Sahitya Akademi Award (1995) Shiromani Punjabi Sahitkar (1990) Punjabi Sahit Shiromani Award (2007) Degree of Doctor of Literature by Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (2008) Tagore Literature Award (2009) Lifetime Achievement Award by Punjab Kala Parishad (2018) Kartar Singh Dhaliwal Award (1986)
Jaswant Singh Kanwal (27 June 1919 – 1 February 2020) was an Indian novelist, short story writer and essayist of the Punjabi language. He was born in the village of Dhudike, Moga District, Punjab, India.[1] As a young teenager he left school and went to Malaya. It was there that he first got interested in literature. He returned to Dhudike after a few years and has lived there ever since. He was awarded the Punjabi Sahit Shiromani Award[2] in the year 2007.
Writings
He published several books. His novels usually have a rustic feel and depict the rural life of Punjab very vividly. His writings generally question firmly held social customs and beliefs. He has left leanings and many of his most popular novels champion the cause of socially relevant issues like social and gender equality. He is also known to take tough political stands in his newspaper essays. Later on, he became a supporter of the Khalistan movement.
His most notable novel is Lahoo Di Lo (Dawn of the Blood).[3] This novel is based on the Naxalite movement in Punjab. It was very controversial during the infamous Emergency days of the 1970s and none of the publishers was willing to publish it. Jaswant Singh Kanwal had it published in Singapore and smuggled copies of the novel to India. Only after the emergency was lifted, was the novel published in Punjab. This book has been translated into English.
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