Balwant Gargiਬਲਵੰਤ ਗਾਰਗੀ

Early life

Balwant Gargi was born on 4 December 1916 in Sehna, a village in what is now Barnala district of Punjab, the second son of Shiv Chand Garg, a head clerk in the Irrigation Department. The Canal House of his birth, near the Sirhind Canal, stood close to the spot where Razia Sultana was once imprisoned. He studied at Government College, Lahore, and took his M.A. degrees in English and Political Science from Forman Christian College, Lahore. Drawn to the stage, he went on to study theatre under Norah Richards, the Irish-born doyenne of Punjabi theatre, at her school in the Kangra Valley.

Plays and theatre

Gargi wrote prolifically for the stage. His plays include Loha Kutt, Kesro, Kanak di Balli, Sohni Mahiwal, Sultan Razia, Soukan, Mirza Sahiba and Dhooni di Agg, alongside short stories such as Mircha Wala Sadh, Pattan di Berhi and Kuari Disi. He founded and directed the Indian Theatre Department at Panjab University, Chandigarh, institutionalising theatre studies in India, and his productions — including the Doordarshan serial Sanjha Chulha — won him national acclaim. His plays were translated into twelve languages and performed in cities from Moscow and London to New Delhi and the United States.

Books and autobiography

His book Rang Manch won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1962. He also wrote the semi-autobiographical The Naked Triangle (1980), drawn from the two years (1966-67) he taught at the University of Washington, where he met Jeanne Henry, who became his wife; its Punjabi counterpart, Nangi Dhup, is among his best-known prose works. His English-language writings included Folk Theatre of India, published in New York.

Awards and legacy

Gargi received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1962, the Padma Shri in 1972 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Punjabi playwriting in 1998 — one of the few Indian artists to win both the Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi honours. As a teacher he mentored a generation of Bollywood actors, among them Anupam Kher, Kiron Kher, Satish Kaushik and Poonam Dhillon, and lectured as a distinguished visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, Vassar, Mount Holyoke and Trinity College. He died in Mumbai on 21 April 2003. The open-air theatre at Panjab University's theatre department is named after him.