Dr. Harcharan Singh (1914–2006) was an Indian dramatist and writer in the

Punjabi language Punjabi (; ; , ), sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It has approximately 113 million native speakers. Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first language in Pakistan, with 80.5 m ...

. He dedicated 69 years of his life to Punjabi theater, in which he authored 51 books and staged numerous plays all over the world.

Life

Singh was born in 1914 at Chak # 576, near Nankana Sahib (now in Pakistan) to father, Kirpa Singh, and mother, Rakkhi. He was sent to his ancestral village, Urapar in Jalandhar District, for education. After passing class 8th from the Govt. School, Chakdanna, Singh was sent to Khalsa School, Jalandhar, for Matric (Class 10). Singh enrolled in B.A. at

Khalsa College, Amritsar Khalsa College ( pa, ਖਾਲਸਾ ਕਾਲਜ ''khālsā kālaj'') is a historic educational institution in the northern Indian city of Amritsar in the state of Punjab, India. Founded in 1892, the sprawling campus is located about eight ...

in 1933. Then he obtained his master's degree in Punjabi and history from FC College Lahore. Moreover, he earned his Ph.D. degree in orientalism and oriental history, with particular emphasis on classical, pre-

Maurya The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...

Indo-Aryan dynasties of the Punjab and Himalayas for his thesis "Theatre Traditions in Punjab" from

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

in 1943. He was the head of Punjabi Dept.,

Punjabi University Punjabi University is a collegiate state public university located in Patiala, Punjab, India. It was established on 30 April 1962 and is only the second university in the world to be named after a language, after Hebrew University of Israel. ...

, Patiala, for 10 years, from 1965 to 1975. He held the post of chairman at the Punjab Sangeet Natak Academy from 1982 to 1991 and again from 1994 to 1997. He was then appointed the chairman of Punjab Arts Council, Chandigarh, from 1999 to 2002.

Writing

Singh wrote his first play, ''Kamla Kumari'', in 1937, which was first staged in Amritsar on 21 January 1938. He established the Punjab Art Theatre at Lahore in 1939 and popularized theatrical activities in Punjab. He initiated a trend in Punjabi theatre with his wife Dharam Kaur, who dared to act female role in his play Anjorh, staged at YMCA Hall Lahore in 1939. This paved the way for women on Punjabi stage. Anjorh 1949

Singh authored 51 books in Punjabi. He was an authority on Sikh historical plays. His well-known historical plays are ''Chamkaur Di Garhi'', ''Punian Da Chan'', ''Miti Dhundh Jag Chanan Hoa'', ''Jafarnama'', ''Sarhand Di Kandh'', ''Hind Di Chadar'', ''Rani Jindan'', ''Kama Gata Maru'' and ''Shubh Karman Te Kabh Hoon Na Taron''. The play ''Chamkaur Di Garhi'' was first staged on the occasion of the tercentenary birth celebration of Shri Guru Gobind Singh at famous Sunmukh Nanda Auditorium, Bombay, in December 1966. For the last 38 years, different theatrical groups have been staging this play in India and abroad. Six of his plays have been translated into Hindi and one into Russian. About a dozen of his books have won awards. He was given the prestigious

Sahitya Academy Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

in 1973 for his play ''Kal Aj Te Bhalak'' (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow). He was honored by Punjab Govt. as Shromani Sahitkar in 1974. Besides these decorations he was honored by more than a dozen national and international institutions. The feature film ''Sarbansdani Guru Gobind Singh'' was based on his famous play ''Chamkaur Di Garhi''. His historical play ''Rani Jindan'' was performed by Punjabi Kala Kendra Chandigarh in 20 big cities of Canada and the US in 1981. Singh wrote the scripts of Bole So Nihal, (a world-famous multimedia Sight & Sound Panorama on 500 years of Sikh History, specially produced for the Birth of Khalsa celebrations,) Sher-e-Punjab (a multimedia Sight & Sound Panorama on 40 glorious years of Khalsa Raj) and Guru Maneo Granth, (another mega multi-media sight & sound panorama dedicated to the 400th centenary of the Prakash of

Sri Guru Granth Sahib The Guru Granth Sahib ( pa, ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ, ) is the central holy religious scripture of Sikhism, regarded by Sikhs as the final, sovereign and eternal Guru following the lineage of the ten human gurus of the rel ...

). These shows have been shown in 50 cities of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

and India besides in 54 major cities of the US, Canada and UK since 1999.

List of books

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Harcharan Indian male dramatists and playwrights Punjabi-language writers 2006 deaths Dramatists and playwrights from Punjab, India Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Punjabi 1914 births Indian male short story writers 20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights Punjabi University faculty Sangeet Natak Akademi 20th-century Indian short story writers 20th-century Indian male writers