Sex Scotch & Scholarship by Khushwant Singh
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Introduction
This is the fifth anthology of Khushwant Singh’s writings that I have had the leasure of compiling. I seem to be getting more efficient at the job. In all the earlier ones, it devolved upon me to preface the collection with a short iographical piece on the author, tracing his rise from being an academic failure o one of the most widely read and highest-selling authors in India today. This time I have deftly absolved myself of this task by inspiring Khushwant himself to write an expansive, autobiographical piece. It is the first in this book, written n his characteristically candid, forthright style, with the eye to detail that is hisforte. It makes for satisfying reading, being as it is perhaps one of the most ‘complete’ and accurate self-portraits he has ever made. As he turns the elescope on himself, he tells you what his alarm clock says to wake him up, the ind of tea he drinks, the strictly regimented daily routine he follows as well as the lesser known details of his early childhood and later years as he struggled to establish himself as a writer. A few words about this anthology. The earlier selections of writings were usually confined to a limited number of topics. Unlike them, in this collection, an attempt has been made to not only bring out the quality of Khushwant Singh’s writing - in his own opinion, comparable to R.K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, Manohar Mulgaonkar, Ruth Jhabvala, Nayantara Sahgal and Anita Desai - but also to highlight its depth and diversity which, as it happens, is closely interlinked to the author’s experiences and interests over the years. Khushwant Singh started life by practising law, then switched to diplomacy which he gave up after a few years to turn to serious writing. Along the way, he taught comparative religion at Princeton, Swarthmore and Hawaii, translated the Sikhs’ prayer, Japji, as also researched and wrote a two-volume History of the Sikhs, considered one of the most authoritative works on the subject. His interest in religion was aroused early in life. Though born into a highly religious, Godfearing family, he began to question the value of rituals and the need to conform to Khalsa traditions while in college. In his own words, ‘I decided, however, to
go along with them rather than create trouble for myself. I took pains to understand the prayers I had been reciting. . . Meanwhile, at St Stephen’s College, I attended Bible classes. Although the emphasis was on the New Testament, and the life of Jesus Christ, it was the language of the Old Testament, particularly the Psalms, the Song of Solomon and the Book of Job that I found myself drawn to. Later, while working on the Sikh scriptures, I found so many references to the Vedas, Upanishads and the epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata including the Gita, that I decided to study them to better understand the meaning of my own Gurubaani.’ Two translations, taken from the book Hymns of Guru Nanak, are included here. ‘Interest in religion,’ he continues, ‘also made me read whatever I could on Jainism, Buddhism and later developments in Hinduism. Islam was the last religion I turned to, largely to free myself of anti-Muslim prejudices which had been instilled into me as a child. By the time I was forty, no religion evoked much enthusiasm in my mind.’ Expectedly, Khushwant’s views on religion are unconventional. He is a selfprofessed agnostic, and has consistently lectured as well as pleaded in print for a rationalization of religions, shorn of unnecessary rituals and customs. You will find four short pieces here, mirroring his attitude. Another of his pet passions has been a study of nature. As he explains in the preface to his book Nature Watch, it all began many summers ago while he was on holiday with his English friends, the Wints, in Oxford. Their three-year-old daughter, who was an avid collector of wild flowers, was his first teacher and the one who kindled an interest in natural phenomena, which has endured to this day. Over the years, Khushwant has given talks on the subject on All India Radio as well as done a highly rated television serial, The World of Nature, for Doordarshan. For this anthology, I have selected one chapter, ‘May’, from Nature Watch, a book patterned after the traditional Baramasi of the Indian poets and in Khushwant’s own words, ‘one of the most precious books’ he has written. Khushwant Singh is a widely travelled man and insists that he has seen all that is worth seeing: cathedrals, temples, pagodas, mosques, palaces and picture galleries, deserted cities, pyramids, the Sphinx, sea-sized lakes, lofty mountain ranges, waterfalls, subterranean grottoes lit by myriads of glow-worms, ballets, theatres, music halls, striptease joints. He is quick to point out that he has rarely had to pay for his travel or hospitality. His hosts, however, I am sure, have felt amply compensated by accounts of his trips published in his syndicated columns and carried by over fifty newspapers in all the major regional languages of the country.
What makes Khushwant’s travelogues special is his total lack of inhibition. He tells it all as he saw it, missing out nothing, whether it was a rebuffed pass at a girl, a joke at his expense or a lecherous intention that came to nothing. He quotes the local poetry, describes the local cuisine, art, customs and culture. Perhaps more than in any facet of his writing, his travelogues highlight one of his unique gifts - the ability to laugh at himself. It comes through in the pieces selected for this book. Only one could be called an exception - the piece on Pakistan, the country of his birth and one to which he has always felt obsessively attached, to the point of being dubbed ‘a Pakistani agent’. The piece selected for this anthology in which he returns to Hadali, his birthplace, is unashamedly emotional. Another two pieces about which you could say the same thing are the two speeches included here, made in Parliament: one a tribute to Mrs Indira Gandhi on her death and the other focusing on the situation in Punjab, a subject on which Khushwant was perhaps the most vocal Sikh, arguing for a more balanced and humane approach to a problem that had become a thorn in the body politic of the nation. Though he wrote extensively and regularly on the subject for Indian and foreign newspapers - a piece on Khalistan is included here - the time at which his voice was perhaps heard the loudest was during his years as a Member of Parliament. He documented his experiences in the Rajya Sabha in his typically acerbic style, lampooning many of his fellow Parliamentarians. The piece, written for Sunday, is included here. Lampooning people, in any case, is Khushwant’s speciality. Not the tiniest quirk or mannerism escapes his attention and he is faithful in recording it to the minutest detail. I am sure many of his caricatures have irked and annoyed but they have certainly had a ring of truth and, whether or not one admits it, they are certainly most enjoyable - the more malicious, the better. You will find a small variety here. You will also enjoy reading three pithy commentaries on life in India - on sex, humour and poverty. On a different plane, are two brilliant short stories, taken from a collection comprising thirty-two. It was a difficult choice to make and I finally settled for one with an earthy, rural flavour while the other sketches, tongue-in-cheek, a Westernized Indian gentleman, his rustic wife and their totally alien attitudes. If you haven’t read them already, I will not ruin them for you by telling you more. Over the years Khushwant has done a number of translations from Urdu and Punjabi to English. Though Allama Iqbal’s Shikwa and Jawab-e-Shikwa are perhaps better known, for this anthology I have selected a masterfully written extract from Umrao Jaan Ada by Mirza Mohammad Hadi Ruswa which Khushwant translated along with M.A. Husaini. Khushwant is exceptionally easy to work with, quick to accept suggestions and take decisions. While sifting through the material for this collection, I came across this letter written to Mr Lewis Bergman, the editor of an American magazine, Across the Board. Khushwant writes: ‘I enclose my piece as required. It needed a hell of a lot of research and writing. Take any liberties with it you like.’ It is precisely this attitude that has made it such a pleasure to edit and compile this anthology of writings.
New Delhi, 1992 Rohini Singh
