Parvez Dewan is an Indian administrator, author and librettist (lyricist). He is an
Indian Administrative Services
The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...
(IAS) officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre. He became Secretary of the
Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs
The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) was a ministry of the Government of India. It was dedicated to all matters relating to the Indian diaspora around the world.
History
Ministry was established in May 2004 as the Ministry of Non-Res ...
in 2011, and also the chairman of the
Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre
The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) was a ministry of the Government of India. It was dedicated to all matters relating to the Indian diaspora around the world.
History
Ministry was established in May 2004 as the Ministry of Non-Res ...
(OIFC). In 2012 he was appointed India's Tourism Secretary.
Dewan has authored books on Jammu & Kashmir, religion (Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism) as well as on
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
.
Early life
Parvez Dewan was born on 13 October 1972 in
Srinagar
Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...
. His father was a Wing Commander who began his career in the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
and grandfather an Army Brigadier, who later became the first Indian
Inspector General of Police
An Inspector General of Police is a senior police officer in the police force or police service of several nations. The rank usually refers to the head of a large regional command within a police service, and in many countries refers to the most se ...
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
. He was elected President of St. Stephen's College. He received his higher education at Wolfson College,
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. Dewan was the Senior Treasurer of the CU (Cambridge University) Friends of the Earth; and active with the CU Greens and CU Mystical Society.
Dewan was later elected a visiting research fellow of
Queen Elizabeth House
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mothe ...
at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
. At Cambridge, he won the Jennings Prize for obtaining the highest marks, as well as a distinction, in the Development Studies class. At St. Stephen's he was awarded the L. Raghubir Singh History prize for ranking first in his class.
Career
Civil services
Dewan joined the IAS and was allotted the Jammu and Kashmir cadre.
During his first posting as Sub-Divisional Magistrate in
Basohli
Basohli (formerly Vishwasthali) is a town near Kathua in Kathua district in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is situated on the right bank of River Ravi at an altitude of 1876 ft. It was founded by Raja Bhupat Pal som ...
, he revived its school of miniature painting.
Dewan was the Divisional commissioner of Kashmir from 2001 to 2003. and also chairman of the state co-operative bank between 2002 – 2003. Dewan was also the resident commissioner of Jammu & Kashmir before he took charge as the chairman and managing director of
India Tourism Development Corporation
The India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) is a hospitality, retail and education company owned by Government of India, under Ministry of Tourism. Established in 1966, it owns over 17 properties under the Ashok Group of Hotels brand, acros ...
in 2006. The company recorded its three highest-ever profits under him, and declared the only three dividends that it has since 1997.
Dewan was the Tourism Secretary of India (2012–14). He helped WoNoBo.com devise virtual walking tours of Indian cities, five in the first place, with almost fifty more to follow, making Incredible India the first national tourism authority anywhere to offer such a useful and entertaining facility.
In October 2014 Dewan asked for and was granted voluntary, premature retirement, in order to concentrate on his career as a writer, especially to work on his South Asian encyclopaedia, Indpaedia.com.
Advisor (minister)
In 2016 Dewan was appointed Jammu and Kashmir's Advisor (i.e. cabinet minister) for twelve departments including Education, Tourism, Public Works, Culture, Health & Medical Education, Consumer Affairs, Information Technology, Youth Services and Sports. (In India ministers are elected politicians. However, sometimes when state governments are between elected governments they appoint career civil servants as ministers and call them Advisors to the Governor.)
Writer
Dewan translated the ''
Hanuman Chalisa
The ''Hanuman Chalisa'' (; '' Forty chaupais on Hanuman'') is a Hindu devotional hymn (''stotra'') in praise of Hanuman.Rambhadradas 1984pp. 1–8./ref> It was authored by Tulsidas in the Awadhi language, and is his best known text apart from the ...
'' into English, written ''The Names of Allah,'' and brought out ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' in
Habba Khatun'
''Habba'' () is a 1999 Indian Kannada-language drama film written and directed by D. Rajendra Babu. The film has an ensemble cast including Vishnuvardhan, Ambareesh, Devaraj, Jayapradha, Urvashi, Shashikumar, Ramkumar, Vijayalakshmi, Kasthuri ...
s songs into Urdu songs, set to the same tune.
Dewan is also the co-author of ''Tibet: fifty years after'' with Siddharth Shrivastava.
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...
has written the foreword to this book. In the foreword, HE the Dalai lama advocates peace for Tibet and China, and states that violence is counter-productive and creates misery. Dewan and Shrivastava visited Tibet after the 2008 failed uprising of Tibetans against the Chinese rule, & documented the population figures and the socio-political situation in the region.
Dewan has researched into various caste and religious groups in India. He has focused on the biased projections that the media has created for minority religious and ethnic groups within the country—and tried to compare them with similar prejudices against internal ethnic groups in Pakistan (Punjabi and Urdu cinema; textbooks), the USA (including US cinema and TV), the UK, Turkey, Indonesia, Europe (French cinema; permission to wear religion-appropriate clothing) and Africa.
Books
Dewan has published twenty books till date, some of which are listed in the table below
Journalism
As a college student Dewan was for three years the Campus Correspondent of The Hindustan Times ''Evening News.'' During the same period, for ''Youth Times'' Times of India publicationhe reviewed music (mainly Western popular and classical) and did the Hodge Podge column under the pseudonym Ponga Muni.
''Indian Express'' wrote about Dewan:
Parvez Dewan seems to have that rare quality to poke fun at himself. On the author’s profile page of his latest book on Kashmir, this J&K IAS officer has candidly revealed some interesting facts about himself.
''“Most of the publications that Parvez has written for have folded up (''Youth Times'', ''JS'', The Hindustan Times ''Evening News'', ''The Metropolitan on Saturday'', ''Shama'' (Urdu) and such sections of ''The Times of India'' as he regularly contributed to)”, it mentions. “The venerable ''Illustrated Weekly of India'' wrote a long story about how Parvez created the Ladakh Festival in difficult circumstances. That was its last issue,”''
it carries on.
At another point, it talks about two of his ‘libretti’ having been recorded as rock operas in Denmark, and a third telecast on Britain’s Channel Four, adding: "And none of the three was ever heard of again."
A fourth pop-opera, ''Sanober and the Slave'' has had somewhat better luck. In 2012 it spent more than three months at no. 1 on reverbnation.com's DK charts for Indie (Independent), thanks to the much acclaimed music of Kim Barner, his Danish partner in rhyme. The complete lyrics/ libretto/ book can be read at http://sanoberandtheslave.blogspot.com/; the complete musical with music and vocals can be heard at reverbnation.com/barner
Libretti/ lyrics
Dewan has written some libretti. The status of the pop-operas of which he has written the libretti (lyrics) and which were conceived by him is.
Penguin India
Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...