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Kartar Singh Duggal, known for his pioneering Punjabi short stories, dealing with sex, Partition and other issues of Punjab in the 1940s and beyond, passed away today in 2012.
Died on 26th Jan 2012
Kartar Singh Duggal, the pioneer of the Punjabi short story, was born in March 1917. While writing in Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, and English, his writing is perhaps best known for their being rooted in historical events, using fictional characters to represent the times - and their personal, often mental struggles in them. Duggal was born in Rawalpindi, in a time when the short story was making its impact in Indian literary writing - with people like Manto as his friends and contemporaries, it is not difficult to see how.
In his early days, themes of sexuality dominated Duggal’s writings, under the influence of psychologists like Sigmund Freud and his student, Carl Jung. Duggal’s stories set in the Partition and the Punjab militancy were his apex works - exploring personal stories in a time of desperate, even mindless strife. Perhaps related to his personal life too, as he married Ayesha, the daughter of the poet Ali Sardar Jafri in the Golden Temple at Amritsar.
Duggal has been praised by authors like Khushwant Singh, and awards like Padma Bhushan, Ghalib Award, and the Sahitya Akademi Award have been bestowed on him. His career as the Station Director of the All India Radio led him to authoring plays, dramas, and other programs in Punjabi and other languages. Duggal has also headed multiple cultural and literary forums, including Punjab Sahitya Sabha (Punjab Literary Society). He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, in the year 1997.
Having written 24 collections of his short stories, a simplified version of the Guru Granth Sahib, and hundreds of other literary works, Duggal passed away on the 26th of January, 2012.
His autobiography is named Whom to Tell my Tale. Indeed, Duggal’s tales have been circulated far and wide for people to read.
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