SINGH, NAVTEJ (1924 – 1983)

Singh, Navtej was the son of the well-known Punjabi writer, Gurbakhsh Singh. He did his M.A. in Psychology, and started his career as a political journalist and remained so till his death. He was co-editor of the journal Prit lari and took over its complete charge as editor after the death of his father. Navtej travelled extensively, mainly to the Soviet Union, and thus widened the range of his literary pursuits.

The Punjab government recognised his services and honoured him with the Shiromani Patrakar Award. There are six collections of short stories to the credit of Navtej. The combination of the mental and the physical states of mind is a conspicuous quality of his short stories. His love for the masses is conveyed in his stories with delicate poetic touches. His characters seem to be always struggling with the base and artificial values of life in society.

His short story collections include: Desh vapsi (Return to Native Land), Navin rut (The new season), Basmati di mahak (Fragrance of Basmati), Chanan de bij (Seeds of light), Navtej Singh dian chonvian kahanian (selected stories) and Sab ton vada khazana (The greatest treasure). Apart from these collections, a collection of his essays Men Swrti, mere log (My land, my people) was greatly appreciated.

References :

1. Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, 6 Vols., Delhi, 1995.
2. Sekhon, S.S. and K.S. Duggal, A History of Punjabi Literature, Delhi, 1992.
3. Singh, N.K., Encyclopaedia of Indian Biography, Delhi, 2000.