Keki N. Daruwalla (born 24 January 1937History of Services of Indian Police Service as on 1st January 1960
Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 1961, page 108) is an Indian poet and short story writer in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. Keki N. Daruwalla
The South Asian Literary Recordings Project.

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

. He is also a former

Indian Police Service The Indian Police Service ( IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became independent from the British Raj. Along with the Indian Administrative Service (IAS ...

officer. He was awarded the

Sahitya Akademi 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 1984 for his poetry collection, ''The Keeper of the Dead'', by the

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

, India's National Academy of Letters. He was awarded

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

, the fourth highest civilian award in India, in 2014.

Early life and education

Keki Nasserwanji Daruwalla was born in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

to a

Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...

family in 1937. His father, N.C. Daruwalla, was an eminent professor, who taught in

Government College Lahore The Government College University, Lahore (colloquially known as GCU), is a public research university located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Opened as Government College, Lahore, in 1864, it became a university in 2002. Overview In 1864, Gov ...

. Before the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

, his family left undivided India in 1945 and moved to Junagarh and then to Rampur in India. As a result, he grew up studying in various schools and in various languages. He obtained his master's degree in

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

from Government College,

Ludhiana Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 Indian census, 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the ...

University of Punjab The University of the Punjab (Urdu, pnb, ), also referred to as Punjab University, is a public, research, coeducational higher education institution located in Lahore, Pakistan. Punjab University is the oldest public university in Pakistan. ...

spent a year at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

as a Queen Elizabeth House Fellow in 1980–81 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 has written twelve books and his first novel for Pepper and Christ was published in 2009. He received

Commonwealth Poetry Prize The Commonwealth Poetry Prize was an annual poetry prize established in 1972, for a first published book of English poetry from a country other than the United Kingdom. It was initially administered jointly by the Commonwealth Institute and the Nat ...

for his collection of poems, Landscape in the year 1987.

Career

He was appointed in the Uttar Pradesh cadre of the

(IPS) on 24 October 1958 after competitive examination. On his first central deputation, he worked as Area Organiser,

Chamoli Chamoli district is a district of the Uttarakhand state of India. It is bounded by the Tibet region to the north, and by the Uttarakhand districts of Pithoragarh and Bageshwar to the east, Almora to the south, Pauri Garhwal to the southwest, Ru ...

, in

Joshimath Joshimath, also known as Jyotirmath, is a city and a municipal board in Chamoli District in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Located at a height of 6150 feet (1875 m), it is a gateway to several Himalayan mountain climbing expeditions, trekki ...

in the erstwhile Special Service Bureau (now,

Sashastra Seema Bal Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB; ) is a border guarding force of India deployed along its borders with Nepal and Bhutan. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The fo ...

) till 1965. On subsequent central deputation, he worked as Special Assistant on International Affairs to the Prime Minister,

Charan Singh Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987) served as the 5th Prime Minister of India between 28 July 1979 to 14 January 1980. Historians and people alike frequently refer to him as the 'champion of India's peasants.' Charan S ...

from 2 August 1979 to 19 January 1980. Subsequently, he resigned from the IPS to join the ''Research and Analysis Service'' (RAS),Gazette of India notification
/ref> the internal cadre of

R&AW The Research and Analysis Wing (abbreviated R&AW; hi, ) is the foreign intelligence agency of India. The agency's primary function is gathering foreign intelligence, counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, advising Indian policymakers, an ...

. Within R&AW he rose to the rank of Special Secretary. When his batchmate, Ajit Singh Syali, was promoted to Secretary, R&AW, Daruwalla was shifted as chairman, Joint Intelligence Committee, in the rank of

Secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...

, on 29 July 1993. He retired as chairman, JIC in 1995. Post-retirement, he was a member of

National Commission for Minorities The Union Government set up the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Six religious communities, viz; Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains have been no ...

from 3 February 2011 to 2 February 2014. His first book of poetry was ''Under Orion,'' which was published by

Writers Workshop Writers Workshop is a Kolkata-based literary publisher founded by the Indian poet and scholar Purushottama Lal in 1958. It has published many new Indian authors of post-independence urban literature. Many of these authors later became widely kn ...

, India in 1970. He then went on to publish his second collection ''Apparition in April'' in 1971 for which he was given the

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

State Award in 1972. His poems appeared in many poetry anthologies such as ''Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry'' edited by Menka Shivdasani, and ''

The Dance of the Peacock ''The Dance of the Peacock: An Anthology of English Poetry from India'' is a 2013 anthology of poems written by one hundred and fifty-one poets; edited by Dr Vivekanand Jha. The one hundred and fifty-one poets include Indians and diasporic Indian ...

'' edited by Dr Vivekanand Jha. He won the

, given by the

, India's National Academy of Letters, in 1984 and returned the same award in October, 2015 in protest and with a statement that "The organisation

has failed to speak out against ideological collectives that have used physical violence against authors". Daruwalla did not take back his award even after

passed a resolution condemning the attacks on rational thinkers. In an interview to

The Statesman A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level. Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States * ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...

, 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." He received the

for Asia in 1987.

Nissim Ezekiel Nissim Ezekiel (16 December 1924 – 9 January 2004) was an Indian Jewish poet, actor, playwright, editor and art critic. He was a foundational figure in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian Poetry in English. He was ...

commented "Daruwalla has the energy of the lion".

Books

* ''In Morning Dew'' * ''Under Orion''.

, India. 1970 * ''Apparition in April''.

, 1971. * ''Sword & abyss: a collection of short stories''. Vikas Pub., 1979. * ''Winter poems''. Allied Publishers, 1980. * ''The Keeper of the Dead''. Oxford University Press, 1982. * ''Crossing of rivers''. Oxford University Press, 1985. * ''Landscapes''. Oxford University Press, 1987. * ''A summer of tigers: poems''. Indus, 1995. . *
The Minister for Permanent unrest & other stories
'. Orient Blackswan, 1996. . * ''Night river: poems''. Rupa & Co., 2000. . *
The Map-maker: Poems
'. Orient Blackswan, 2002. . * ''The Scarecrow and the Ghost' *''Collected Poems (1970–2005)''. (Poetry in English).

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.J. P. Dutta Jyoti Prakash Dutta (born 3 October 1949) is an Indian Bollywood film producer, writer and director, best known for making patriotic action war films. Personal life Dutta is married to the Bollywood film actress Bindiya Goswami with whom he has ...

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

film ''

Refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

'' is attributed to have been inspired by the story of Keki N. Daruwalla based around the

Great Rann of Kutch The Great Rann of Kutch (or Rann of Kutch seasonal salt marsh) is a salt marsh in the Thar Desert in the Kutch District of Gujarat, India. It is about 7500 km2 (2900 sq miles) in area and is reputed to be one of the largest salt de ...

titled "Love Across the Salt Desert" which is also included as one of the short stories in the School Standard XII syllabus English textbook of

NCERT The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India which was established in 1961 as a literary, scientific and charitable Society under the Societies Registration Act. Its head ...

in India.

Appearances in the following poetry Anthologies

* ''Ten Twentieth-Century Indian Poets'' (1976) ed. by

R. Parthasarathy Rajagopal.Parthasarathy (born 1934) is an Indian poet, translator, critic, and editor. Early life and education Rajagopal Parthasarathy was born on 20 August 1934 in Tirupparaiturai near Tiruchchirappalli. He was educated at Don Bosco High Sc ...

and published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

* ''The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets'' (1992) ed. by

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (born 1947) is an Indian poet, anthologist, literary critic and translator. Biography Arvind Krishna Mehrotra was born in Lahore in 1947. He has published six collections of poetry in English and two of translation � ...

and published by

Online poetry

About Keki Daruwalla and his poems

Fire Hymn

References

External links

The Decolonised MuseKeki Daruwala: In Conversation along with his poetry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daruwalla, Keki N 20th-century Indian poets English-language poets from India 1937 births Living people Poets from Lahore Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in English Indian male poets Poets from Madhya Pradesh Parsi people Writers from Lahore Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education People of the Research and Analysis Wing 21st-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian male writers 21st-century Indian male writers