Harcharan Chawla

Harcharan Chawla (1926 -2001) – A distinguished Urdu Writer born in Mianwali, Pakistan. Moved to India in the partition in 1947 and settled in Delhi. Having lived through the harrowing experiences of India - Pakistan partition when he was left stranded as the family moved to Panipat, India resulted in his first novel ‘Darinday’. Once he took the pen in his hand it never rested as he wrote prolifically almost a book a year till he passed away in 2001 in Norway, Oslo. While in India his characters came out of the backdrop of his birth land Pakistan, a place where he grew, moving as a migrant to Oslo brought a new perspective to his writing as he wrote stories about the anguish felt by people who may migrate overseas for economic reasons and forever find themselves in crisis over issues of loss of identity, culture and values of back home. He also created a literary bridge between India and Norway by translating Norwegian stories into Urdu and Hindi. He translated the famous Norwegian Noble Laureate Knut Thomson’s novel ‘Victoria’. Another notable effort by Harcharan Chawla was his eight year’s work on ‘India Forteller’ – a compilation of famous Indian writers and their works. He is the recipient of eight Urdu Awards which include Rajinder Singh Bedi and the Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy Awards. His famous short story ‘Anguish of a Horse’ won the Zalaten Klas Bulgaria International Short Story Competition. His efforts in keeping Urdu alive overseas created a new dimension to the narrow subcontinent outlook of the language and made it cross international boundaries. His last novel published after his death ‘Adrift’ (Bhatke Hue Log) is a significant contribution to the contemporary Urdu fiction.

Works:

Darinday (Urdu) Bhatke Hue Log, 2003 (Hindi) Adrift, 2003 (English) India Forteller, 1992 (Norwegian) Anguish of a Horse, 1990 (English) Fan or Shakhsiyat, 2003 (Urdu) Bhatke Hue Log, 1993 (Urdu) Album Yadon Ki, 2001(Urdu) Album Yadon Ki, 2001 (Hindi) Norway Ke Behtreen Afsaney, 1989 (Urdu) Dhoop Ek Chadar, 1993 (Hindi) Dhoop Ek Chadar, 1993 (Urdu) Aks Aaine Ke (Urdu) Chiragh Ke Zakhm (Urdu) Aate Jaate Mausmon Ka Sach (Urdu)