Kartar Singh Duggal (1 March 1917 – 26 January 2012) was an Indian writer who wrote inPunjabi,Urdu,Hindi, andEnglish. His works include short stories, novels, dramas and plays. His works have been translated into Indian and foreign languages. He has served as director of theAll India Radio.[1][2]
He was born in Dhamyal,Rawalpindi District, (now inPakistan) to Mr Jiwan Singh Duggal and Mrs Satwant Kaur. He was married to Ayesha Duggal (formerly Ayesha Minhaj), a medical doctor. He received his M.A. Honours in English atForman Christian College,Lahore.
Duggal started his professional career withAll India Radio (AIR). He worked there from 1942 to 1966 in various jobs including Station Director. For the AIR, he wrote and produced programmes in Punjabi and other languages. In addition, he authored a large number of plays and dramas. He was the Secretary/Director,National Book Trust, India from 1966 to 1973. From 1973 to 1976, he served as an Information Advisor at theMinistry of Information and Broadcasting (Planning Commission).[5]
Duggal had been a member of many literary and cultural centres including being the President of Punjabi Sahitya Sabha (Punjabi Literary Society),Delhi. He was nominated Fellow of thePunjabi University in 1984. He was also honoured with a nomination to theRajya Sabha (Indian Parliament Upper House) in August 1997.
He died on 26 January 2012 after a brief illness.[6]
Duggal has authored twenty-four collections of short stories, ten novels, seven plays, seven works ofliterary criticism, two poetry collections and an autobiography. Many of his books have been adopted by various universities for graduate studies. Among his works are:
Punjabi Writer of the Millennium, Award of Government of Punjab
Bhai Vir Singh Award (1989) presented by the Vice-President of India for outstanding literary contribution
Praman Patra (1993) presented by theChief Minister of Punjab for outstanding contribution to Punjabi literature
Sahir Award (1998)by Adeeb International (Sahir Cultural Academy) Ludhiana, India
He is well travelled. He has visited Bulgaria, North Korea, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, the UK and the U.S. He resided inNew Delhi after retirement and spent his time reading.
