![]() ![]() He writes on happiness, faith and honesty. Khushwant Singh has never been less than honest.In Absolute Khushwant, India's grand old man of letters tells us about his life, his loves and his work. In a career spanning over six decades as writer, editor and journalist, his views have been provocative and controversial, but they have also been profound, deeply perceptive and always compelling. Born in 1915 in pre-Partition Punjab, Khushwant Singh has been witness to almost all the major events in modern Indian history and has known most of the figures who have shaped it. ![]() An agnostic who's well-versed in the holy scriptures a vocal champion of free speech who supported the Emergency a dirty old man who sees the world in a grain of sand and beauty in a wild flower. Straight from the heart, this is unadulterated Khuswant Singh.Ībout the Book : - One of the great icons of our time, Khushwant Singh, 95, is a man of contradictions. Selected and edited by Sheela Reddy, Why I Supported the Emergency: Essays and Profiles covers three quarters of a century. Narayan, this is Khuswant Singh at his controversial and iconoclastic best. From his reflections on Amrita Sher-Gil’s alleged promiscuity to the experience of watching a pornographic film with a stoic R.K. Alongside these are portraits of historical figures such as Bahadur Shah Zafar, General Dyer, Ghalib and Maharaja Ranjit Singh as well as candid profiles of the famous personalities he has known over the years, revealing intimate details about their lives and characters. This bold and thought-provoking collection includes essays on Indira Gandhi’s government, the Nanavati Commission’s report on the 1984 riots and the riots themselves, as well as captivating pieces on the art of kissing and the importance of bathing. We must not allow them to get away with it,’ says Khuswant Singh, while fearlessly stating his own reasons for championing the Emergency. Even men and women who were pillars of Emergency rule and misused their positions to harass innocent people against whom they had personal grudges try to distance themselves from their past in the hope that it will fade out of public memory forever. ‘The Emergency has become a synonym for obscenity. ![]() Why I Supported the Emergency Book Review: A brave and passionate book, The End of India is a wake-up call for every citizen concerned about his or her own future, if not the nation’s. And communal politics, he reminds us, is only the most visible of the demons we have nurtured and let loose upon ourselves. He also points out that fundamentalism has less to do with religion than with politics. Analysing the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002, the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, the burning of Graham Staines and his children, the targeted killings by terrorists in Punjab and Kashmir, Khushwant Singh forces us to confront the absolute corruption of religion that has made us among the most brutal people on earth. But after the carnage in Gujarat in 2002, he had reason to feel that the worst, perhaps, was still to come. ‘I thought the nation was coming to an end’ When Khushwant Singh witnessed the violence of Partition nearly seventy years ago, he believed that he had seen the worst that India could do to herself. ![]()
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