Keki N. Daruwalla, one of India's most esteemed English poets and a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award,has passed away at the age of 87. His family confirmed that he died on Friday.
Born in Lahore in 1937 to a Parsi family, Daruwalla grew up in various places, moving to Junagarh and later Rampur before the Partition. He completed his education at Government College in Ludhiana, Punjab. In 1958, he joined the Indian Police Services in the Uttar Pradesh cadre and eventually became a Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, focusing on international affairs.
Daruwalla gained national and international acclaim primarily through his poetry. His debut collection, Under Orion, was published in 1970 and was created over a span of 18 months. He described it as the foundation for much of his later work, featuring powerful poems that explored themes of riots and mythology. His first novel, For Pepper and Christ, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Fiction Prize in 2010, and he received the Padma Shri award in 2014.
In his own words, Daruwalla remarked, “My poetry moved with history.” This statement reflects the depth and impact of his work. During the Emergency in India, he published Winter Poems, which expressed his profound distress over state power. In 1984, he was honored with the Sahitya Akademi Award for his poetry collection, The Keeper of the Dead.
However, in a bold move, Daruwalla returned the Sahitya Akademi Award three decades later, citing a lack of support for freedom of expression and the rights of marginalized groups. He criticized the Akademi for not standing firmly against intolerance and for failing to protect authors facing political pressure, stating, “...sadly, in recent months it has not stood up as boldly as it should for values that any literature stands for.”
Daruwalla's legacy as a poet and a voice for justice will continue to resonate in the literary world.
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