By our reporter
TORONTO: Senior Indian diplomat and author Navtej Sarna, who represented the Jaipur Literary Festival at the just concluded first Toronto International Book Fair (TIBF), says Indian writing – in English and regional languages – is set to take off on the global stage.
Currently serving as secretary (west) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi, Sarna said that at one time there were only a handful of known English writers such as Nirad C. Chaudhury, R.K. Narayan and Mulk Raj Anand, followed by the likes of Amitabh Ghosh, Abhmanyu Chatterjee and others in recent times.
But now there are many new English language writers in India and then there is the world known Jaipur Literary Festival, said Sarna at a well-attended reception at the Indian consulate here.
The presence of Indian authors at the first-ever Toronto International Book fair (TIBF) indicates that Indian writing in English is set to carve out a bigger profile in the world, said Sarna, whose first novel titled We weren’t Lovers Like That was published in 2003.
The 1980 Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, whose father Mohinder Singh Sarna was a famous Punjabi writer, referred to large volumes of high-quality Indian writing in regional languages, adding that these works should be made available to larger audiences.
Since he was born into a literary family, it was natural that Sarna would take up writing. “I grew up with books around me and any discussion at our home used to be only on writing and literary topics.”
Sarna said he started his writing with short stories while he was posted in Europe. He recalled how he would struggle with a rickety typewriter to type out his first story in those days and narrated how it was published in a British publication after a lot of efforts.
From short stories, Sarna said, he graduated to novels. After years of labour, his first novel We Weren’t Lovers Like That – which is woven around love, loss, nostalgia and romance – came out in 2003.
After the success of the novel, he said, Penguin asked him to do a book titled The Book of Nanak on the Sikh founder – which came later that year.
With a large number of Sikh Indo-Canadians in attendance, Sarna spoke at length about his novel The Exile about Maharaja Duleep Singh – the last Sikh ruler of Punjab before the British usurped it.
Describing Maharaja Duleep Singh as one of the most tragic characters in history, Sarna said he did a huge amount of research on him and then used fiction to fill up lots of grey and unknown areas about the life of Maharaja Duleep Singh. He said Khushwant Singh had cautioned him not to overly glorify Duleep Singh.
Narrating the cruel and tragic separation of Duleep Singh from his mother Jind Kaur by the British, Sarna said the British created an aura of a mini empire for the young boy at Fatehpur (in UP), converted him to Christianity before he was 15 and then sent him to London.
Not buying British accounts of Queen Victoria’s pampering of the Black Prince who supposedly grew up happily amid the British aristocracy, Sarna said Duleep Singh grew up with a lot of confusion and later in life struggled to pay his estate bills.
The senior diplomat said it was Duleep Singh’s reunion with his mother in 1861 that sparked his interest in his Sikh heritage and subsequent reconversion to Sikhism.
With some UK-based Sikh groups currently demanding that since Duleep Singh had converted back to Sikhism his remains be exhumed and brought back to Punjab to be ceremonially cremated in his lost kingdom, Sarna said, “We don’t know about his (Duleep Singh’s) wish whether he wanted to be cremated. His body was brought back by the British quickly from Paris after his death and buried at his Elveden estate.’’
The demand by Sikh groups will create many problems, he said.
