Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

By K N Pandita
After the ditto tradition of mediaeval oriental monarchs, Omar, the crown prince of the House of the Sheikhs, has been anointed and becomes the next incumbent of NC Sheikhdom The sceptre and crown symbolised by the ....more

Joint patrol: Playing to
International gallery

By Sudha Passi
Call it political astuteness on the part of New Delhi or coercive mediation on the part of United States. When Vajpayee proposed joint Indo-Pak patrolling along the Line of Control to check infiltration and a step towards ...more

Bhisham Sahni: Great
writer of partition Saga

By Ashok K Choudhury

Bisham Sahni, along with two ther eminent writers, Nilamani Phookan and Kaifi Azmi were honoured with Sahitya Akademi fellowship last February.......more

EDITORIAL

Pathologically unreliable

The recent backtracking by the Pakistan president Musharraf is one more illustration of the insincerity of the Pak general about his professed dedication to the fight against terrorism. His assertion that he did not promise to rein in the terrorists operating from Pakistan and killing innocent people in India is proof that the Pak establishment is not serious about peace or solutions. When this is seen in the backdrop of the statements from the important functionaries in the Pak Government including its ministers, one is left with the impression that the protestations as well as promises from this Government are not worth much. Now, it is a fact of the life of that nation that the dictators there have been notoriously unreliable for their commitments, the usual expansion of CMLA (‘chief martial law administrators', as the predecessors of Musharraf used to style themselves before taking over as presidents etc.) was ‘Cancel My Last Announcement’! Today the general is virtually asking the world to cancel his last given promises.

Conventional wisdom says each passing day brings more degradation. If it is true of the politicians everywhere (and people too?) it is most graphically borne out by the Pakistani dictators, both in their domestic as well as international approaches. Ayub Khan claimed to bring order to a clique of quarrelling politicians and a few people did believe him. He signed the Tashkent Accord, the first accord with India. Zia ul Haq made no pretensions of bringing in order and was widely opposed till he found a constituency in fundamentalist Islam. He did not exactly break accords but undermined the spirit. He is the original designer of the Pak terrorism. Musharraf took over, not to rein in politicians but to bring order to his generals in the army. He has openly declared that he does not abide by accords and commitments;Tashkent, Simla Lahore all were dismissed by him as inconsequential after his Agra visit. People have tried to ‘defend’ him saying that the general does not understand the ways of diplomacy, that he is not aware of the force and obligation of the national and international commitments. But is that a defense’? Does it not show that he is roundly incapable?

Does it not show pathology of mind that is unable to act in the proper mature way? Even if Pakistan had not made any promises to rein in the terrorists it would have been duty-bound to stop them because it is a member of the coalition against terrorism. But then the general has also been crying from that January 11th speech that he would stop all terrorist activities., he has in fact, been denying that any terrorists are operating from the Pak soil. Now he goes and actually holds out a threat of waging terrorism against India! Of course, that is what the general has been doing from the days before he took over his nation, even before he took over the army of Pakistan. He has been at it since his association with the so-called northern infantry. But the world was lead to believe that he had changed, had learnt of the futility of the terrorism and its heinous nature. Now it is clear that he has not given up his ways and continues to be a patron of terrorism as India has been telling the world all along. And unreliable on the top of it!

Democracy upside-down!

National Conference secretary, Sheikh Nazir’s objection to use of words ‘tajposhi’ and its equivalent ‘coronation’ for the crowing of Omar Abdullah as the president of National Conference is understandable. In the -twenty-first century when the last surviving monarchs would not like to be called autocrats, a democratic party that has a constitution as well as a wide membership does not look very elegant if it is reported to be crowning young family scions as heads and future leaders. But that is exactly what the oldest party in the State has done. Till the party general secretary discovered that tajposhi was not a politically incorrect term, that was how even the party members were referring to the conferment of the headship of the party on Omar. And media men, being charged to call a spade by its proper name, would hardly see it as a democratic transition of the leadership of the party from the old hands to the young shoulders as the term-conscious general secretary would like them to see it.

Now the rise of sons is so much the rule on the Indian political scene that few have found this succession wrong. Or, objected to the young son being handed over the family possessions by a tired, aging father. Yet, it is all in that old tradition of nobles who handed over the possessions and properties to sons and heirs and went for their repose. The more aggressive ones like Aurangzeb actually imprisoned their sires to take the reigns in their own hands, but that has not been the usual mode. Usually there would be a dastarbandi a handing over of the effects of power, with a pat on the young shoulders and tear from the old parental eye. That, in one word is tajposhi or coronation. But there are problems for people who are praying at making the holding of power a party, thing. That is an anachronism, rather a reverse anachronism, a penchant for the medieval mores with democratic means. There the word ‘crowing’ would not be used though that is what the 'transition' is all about. It is, probably, an indication of the democratic creed that none of the senior leaders of the party have objected to the youngest entrant in the party being crowned the king. But you cannot castigate the people who do not see it so, for democracy also allows people the freedom to hold opinions they like. That is why democracy is called a topsy-turvy thing!

Sceptre and crown have a new keeper

By K N Pandita

After the ditto tradition of mediaeval oriental monarchs, Omar, the crown prince of the House of the Sheikhs, has been anointed and becomes the next incumbent of NC Sheikhdom The sceptre and crown symbolised by the Afghan karakol cap tossed onto his head by his father, have passed into his hands giving him the authority to perpetuate the spirit of the slogan viz, aleh kharenga wangan karenga bab karenga bab karenga coined by the emotive Kashmirians for his illustrious grandfather, twenty-seven years ago.

The coronation of Farooq at the hands of his father was a pageant of little lustre and less bombast than what the regalia of 23 June 2002 turned out to be. If we accept the sadist remark that except for the King of Great Britain, all other kings are what the king of cards are, then the NC Sheikhdom may meet with its nemesis finally at the hands of its 31 year old colt because in his veins runs 75 per cent English blood.

Farooq had become too confident about his presidential aspiration. Perhaps in circles in which he thought his stock was high, faint hints were thrown that prompted him to seek his quick replacement as party boss. The calculation was simple. With Farooq in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Omar could not be in the South Block. Thus presidential position with himself, chief ministership would go to his son An Englishman is the most satisfied man with all the four aces in his hands. Farooq would not only eat the cake but also have it.

For Farooq, Dr Kalam's appearance was a bolt from the blue. He had evaluated himself against most of the Muslim leaders of India and found them Lilliputians. But how the Titanic Kalam shot across the horizon, left him bewildered. He ruminated over the spoilt dream, remained dumb-founded and his suave son made the understatement that his father had been badly treated.

Everybody knew Farooq would not take his Kamarajing lying low. At the coronation of his sibling, he thundered like a wounded animal. The audience knew where it hurt him. So did the millions of people across the country know? Thus he came up with the only arrow left in his quiver - autonomy.

But this time he added one more dimension to the weapon in his arsenal. he warned repeatedly that if there was no autonomy, there was no peace in Kashmir. Bravo for the bold and public confession that peace in Kashmir remains hostage to autonomy which in turn remains hostage to the Sheikhdom Good luck to the democratic arrangement of the world's largest secular democracy for the only Muslim predominated State of Jammu and Kashmir.

There was an encounter on the autonomy issue during Prime Minister's recent visit to Kashmir. In reply to a question put to him in his Srinagar press conference, the Prime Minister said that when autonomy proposal was put before the GOI, he asked Farooq Abdullah (he is here on the podium, the PM said) what were the hurdles in his way of implementing development programmes in all the three units of the State that compelled him to ask for autonomy? Again the PM repeated the same statement in response to Farooq's autonomy tantrum on the coronation day. In addition he said that the Centre had before it the clear-cut policy of devolution of powers.

While giving vent to his anger and disappointment, Farooq announced in his speech on 23 June that he would in no case accept a cabinet minister's berth in the Centre. He fretted and fumed and displayed his bravado before the parts echelons that had flocked yes-men to the venue after providing them free transport.

Two days later, the national television showed him his son emerging with a smile on their faces from the residence of the Prime Minister. Amusingly, he had taken his son, a member of the central ministerial council to the Prime Minister to tell him "God forbid, I never meant to make autonomy a bargaining chip. It appears that the son's intercession worked.

The prince regent that talked briefly to the newsmen both after his coronation ceremony and after the meeting with the PM was much more sober, sensible and resilient. Now Farooq is waiting in the wings for anything that comes his way.

Notwithstanding his success as a minister, Omar seems to be misinformed on some important matters. For example he said that his father had been used by the GOI in Geneva when needed and now he is sidelined. In his first place not getting catapulated to presidential heights does not mean he is sidelined. Secondly, yes he did strongly speak for his people in the UNHRC once or twice. But Omar should know that there are many ordinary Indians including Kashmiris who more forcefully, more enduringly and more effectively defended India and Kashmir's position at the UNHRC. Not only that they defend the position of Farooq and NC at this and other important for a like the European Parliament and the British Parliament. If Farooq laments that he has not been rewarded, one may ask did he ever care to enquire about his compatriots who defended him at all international for a yet never asked an iota of favour for themselves either from him or from the Indian government. Is it that a small and natural duty performed by a VIP must be rewarded amply while the greater services of ordinary persons should pass into oblivion? Who is a greater patriot let the givers and takers of sceptre and crown respond.

Joint patrol: Playing to International gallery

By Sudha Passi

Call it political astuteness on the part of New Delhi or coercive mediation on the part of United States. When Vajpayee proposed joint Indo-Pak patrolling along the Line of Control to check infiltration and a step towards de-escalating and defusing tensions between two nuclear neighbours, it didn’t take many in the country by surprise although the practicability of the measure did trigger a debate.

The proposal for a combined monitoring of the 740 kms LoC with Pakistan has raised many questions on how exactly can the exercise be conducted by parties, who have little to share other than distrust for more than half a century. How do arch rivals become partner’s in peace overnight? How do they get over the mindset of throwing open their secrets and compromise with their security? Were India and Pakistan to embark on this route, what needs to be done? What is the incentive for the parties to go in for such an exercise?

As a battery of top American leadership descended into the region this week to literally force the belligerent neighbours talk peace and defuse tension at a time when the US is directly involved in its war against terrorism from the Pakistani soil, New Delhi seemed to have made the right noises by calling for a joint patrol with Islamabad to make it directly accountable and answerable in curbing terrorism.

At the same time it described its own proposal as "evolutionary", giving ample time for Pakistan to weigh it cautiously before reacting and even suggest the conditions and possible modalities were it agreeable. India experts are of the view that a joint patrol is the best possible step towards checking infiltration that is if a mechanism can be worked out. But there are also those who point that the distrust between the parties is so great, that the proposal looks like a non-starter at the very outset.

In the words of Ajai Sahni, Executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management, "this is a renewed element thrown into the present discourse on India and Pakistan, and both countries will have to show the international community that they are working towards defusing tensions."

"At this juncture I don’t see joint patrolling of the two armies along the LoC getting underway, at least in the foreseeable future," he said.

His assertion found echo in several former soldiers view the proposal as ‘‘an impractical idea and a non-starter given the level of distrust between the forces" of the two countries that have gone to war three times, excluding the Kargil incursion, in 50 years. Major Gen Retd Ashok Mehta said. "How can two armies overnight turn friends and start monitoring the LoC together." Like Home Minister L K Advani, he saw more pragmatism in a US-UK force being stationed in PoK to "ensure that the ordnance factories of terrorism be dismantled.’’

Close on the heels of Advani's suggestion of having foreign monitors in PoK, which India sees as the epicentre of insurgency in Kashmir, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on his visit to New Delhi ‘suggested’ American monitoring of the LoC "if India and Pakistan agreed." The monitoring could be a helicopter borne or with the help of sophisticated sensors or satellite imagery, the Americans are understood to have suggested.

While the Americans are restive of a possible nuclear strike at a time when its men are stationed in the region chasing Osama bin Laden, and would like an Indo-Pak dialogue resume at the earliest, New Delhi would find it difficult to compromise its national interests by having the Americans breathe down their neck under any pretext.

So far, New Delhi has articulated a strict no to any third party monitoring in the region arguing that the locals (India and Pakistan) know the terrain too well to pass on the job to others. There, however, is also a school of thought that says, should the American pressure be much, New Delhi can always say it has joined the Americans in the war against Al-Qaeda elements, who of late were seeping into the valley and causing trouble there.

Pakistan, would only be too happy to have any foreign monitors as it helps them,fulfill their cherished dream of having internationalised the Kashmir dispute and having foreign monitors there-an anathema for any Indian government. Also, for Pakistan, the problem or apprehension is that acceptance of a joint patrol along the LoC, could be viewed as an indirect acceptance of the LoC as a working boundary. "Any acceptance by Pakistan to conduct joint patrols would mean that it not only recognizes that line but also accepts the legitimate presence of the Indian army and India’s suzerainty in the area and across the LoC,’’ an editorial in a Pakistani daily read.

Nonetheless, Indian strategists point that this argument was already diluted when the international community and India made Pakistan adhere to the LoC and restore its sanctity during Kargil. They argue that Pakistan, today, is more cornered and there is now an opportunity for it to correct its international image as a haven for terrorists.

Also the prospects of the international community giving second thoughts to the economic aid doled out to Islamabad post September 11 to make it join US will act as pressure,point for it to consider favourably the idea of joint patrolling. Foreign monitors, land or air borne-on its soil will also impinge on its very own sovereignty.

Significantly, joint patrolling is increasingly being seen as a tension-defusing mechanism between warring countries all over the globe. There have been many successful stories in this regard, the most famous being the agreement on monitoring of the Sinai peninsula in the Middle east and the Open Skies Pact between the NATO and Warsaw Pact nations that envisaged co-operative aerial monitoring from Vancouver to Vladivostok.

"Monitoring does not depend on complete trust but can be used to verify compliance with agreements or structure a dialogue by asking what information is needed to ensure security, stability and compliance," according to Kent Biringer, South Asia Programme Manager, Cooperative Monitoring Centre, Sandia Laboraties, USA.

India and Pakistan could begin by studying such precedents and undertaking visits to areas where such exercises are being conducted, say two retired senior officials from Air forces of India and Pakistan in a joint paper on the subject. They have worked out a virtual blueprint for "Co-operative Aerial Monitoring" along the entire length of the International border.

"Aerial and remote sensing using jointly manned aircraft with a stipulated suite of cameras and sensors could be pre-deployed along the agreed portions of the LoC. "Such a procedure could ensure that a military buildup, unannounced. other potentially threatening military action along LoC does not go undetected," notes Biringer explaining that de-implementing the process at a later stage could be a confidence building measure in itself.

According to him, the first step in defusing border tensions is to enhance military to military interactions through enhanced communications to deployment locations, a reduced threat posture and including periodic joint meetings among array officials of both sides. These could be expanded into select military deployments along the LoC to demonstrate compliance with ceasefire and other agreements, like the ones that exist between New Delhi and Beijing for the Line of Actual control.

Once an effective inspection regime is put in place, it can be supplemented by ground-based sensors including seismic, magnetic and infra-red, which could provide detection and some characterisation of movements along known roads and paths.

"Sensor activation could alert bothsides of possible violations of the LoC and a joint monitoring centre censor inputs and dismeninate informatin," he says noting that these technologies have useful application elsewhere.

In the 1970s, Israel, Egypt and United States used sensor systems to monitor the terms of the Sinai accords. "Two mountain passes, considered critical for launch attack across the Sinai, were instrumented with sensors and watch stations, that ensured separation and allowed the peace process to unfold.

Says Biringer "under the current conditions India is reluctant to engage with Pakistan and some of the agreements remain unimplemented. Yet that situation cannot continue indefinitely without severe degradation of the security in South Asia."

As the pressure mounts on India as well as Pakistan, New Delhi seems to be yielding a little in that it would allow its High Commissioner to resume duties in Islamabad. For the moment it insists on de-escalation and not demobilisation. How far it is able to push through its point remains to be seen.

PTI Feature

Bhisham Sahni: Great writer of partition Saga

By Ashok K Choudhury

Bisham Sahni, along with two ther eminent writers, Nilamani Phookan and Kaifi Azmi were honoured with Sahitya Akademi fellowship last February. "Bisham Sahni is elected fellow of the Sahitya Akademi for his eminence as a Hindi fiction writer", said the citation.

Noted Hindi literature Bhisham Sahni, widely acclaimed as a novelist, short-story writer and playwright, has received a number of awards for his excellence as a writer. He is one of the few writers in Hindi today who is genuinely secular and committed in the true sense of term. "He is one of the three or four most distinguished contemporary Hindi novelists. Dr. Sahni consolidates the great tradition of the Hindi novel, which was inaugurated by Premchand and which since then has been enriched by Phanishwar Nath 'Renu', Nagarjun, Krishna Sobti, Rahi Masoom Raza and many others. He also stands out as a grand old man of letters in that he is equally impressive as a story writer, playwright and a social activist", says Prof. Jaydev.

Dr. Sahni won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975 for his Partition Saga Tamas (Darkness) published in 1973, perhaps the most powerful novel ever written on the subject. The socio-Political upheaval as the theme of this novel, it depicts the communal riots in the early part of 1947 in Punjab in a powerfully evocative style, exposing the British policy of divide and rule and the opportunism of the big bourgeois among the communities of the province.

"Tamas is considered an outstanding contribution of Hindi literature for its artistic control, a firm grasp of reality, excellence of characterisation, and its humanity and authenticity of experience", say the Akademi citation.

"The novel demonstrates beyond and shadow of doubt the plight of the common people who were the worst affected in the disturbances. It is a prophetic warning against the use of religion as a weapon to gain and perpetuate power", says Govind Nihalani.

The progressive, secular and national perspective of Bhisham Sahni is reflected in all his works in general, but it finds its best expression in Tamas, though it was written long after the partition tragedy. Sahni was an eyewitness to the riots in a small town in the North-West Frontier Province (now in Pakistan). He says: "I wrote about it 25 years later, and what promoted me to write was a riot in Bhiwandi near Bombay. I was in Bombay then, and my brother (Balraj Sahni) took me along to visit the riot-hit place. What I there reminded me of the '47 riots".

Tamas, which is running into its 18th edition in Hindi, has been translated into all major Indian languages as well as in German, Japanese, Korean, and French.

Tamas who also made into a TV serial in 1988 and later into a film. Dr. Sahni recalls, "When the TV serial was going on he had received phone calls and friends who recognised characters in the serial. Some of them started crying on the phone.... Nihlani had done a very good job. He preserved the authenticity of the novel. He had given it a very artistic and powerful interpretation".

Dr. Sahni was awarded the Premchand Award for his novel Basanti by the Hindi Sansthan, Lucknow. Like Tamas, Basanti, published in 1979, is also considered to be one of his best novels.

Basanti is a novel of education and initiation. Krishna Sobti accurately and approvingly terms Sahni's value-based political and intellectual commitment, "Basanti is about Basanti, but is no less about our ways of seeing the poor, women and victims''. It has been translated into English, Malayalam and Kannada and has also been serialized on television.

His epic novel, Mayyadas Ki Marhi, another major classic, won him the "Best Fiction Award" from Hindi Academy, Delhi in 1988. The novel presents a moving picture of a village bearing the atrocities of feudal lords and social decline. It is the story of the transition from the Khalsa Raj to the entrenchment of the British Raj as experienced by the people, in a small town in Punjab. At the heart of this story is the mansion, which is a mute witness to the changing patterns of life in this town over almost three hundred years.

An attractive and eminently readable English translation of his novel Mayyadas Ki Marhi, entitled The Mansion by the author himself was published by Harper colline in 1998. Dr. Sahni Says, "I like Mayyadas Ki Marhi for the sweep of its vision, and not only in terms of time span. It also has many more characters and situations. But it is instinctive, really. Sometimes you just feel that you have been able to pour out whatever you wanted to. "

As an eminent novelist Dr. Sahni, besides these three outstanding novels, has written Jharokha (1967), Kadiyen (1971), Kunt (1993).

Dr. Sahni is a successful short story writer too. He started writing short stories at the age of 16. Neeli Ankhen (Blue Eyes), his first story was published in Hansa, then edited by Amrit Rai. Over the years, he has written hundreds of short stories which have been compiled in several of volumes: Bhagya Rekha (1953), Pahla Paath (1956), Bhataki Raakh (1965), Patarian (1973), Vanqchu (1978), Shobhayatra (1981), Nishachar (1983), Palli (1989), Dayaan (1996). Besides he has written stories for children, which has been collected in Gulal Ka Khel (1980).

Some of his best stories translated by Gillian Wright have been published by Penguin India in 1990 entitled Middle India: Selected Short Stories. The stories are very representative of Sahni eclectic choice of subjects: from the sexually vulnerable world of domestic worker to the bewildered pain of the pensioner's struggle to get justice.

Some of his stories are reckoned among the best pieces in Hindi literature. Palli, the partition tale, is a long story about a child who is lost to his Hindu parents during Partition and then adopted by a Muslim family. It could be compared with Sadat Hasan Manto and Ismat Chughtai's stories.

Bhisham Sahni has also earned well deserved acclaim for his plays. He wrote his first full-length play Hanush in 1977, based on a Czech story of how a king orders the amputation of a craftsman who gifts the city world's first mechanical clock. The play got the first place in Moscow Theatre Festival.

Kabira Khada Bazar Mein, Muaveza (1993) and Alamgir were other notable plays. Muaveza means compensation given to the relatives of riot victims. In the play a man accosts a rickshaw-puller who has festering wound on his feet. He tells him since he cannot support his old parents any more, he should get himself killed in a riot so they could get a hefty amount a compensation. The play not attack any particular group or party, but of course it deplores the deteriorating situation.

Alamgir, based on the life and times of Aurangzeb, is the culmination of a two-year effort while he was a Fellow at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla, Sahni was fascinated by Aurangzeb's character and the fact that he was a bundle of contradictions. On one hand, Aurangzeb was a pious and devoutly religious man and on the other, he harboured boundless ambition and was a bigot without mercy.

Most of his Plays have been translated into English and other Indian languages and also produced by the National School Drama. Over the years hundred of shows have been staged in Delhi, Mumbai and other major cities. Recently Dr. Sahni was awarded the Sangeet Natak Award 2001 for playwriting.

Over a period of six decades, Dr. Sahni has written nine collections of short stories, seven novels, six full-length plays, book of essays, a story book for children and a small book on Jalianwala Bagh. Besides, he has written a biography in 1980 on his elder brother Balraj Sahni, Entitled Balraj My Brother.

Apart from his own writings, he has translated about 25 books from Russian into Hindi. He was selected by the Government of India in 1957 as Translator in the Foreign Language Publishing House of Moscow till 1963. During the period he has done some invaluable translation work from Russian into Hindi, including Tolstoy, Ostrovsky, Chingiz Aitmatov etc. He has also translated from Hindi into English short stories, novels, and plays of Yash Pal, Amarkant, Kamleshwar and Nirmal Verma, and Punjabi works like Nav Tej Singh, Gurdial Singh. Dr Sahni has also translated his own novels and plays and some stories.

Besides this literary pursuits, Dr. Sahni is interested in the performing arts and has acted both on stage and cinema. He has acted in films, including Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho directed by Sayeed Mirza and the television production of Tamas, Little Buddha, Rajdhani, etc. Two documentaries on his life and works have also been made.

Bhisham Sahni was associated with the Congress when Gandhi Ji launched the Quit India Movement in 1942. After partition, he became a leftist-to a good extent due to his brother's influence. Later, he was drawn to IPTA and later to the Progressive Writers' Association. In 1976 the progressive Writers' Association was revived under the new name of National Federation of Progressive Writers and Dr. Sahni became its General Secretary. He had also served Sahitya Akademi as its Member, Executive Board 1993-97. Besides, he has been actively associated with the Afro-Asian Writers' Association as the Acting General Secretary.

Besides the Fellowship, Sahitya Akademi Award, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Premchand Award, Dr. Sahni has also received the Shirmani Lekhak Award of Punjab Government in 1976; Lotus Award of Afro-Asian Writers Association in 1980-; Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1983; Padma Bhushan in 1998. Dr. Sahni was conferred Honory Doctorate by the Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, in 1998. Between 1993 and 1994 he was the Writer-in-Residence of the IIAS, Shimla.

The creative writer of eminence, Dr. Sahni was born in Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan) on 8th August 1915. His father, Harbanslal Sahni, was a devout Arya Samajist. He had his schooling at Gurukul Pothahar and DAV School in Rawalpindi. He moved to Lahore for higher studies and graduated from the Government College there. Dr. Sahni did his M.A. in English from the same college in 1937 and joined his father's import business, but finding the job too taxing, decided to teach in the DAV Intermediate College, Rawalpindi. He took teaching first in Bombay he and then in Ambala, after coming to India.

Despite his many successes, Dr. Sahni remains a very simple man. Presently, he is working on his memoirs as well as translating some of his earlier works. He feels, 'Hindi literature needs lot more patronage that it receives'. -CNF