Ram Prataprai Panjwani (1911-1987) was an Indian writer, folk singer and educationist, known for his contributions to

Sindhi literature Sindhi literature ( sd, سنڌي ادب), is the composition of oral and written scripts and texts in the Sindhi language in the form of prose: (romantic tales, and epic stores) and poetry: (Ghazal, Wai and Nazm). The Sindhi language of the provin ...

. Panjwani was born at

Larkana Larkana ( ur, , translit=lāṛkāna; sd, لاڙڪاڻو, translit=lāṛkāṇo) is a city located in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the 15th largest city of Pakistan by population. It is home to the Indus Valley civilization site M ...

in the

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

province of erstwhile

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

(presently in Pakistan). on 20 November 1911 He graduated from Mumbai University in 1934 and started his career as a teacher at the

D. J. Sindh Government Science College Dayaram Jethamal Sindh Government Science College, ( sd, ) commonly known as DJ Science College, is a public community college that is affiliated with the University of Karachi — it is located near Burns Road in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Pre ...

, Karachi. After Indian independence in 1947, he relocated to Mumbai and started working as a member of faculty of

Jai Hind College Jai Hind College ( Marathi: जय हिंद कॉलेज) is an autonomous college in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, affiliated to the University of Mumbai. It was established in 1948. In 2000, ''India Today'' named Jai Hind College as o ...

, Mumbai in their Sindhi department. Later, he moved to Mumbai University as the reader in Sindhi department and headed the department from 1974 to 1976. Panjwani published several literary works in

Sindhi language Sindhi ( ; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where it has official status. It is also spoken by a further 1.7 million people in India, where it is a scheduled language, withou ...

, starting with his

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, ''Padma'' (1939) which preceded works like ''Qaidy'', ''Sharmila'', ''Asanjo Ghar'', ''Ahe Na ahe'' and ''Shall Dhiaru Na Jaman''. He also acted in four films, ''Jhulelal'', ''Ladlee'', ''Hojmalo'' and ''Shall Dhiaru Na Jaman'', the last one based on his own novel. He received Sahitya Akademi award in 1964 for his work, ''Anokha Azmda''. He was the founder of the cultural forum, ''Sita Sindhu Bhavan'' and was the editor of the Sindhi publication, ''Hindustan Sindhi Weekly''. The

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

awarded him the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of

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

in 1981. Ram Panjwani died in

Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...

on 31 March 1987 at the age of 75.

References

Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education 1911 births 1987 deaths People from Larkana District Sindhi people University of Mumbai alumni University of Mumbai faculty Novelists from Punjab, India Indian male film actors Indian male novelists Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Sindhi 20th-century Indian novelists 20th-century Indian male writers {{India-writer-stub