muslims across the border
at the time of Partition. They, of course, were regarded as cowards.
The brave ones are the soldiers who kill, not the ones who risk their
lives saving other lives.
NOTES
1. Based on an interview by the author ot this article.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
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