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Home , Ajeet Cour, Jnanpith Award, Kartar Singh Duggal, Mahasweta Devi

KHUSHWANT SINGH () , born 2 February 1915, is a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, “With Malice Towards One and All”, carried by several Indian newspapers, is among the most widely- read columns in the country. An important Indo- Anglian novelist, Khushwant is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humour, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioral characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit. He served as editor of several well- known literary and news magazines, like Illustrated Weekly of India, major newspapers, including Hindustan Times. Reputed Journalist, fiction writer, author of 'Train to ', historian of the Sikh Community, and translator of and Punjabi literature, Khushwant is a household name. Letters with just his name, with 'India' underneath, reaches his doorsteps. Kushwant's faith in the Indian political system was shaken by events such as massacre of Sikhs that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination. But he has remained resolutely positive on the promise of Indian democracy, and worked via 'Citizen's Justice Committee' floated by H.S. Phoolka of who is a Senior Advocate Supreme Court. Honoured by several Awards and National Honours like , 2007, Khushwant's major works include : 'The History of Sikhs', 'Train to Pakistan', 'The Fall of the Kingdom of the Punjab', 'Ranjit Singh: The Maharajah of the Punjab', 'Ghadar 1915: India's First Armed Revolution', 'Tragedy of Punjab', 'Delhi: A Novel', 'Not a Nice Man to Know: The Best of Khushwant Singh', 'Truth, Love and a Little Malice', 'The Sunset Club'. NAMWAR SINGH (India) Prof. Namwar Singh is a veteran writer and literary critic of Literature. His monumental work Kavita ke Naye Pratimaan established 'new poetry' as a distinct new idiom in

21 . He has been honoured with Award, Shalaka Samman and Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Samman. He is the Additional Chairman of FOSWAL. A.B. BARDHAN (India) Comrade A.B. Bardhan is the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI). One of the most conscientious leader of the toiling masses of India, Comrade Bardhan is a statesman and a visionary who is constantly fighting for the less privileged sections of the society and the working class. He is the Additional Chairman of FOSWAL. (India) Educated at , Cambridge and Harvard Universities, Sitakant Mahapatra is a major voice in modern . He has worked as a civil servant, academician, social anthropologist and critical writer. Even though he only writes poetry in his native Oriya (or as he puts it "in the language he dreams in"), anthologies of his poems have been published in translation in all Indian languages, in English, and in twelve foreign languages. Among the awards he has received are the Bharatiya (1993), and the (1974). In 2003, he was recognised with a for his contribution to . ASHOK VAJPEYI (India) Ashok Vajpeyi is an eminent Hindi poet and scholar. He is Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi, . His important publications include 38 books of poetry and criticism, with several works translated into

22 various Indian and foreign languages. He has been honoured with Dayawati Modi Kavi Shikhar Samman, Sahitya Akademi Award, Rashtriya Samman, and many others. He is the Academic Consultant of FOSWAL. KARTAR SINGH DUGGAL (India) One of the most eminent Punjabi writers. A versatile writer young in his nineties, written more than 50 novels, collections of short stories, poems. His magnus opus is his English translation of Guru Granth Sahib, in verse the 1430- page Holy book of the Sikhs which contains not only the exquisite poetry of Sikh Gurus, but also of Bhaktas from all over India, primarily from lower castes like Kabir and Ravidas, and of Sufi poets like Baba Shaikh Farid. He is President of several cultural organizations, Honoured with Padma Bhushan and Member of , the Upper House of Indian Parliament. (India) Arpana Caur is a distinguished Indian painter, with her paintings in almost all important museums of the world. Born in 1954, has been exhibiting since 1974. Her solos, apart from Delhi, Mumbai, , Bengaluru and Chennai, have been held in London, Glasgow, Berlin, Amsterdam, Singapore, Munich, New York, and in Stockholm and Copenhagen National Museums. Her work can be seen in Museums of Modern Art in Delhi, Bhopal, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Dusseldorf, Singapore, Bradford, Stockholm, Hiroshima, MOCA LA, Asian Art San Fransisco, and Victoria Albert Museum London. She has been extensively written about, filmed, and awarded with several national and international awards including a Gold Medal in VIth International Triennele 1986. She was commissioned by Hiroshima Museum of Modern Art for its permanent collection for the 50th Anniversary of the Holocaust in 1995, and by Bangluru city and the city of Hamburg to do large non- commercial murals in public spaces. Since 1981 she

23 did three large non-commercial murals in Delhi too, and a mural for SAARC Secretariat, Kathmandu. Today her paintings support several projects for the underprivileged, including free vocational training school for girls, in the Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, launched 36 years back, of which she along with her mother the writer Ajeet Cour, are the Founder Members, a leprosy home in Ghaziabad, old People’s Home in Chandigarh, Home for Orphan Girls in Himachal Village, and free ration projects for poor old widows, and several social, environmental, historical heritage projects. (India) Born 1940. MA in English Literature, Calcutta University, 1961. Junior Research Fellow, Anthropological Survey of India 1962-64. Lecturer, Departments of English Literature and Drama, Rabindra Bharati University 1966-73. Regional Editor, Oxford University Press, Calcutta, 1973-82. Editor, Seagull Books, 1982-88. Producer Emeritus, and Doordarshan, 1989- 92. Research Professor, Asiatic Society, Calcutta, 1995-97. Had been co-opted Member, General Council, Sangeet Natak Akademi (for two consecutive terms), and Central Board of Film Certification (two terms). Was member of the 14-Member Indian Delegation to the East-West Theatre Seminar organized by the International Theatre Institute, New Delhi 1966, and panelist at seminars on Indian Theatre as part of Festivals of India in USSR and Germany, at Tashkent and Berlin. Has lectured in the USA, Sri Lanka, , Pittsburgh University, and Brown University. Visiting Fellow (Professor), School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Has translated plays and fiction by Badal Sircar and ; contributed introductions to plays by , Mahesh Elkunchwar, G P Deshpande, Satish Alekar; and reconstructed for publication filmscripts for films made by Shyam Benegal and . Presently Editor, Thema, Calcutta; Visiting Faculty at NFAI and FTII, Pune; Member, Board of Studies, Department of Drama, Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta; Member, Academic Council, Film and Television Institute of

24 India, Pune, and Film and Television Institute, Calcutta; Member, National School of Drama Society, New Delhi. (India) One of the greatest Indian poets of the modern era, with deep insight in the human psyche. His poems reflect rare sensitivity that probes relationships as well as the predicament of human existence. For decades, he has been hailed as the doyen of Indian poets. Jayanta Mahapatra has been honoured with several national and international awards, including the SAARC LITERARY AWARD. SURESH K. GOEL (India) Currently Director General, Indian Council For Cultural Relations, Suresh K. Goel has been a career diplomat. Having started as Third Secretary in High Commission of India, Singapore; First Secretary in High Commission of India, Kuala Lumpur ; First Secretary, Embassy of India, Beijing; First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India, New York, he was Director Ministry of External Affairs, Deputy Chief of Mission in Embassy of India in Cairo; Consul General, Johannesburg; Ambassador in Vientiane . As Director General of India Council of Cultural Relations, he is adding new vision, ideas, new innovative programmes and festivals, and is involved 24x7 in exploring and expanding new territories of Indian culture all over the world. IBRAHIM WAHEED (Maldives) Having started as a Teacher in Majeediyya School, Male, in 1982, Ibrahim Waheed rose to the coveted position

25 of Head of Culture and Arts Section, Ministry of Information Arts and Culture, and finally its Director General. Served as Deputy Minister of Finance and Treasury. He represented Maldives at various international workshops and seminars, and is Commissioner, Elections Commission, Maldives. As News Anchor, Host and Presenter, Television Maldives , interviewed various dignitaries including Mr. Yasser Arafat and Shri Rajiv Gandhi. He has been awarded the Premchand Fellowship for 2010-11 by Sahitya Akademi. He is a rare intellectual, and guitar player too ! JAYANT PRASAD (India) Jayant Prasad was born in 1952 and educated in Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. After lecturing on Modern Indian History for two years at St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, he entered the Indian Foreign Service in 1976. In Indian Missions abroad, he has served as India's Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament, Geneva, Ambassador to Algeria; Counsellor for trade access and development cooperation at the Indian Mission to the European Union in Brussels ; First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, Geneva ; and Second Secretary in the Embassy of India in Paris ; Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan. In the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), New Delhi, he served as Head of the Americas Division, Head of the unit on Multilateral Economic Relations, He was member of U.N. Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (2005-07), Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University (1998-99), and Rapporteur of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, Geneva (1986- 87). He is currently Heading the Public Diplomacy Division in the Ministry of External Affairs. ZAREEN ANZOR (Afghanistan) Mohammad Zarin Anzor was born in 1956 in Nangrahar province of Afghanistan. He obtained Bachelor degree in Journalism from Kabul University and Masters Degree in literature from Peshawar University.

26 He is writer and journalist, his six books written in short stories are published and he also has written books on research and critiques on Journalism. He served as Advisor in Education Ministry and currently as the Director General of National Radio Television of Afghanistan (RTA). (India) Surjit Patar is the pride of Punjabi poetry today. He has specialised in Transformation of Folklore in Guru Nanak Vani. His poems have been published in several collections. He has scripted and presented several T.V. programmes on the history of Punjabi poetry and music, and has also won several awards and honours. He has represented India in many international literary Seminars and Conferences and is on the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi. G. N. DEVY (India) Ganesh Devy lives in Baroda and writes in three languages, Marathi, Gujarati and English. His works in English include After Amnesia (1992), In Another Tongue (1993), Of Many Heroes (1997) and A Nomad Called Thief (2007). His published work in Marathi is Vanaprastha, and in Gujarati Adivasi Jaane Chhe. He is the Founder of the Adivasi Academy at Tejgadh, an institution devoted to the conservation and promotion of arts and imagination of the adivasi and nomadic communities. He works for the development of adivasis, covering over 2200 villages in Gujarat . He is currently engaged in the massive project of the People's Linguistic Survey of India, and also in creating the Bhasha Vana – the 27 Language Forest — at Tejgadh, symbolizing the link between language and ecology. He received SAARC LITERARY AWARD FOR TRIBAL WELFARE, in 2000, from FOSWAL. TISSA KARIYAWASAM (Sri Lanka) Professor Kariyawasam's academic career spans 47 years. Having obtained his Bachelor and Master of Arts Degrees from the University of Ceylon in 1964 and 1969 respectively, Prof. Kariyawasam completed his Doctorate in 1973 at the University of London. He is also a Diplomate of the London School of Journalism. He has many academic writings and over 60 books to his name. As a proponent of traditional performing arts, Sri Lanka's folklorist traditions and the transition and evolvement of drama and language these subjects figure predominantly amongst his publications. The University of Visual and the Performing Arts awarded him the D.Litt (Honoris Causa) in 2008. Considering the service rendered to the field of literature in the national context, His Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse, the President of Sri Lanka conferred upon him the life time award Saahitya Ratna in 2009. K. SATCHIDANANDAN (India) K. Satchidanandan, former Secretary, Sahitya Akademi, is a poet who writes in as well as in English. He is also a literary critic, translator and editor. He is the Editor of FOSWAL's literary journal 'Beyond Borders,' and has co-edited several anthologies published by FOSWAL. Satchidanandan has 22 collections of poetry, 16 collections of translations of poetry, 18 works of literary criticism, 4 plays and 3 travelogues to his credit. He was Language Policy Consultant to the Ministry of Human Resource Department, . He is on the Board of FOSWAL. (India) Nabaneeta Dev Sen was born in 1938 in Calcutta into a family of well known poets – her father was Narendra Dev and her mother was Radharani Devi,

28 who also wrote under the name Aparajita Devi. Her name was chosen for her by himself. Nabaneeta obtained her Bachelor's in English from Presidency College, Calcutta. She was in the first batch of students of the Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, founded by Buddhadeva Bose, where she stood first in the Master's course. The following year she married Amartya Sen, then a young Lecturer of Economics at the University, who would later win the Nobel Prize. They were divorced in 1976. Nabaneeta went abroad for higher studies (M.A. with Distinction from Harvard; Ph. D. in Comparative Literature from Indiana University). She is now a Professor in the Comp. Lit. Dept. at Jadavpur University. Her hobbies are reading, records, and travelling - often unplanned. Her first publication was a book of poems: Pratham Pratyay in 1959. Ami Anupam, her first novel, came much later: it was published in 1976 in the 'Puja Issue' of the Ananda Bazar Patrika. She now has many books to her credit in a variety of genres: short stories, essays, travelogues, poetry, fiction, children's literature, verse-plays, humour. Even her most scholarly essays are remarkable for the charming prose and sense of humour. She is one of the most popular authors in Bengal today. She has received numerous awards, including the Sahitya Akademi. G.K. CHADHA (India) G.K. Chadha is Professor Emeritus at JNU, Delhi and Chief Executive Officer of the upcoming South Asian University. Prof. Chadha is a Member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister of India, and has written 16 books. He was Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, England, Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Developing Economies, Tokyo, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Mauritius, currently an Honorary Professor at Shenzhen University, China, and Nagoya, Japan. He has received numerous awards for his contribution in the field of education and is President of the Indian Economic Association. 29