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{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2019}}
{{more citations needed|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Harish Vaswani
| image = Harish Vaswani in 2013.jpg
| caption = Vaswani in 2013
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1940|11|22}}
| birth_place = [[Loralai|Lor Ilaayi]], [[Baluchistan]], British India
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2013|04|13|1940|11|22}}
| death_place = [[Noida]], [[National Capital Region (India)|NCR, Delhi]]
| nationality = Indian
| other_names =
| occupation = Poet, writer
| years_active = 1962–1995
| awards = [[Sahitya Akademi Award]] (1987)
| notable_works = ''40–84''
}}

'''Harish Hansraj Vaswani''' ([[Sindhi language|Sindhi]]:ھريش ھنسراج واسواڻي) (November 22, 1940 – April 13, 2013) was a Sindhi writer, poet and critic. and academic. He was a professor of Political Science and English literature. He is known as a pioneer of new Sindhi poetry and he was influential writer of Sindhi literature. He was awarded [[List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for Sindhi|Sahitya Akademi award]] in 1987.

== Life ==
Harish Vaswani was born in November 1940 in [[Loralai|Lor Ilaayi]] in hill area of [[Baluchistan]] (now in [[Pakistan]]) to Vaswani family.<ref name=":4">{{cite web|url=http://thesindhuworld.com/harish-vaswani/|title=Harish Vaswani: Famous Sindhi Poet: Academy Award: Biography {{!}} The Sindhu World|website=thesindhuworld.com|access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref> His family, with his four siblings, fled to India after the [[Partition of India]] in 1947. They reached [[Saurashtra State]] (now part of [[Gujarat]]) by sea as refugees. They faced numerous hardships and had to live in refugee camps. His school education was frequently interrupted as the family moved from one town to another until it settled temporarily in [[Bantwa]] in Saurashtra.

Vaswani received three post graduate degrees in English, Political Science and Hindi; each as a correspondence student of [[Aligarh Muslim University]]. While studying, he worked as a tutor to undergraduate students to sustain himself while living with a relative in [[old Delhi]]’s Daryaganj area.

In his mid twenties, Vaswani moved to [[Adipur]], [[Kutch]] and joined the Tolani College of Arts & Science as a lecturer. Subsequently, he was elevated to the post of Head of the Department of Political Science. He also taught English literature until his retirement.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=DAAT-DHANI-Vol 2. (Portraits of Sindhi writers of Gujarat, 2013)|last=Chhugani|first=Jhamu|publisher=Radhika Publications, Block G-1, Ram Laxman Nivas, sant Hirdaram Nagar, Bairagarh.Bhopal 462030|year=2013|location=Bhopal|pages=Chapter on Harish Vaswani Pages 71–75 and Chapter on Indra Vaswani Pages 64–70}}</ref>

Influenced by French philosopher-thinkers like [[Albert Camus]] and [[Jean Paul Sartre]], he was an atheist who debated religious faith, the political establishment and conformist attitudes. His literary writings are filled with metaphors around the complex narrative and ironies of human existence and the pain of partition, which, like most other Sindhi writers of his generation. He became an avid reader and follower of [[Buddhism]] and of psychoanalysis in his later life and briefly took to becoming a Buddhist counselor for a brief period after his retirement. These later influences turned him into a melancholic loner, who stopped writing in 1995, after publicly declaring this intent through his column in Sindhi magazine ''Rachana''. He distanced himself from social engagements in the pursuit of worldly renunciation. He continued visiting [[Dharamsala|Dharamshala]] in Himachal Pradesh in religious pursuits.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Komal|first=Laxman|date=Oct–Dec 2013|title=Special issue on Harish Vaswani|journal=RACHNA Quarterly Sindhi Magazine|page=37}}</ref>

He had also served as a member of Sindhi Advisory Board, [[Sahitya Akademi]], Delhi.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=Tarachandani|first=Namdev|date=April 1998|title=Harish Vaswani: Portrait of The Thinker as a Writer (Cover Story)|journal=Sindhi International|pages=3}}</ref>

He died on April 13, 2013 in [[Noida]], [[National Capital Region (India)|NCR, Delhi]].<ref name=":4" />

==Works==
=== Style ===
Harish Vaswani's writing style was incisive, reflective, and ponderous and filled with psychological undertones. He diverted from the conventional poetry writing and literary analysis thus he is considered as the pioneer of New Sindhi Poetry (Naeen Sindhi Kavita). He is considered as a modernist poet.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Modern Indian Literature: An Anthology|last=George|first=K. M.|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|year=1992|isbn=978-81-7201-324-0|location=New Delhi|page=38}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Indian Literature Vol.2|last=Dutta|first=Amresh|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|year=1988|isbn=978-81-260-1194-0|location=New Delhi|page=1319}}</ref><ref name="Lal1992">{{cite book|author=Mohan Lal|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Sasay to Zorgot|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnPoYxrRfc0C&pg=PA4273|year=1992|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-1221-3|pages=4273–4274}}</ref><ref name="Adle2005">{{cite book|author=Chahryar Adle|title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Towards the contemporary period : from the mid-nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XPfcfF8LRWQC&pg=PA903|date=January 1, 2005|publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-92-3-103985-0|pages=903–904}}</ref>

=== Works ===
''40-76'' (''Chalih Chhahattar'', 1976) is an anthology of poems selected by Prem Prakash.<ref name="Lal1992x">{{cite book|author=Mohan Lal|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Sasay to Zorgot|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnPoYxrRfc0C&pg=PA4244|year=1992|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-1221-3|page=4244}}</ref> ''40-80'' (''Chalih Assi'', 1980) is his collection of short stories selected by Hari Motwani.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Contemporary Indian Short Stories. Series IV|last=Desai|first=S.K.|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|year=1996|location=New Delhi}}</ref> ''40-84'' (''Chalih Chourasi'', 1984) is a collection of criticism selected by [[Namdev Tarachandani]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Narayanan1988">{{cite book|author=Edatata Narayanan|title=Link;: Indian Newsmagazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bjkTAQAAMAAJ|date=April 1988|publisher=United India Periodicals.|page=39}}</ref> his other works are ''Azadai-a Khan Poy Sindhi Kahani'', ''Biyo Dafo'', ''Danh'', ''Mout'', ''Purush Veshya'', ''Vado Shahr'' and ''Hik Zazbe Jo Mout''.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> ''0:000'' (2001) is a literary collection of poems, articles, travelogue on Kutch and critical essays selected by Hari Motwani. ''Dhara'' (2015, posthumous) is a compilation of literary columns written by Harish Vaswani which were published over the years in Sindhi magazine ''Rachana''.

He edited ''Sindhi Tanqueed'' (1985), a collection of selected critical essays.<ref name=":2" /><ref name="Rao2004"/> He also co-edited ''Choonda Sindhi Kahaniyoon'' (1980), a collection of selected short stories.<ref name=":3" /> He also edited ''Shabda ain Sanskriti'' (1982) and ''Shaair Shyam''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/sahitya-akademi/publications/sindhi.pdf|title=Sindhi publications|format=PDF|access-date=March 18, 2017|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202003516/http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/sahitya-akademi/publications/sindhi.pdf|archive-date=February 2, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

He translated [[Jhaverchand Meghani]]'s Gujarati classic ''Mansaina Deeva'' as ''Insaniyat Ja Deep'' in 1987.<ref name="Rao2004">{{cite book|author=D. S. Rao|title=Five Decades: The National Academy of Letters, India : a Short History of Sahitya Akademi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8JDsBBDoMccC&pg=PA143|year=2004|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-2060-7|page=143}}</ref>

;Journalism
Harish Vaswani wrote weekly columns for Gujarati daily ''[[Kutch Mitra]]'' for years and covered a range of different subjects. His column titled ''Sanskar Sindhu'' was about cultural, literary and society issues relating to Sindhis in post partition India. ''Samvaay'' was a column of general interest where he wrote about current affairs, political concerns on the global-local stage and popular subjects. ''Manch'' was about interpersonal relationships, society and trends, influences of art and literature on life; it was a series of freewheeling commentary pieces on contemporary urban life in juxtaposition and sometimes at loggerheads with the times past. Vaswani's Buddhist leanings had begun to reflect amply in his writings this column. ''Manovigyanni Drishtithi'' was about a psychology. He explored intimate relationships, struggles of a society at war with itself, personality issues, Buddhist philosophical thought and psychology, new findings and writings on science of brain.

==Awards==
He was awarded [[List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for Sindhi|Sahitya Akademi Award for Sindhi writers]] in 1987 for his work on criticism, ''40–84''.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":0">{{cite web|title=Akademi Awards (1955–2015)|url=http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/sahitya-akademi/awards/akademi%20samman_suchi.jsp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084937/http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/sahitya-akademi/awards/akademi%20samman_suchi.jsp|archive-date=March 4, 2016|publisher=[[Sahitya Akademi]]|access-date=March 4, 2016}}</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1966, he married Indira Vaswani, a school teacher who had also migrated as a child with her family from the Larkana district of Sindh during the Partition. She went on to become a Sindhi writer and was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi award posthumously in 2012, two months after her death.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":0"/> The Vaswanis has a daughter; Shefalee Vasudev, an English language journalist and author.

== Further reading ==
* Rachna: A quarterly literary Sindhi Magazine (Published from Adipur, Kutch) special issue on Harish Vaswani, Oct–Dec 2013. A collection of literary obituaries and essays on Harish Vaswani by some of Sindhi literature's most well known writers. This issue includes a first person piece by his daughter Shefalee Vasudev called Savings Accounts Closed.
* Koonj: a bi-monthly literary Sindhi magazine. ( Published from Mumbai) Special coverage in May–June 2013 issue.
* Sarangaa: a literary Sindhi magazine. Published from Sindh, Pakistan) Special coverage in Sarangaa, Volume 6–7, issue second 2013.
* Face To Face with Harish Vaswani:  a book of collection of series of Interviews with Namdev Tarachandani earlier published in KOONJ magazine. Book published by Sindhi Times Publication, 90, Laxmi market, Ulhasnagar 421003

== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{Sahitya}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaswani, Harish}}
[[Category:Poets from Gujarat]]
[[Category:People from Kutch district]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:Indian male poets]]
[[Category:21st-century short story writers]]
[[Category:Indian literary critics]]
[[Category:1940 births]]
[[Category:2013 deaths]]
[[Category:Sindhi-language writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian male writers]]
[[Category:Sindhi people]]
[[Category:People from Loralai District]]

Harish Vaswani - Revision history

>Monkbot at 07:31, 8 January 2021