Keki Nasserwanji Daruwalla (24 January 1937 – 26 September 2024) was an Indian poet and short story writer inEnglish.[1][2] He was also anIndian Police Service officer.
He was awarded theSahitya Akademi Award, in 1984 for his poetry collection,The Keeper of the Dead, by theSahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.[3] He was awardedPadma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India, in 2014.[4]
Keki Nasserwanji Daruwalla was born inLahore to aParsi family on 24 January 1937.[5] His father, N.C. Daruwalla, was an eminent professor, who taught inGovernment College Lahore. Before thePartition of India, his family left undivided India in 1945 and moved to Junagarh and then toRampur in India. As a result, he grew up studying in various schools and in various languages.[6][7]
He joined the Police Service in 1958. Working as a police officer offered him various opportunities to work in different parts of the country. He witnessed the harsh realities of life from which he drew the substance for his literary pursuits. He wrote twelve books, and his first novel,For Pepper & Christ, was published in 2009. He received theCommonwealth Poetry Prize for his collection of poemsLandscape in 1987.[citation needed]
Daruwalla was appointed in the Uttar Pradesh cadre of theIndian Police Service (IPS) on 24 October 1958 after competitive examination.[5] On his first central deputation, he worked as Area Organiser,Chamoli, inJoshimath in the erstwhile Special Service Bureau (now,Sashastra Seema Bal) till 1965.[9] On subsequent central deputation, he worked as Special Assistant on International Affairs to the Prime Minister,Charan Singh from 2 August 1979[10] to 19 January 1980.[11] Subsequently, he resigned from the IPS to join theResearch and Analysis Service (RAS),[12] the internal cadre ofR&AW. Within R&AW he rose to the rank of Special Secretary.[13] When hisbatchmate,[14] Ajit Singh Syali, was promoted to Secretary, R&AW, Daruwalla was shifted as chairman,Joint Intelligence Committee, in the rank ofSecretary, on 29 July 1993.[12] He retired as chairman, JIC in 1995.[15] Post-retirement, he was a member ofNational Commission for Minorities from 3 February 2011 to 2 February 2014.[16]
His first book of poetry wasUnder Orion, which was published byWriters Workshop, India in 1970. He then went on to publish his second collectionApparition in April in 1971 for which he was given theUttar Pradesh State Award in 1972. His poems appeared in many poetry anthologies such asAnthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry[17] edited by Menka Shivdasani, andThe Dance of the Peacock[18][19] edited by Vivekanand Jha.
He won theSahitya Akademi Award, given by theSahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, in 1984 and returned the same award in October 2015 in protest and with a statement that "The organisationSahitya Akademi has failed to speak out against ideological collectives that have used physical violence against authors".[20] Daruwalla did not take back his award even afterSahitya Akademi passed a resolution condemning the attacks on rational thinkers.[21] In an interview toThe Statesman, Daruwalla expanded on why he did not take back his award, saying "what you do, you do once and you can’t be seen as giving back an award and then taking it back."[22] He received theCommonwealth Poetry Prize for Asia in 1987.Nissim Ezekiel commented "Daruwalla has the energy of the lion".[23]
J. P. Dutta'sBollywood filmRefugee is attributed to have been inspired by the story of Keki N. Daruwalla based around theGreat Rann of Kutch titled "Love Across the Salt Desert"[26] which is also included as one of the short stories in the School Standard XII syllabus English textbook ofNCERT in India.[27]
^"Padma Awards Announced". Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 25 January 2014. Archived fromthe original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved26 January 2014.
