Keshav Malik
Encyclopedia
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, critic, arts scholar, and curator. He was born on November 5, 1924, in the town of Miani, in what is now the Punjab
Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...
province of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
- but at the time was part of British India.
In 2004, he was awarded the highest award of the Lalit Kala Akademi
Lalit Kala Akademi
The Lalit Kala Akademi or National Academy of Art is India's National Academy of Arts. It was an autonomous organization, established at New Delhi in 1954 by Government of India to promote and propagate understanding of Indian art, both within and outside the country...
, India's National Academy of Art, the Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi for lifetime contribution
Early life and education
Malik was born into a SabharwalSabharwal
Sabharwal is a family name predominant among people from Khatri community. The Sabharwal clan is a part of the Kukhran | Khokhran | Khokhar grouping among Khatris, which also consists of nine other clans, all of whom originate from the historic town of Bhera in Punjab . Many Sabharwals were from...
Khatri
Khatri
Khatri is a caste from the northern Indian subcontinent. Khatris in India are mostly from Punjab, region but later they migrated to regions like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jammu, Uttarkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber...
family; the surname Malik is used by many Kukhrans.
Malik graduated from the Amar Singh College in Srinagar
Srinagar
Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...
, Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
in 1945. From 1947 to 1948, he was a personal assistant to Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
. During the 1950s, Malik studied Renaissance art in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, French at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
, and attended lectures at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Career
From 1960 to 1972, Malik was art critic for The Hindustan Times. During roughly the same period, he was literary editor of Thoughts, an Indian journal of the arts. In 1973-74, Malik was curator for "The Human Condition," an exhibition of contemporary Indian art that traveled to BulgariaBulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
. From 1975 to 2000, Malik was art critic for The Times of India
The Times of India
The Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...
.
Malik has published 18 volumes of poetry, including The Lake Surface and Other Poems, Storm Warning, and Between Nobodies and Stars. He has also edited six anthologies of English translations of Indian poetry, and is a frequent lecturer and seminar participant. He co-founded the Poetry Society of India and is currently president of the Poetry Club of India.
Malik was awarded the Padma Shri
Padma Shri
Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
for literature in 1991. He is the brother of arts scholar Kapila Vatsyayan
Kapila Vatsyayan
Kapila Vatsyayan is a leading Indian scholar of classical Indian dance and Indian art and architecture.Vatsyayan received her M.A. from the University of Michigan and Ph.D. from the Banaras Hindu University. She is the author of many books including The Square and the Circle of Indian Arts,...
. He is also related to the brothers Balraj Sahni
Balraj Sahni
Balraj Sahni , born Yudhishthir Sahni , was a famous Hindi film actor. He belonged to a Punjabi Khatri family from Bhera now in Punjab, Pakistan...
and Bhisham Sahni
Bhisham Sahni
Bhisham Sahni भीष्म साहनी was a Hindi writer, playwright, and actor, most famous for his novel and television screenplay Tamas , a powerful and passionate account of the Partition of India...
, natives of Bhera
Bhera
Bhera is a city on the Jhelum river in Sargodha District, Punjab province of Pakistan. It lies at latitude 32.48 N, longitude 72.92.-Location:...
who now live in Pakistani Punjab.