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Extraordinary Indians: A Book of Profiles
Extraordinary Indians is a collection of profiles of fifty eminent Indians (and one Pakistani) from a variety of backgrounds and professions. Published on the seventieth anniversary of India’s independence, it is intended to provide the reader with a glimpse of the kind of people who have made this country great.
Over the course of a long and prolific career, Khushwant Singh met and wrote about hundreds of people. The people in this book are those he admired deeply for their integrity, talent, generosity, vision and leadership. Included here are towering politicians like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad, Indira Gandhi and others; memorable characters from his family and circle of friends; spiritual teachers like Acharya Rajneesh and Guru Nanak; writers and artists like Ghalib, Dom Moraes, Qurratulain Hyder and Mulk Raj Anand; industrialists like J. R. D. Tata and G. D. Birla; and actors like Protima Bedi and Nargis Dutt. In contrast, there are profiles of two people whom Khushwant Singh admired but ultimately felt let down by: L. K. Advani and Sanjay Gandhi.
At a time when false prophets and men and women with feet of clay are being exalted, this is a book that reminds us who India’s true heroes and heroines are.
Over the course of a long and prolific career, Khushwant Singh met and wrote about hundreds of people. The people in this book are those he admired deeply for their integrity, talent, generosity, vision and leadership. Included here are towering politicians like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad, Indira Gandhi and others; memorable characters from his family and circle of friends; spiritual teachers like Acharya Rajneesh and Guru Nanak; writers and artists like Ghalib, Dom Moraes, Qurratulain Hyder and Mulk Raj Anand; industrialists like J. R. D. Tata and G. D. Birla; and actors like Protima Bedi and Nargis Dutt. In contrast, there are profiles of two people whom Khushwant Singh admired but ultimately felt let down by: L. K. Advani and Sanjay Gandhi.
At a time when false prophets and men and women with feet of clay are being exalted, this is a book that reminds us who India’s true heroes and heroines are.
216 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2017
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About the author
Khushwant Singh
298 books1,425 followersKhushwant Singh, (Punjabi: ਖ਼ੁਸ਼ਵੰਤ ਸਿੰਘ, Hindi: खुशवंत सिंह) born on 2 February 1915 in Hadali, Undivided India, (now a part of Pakistan), was a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, "With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, was among the most widely-read columns in the country.
An important post-colonial novelist writing in English, Singh is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humor, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioral characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit.
An important post-colonial novelist writing in English, Singh is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humor, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioral characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 7, 2017
Extraordinary Indians is a book of profiles of fifty extraordinary people who were politicians, writers, freedom fighters, spiritual leaders and others. These people are stands apart from rest of the being. The book can also categorize as a part memoir. The author started his career as a journalist. His profession gives him a chance to meet some of the most famous people and he included the anecdotes and incidents of his personal encounter with the people in this book.
The people in this book are those he admired deeply including politicians like Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Azad, Giani Zail Singh; writers and artists like Mulk Raj Anand, Ali Sardar Jafri, R.K. Narayan; industrialists like J.R.D. Tata, G.D. Birla and few from his family and circle of friends.
A book of profiles of no ordinary people who made the country great. This book is to remind who our countries true heroes and heroines are.
https://thereviewauthor.com/
The people in this book are those he admired deeply including politicians like Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Azad, Giani Zail Singh; writers and artists like Mulk Raj Anand, Ali Sardar Jafri, R.K. Narayan; industrialists like J.R.D. Tata, G.D. Birla and few from his family and circle of friends.
A book of profiles of no ordinary people who made the country great. This book is to remind who our countries true heroes and heroines are.
https://thereviewauthor.com/
September 17, 2017
(From a combined review of two books by Khushwant Singh: Extraordinary Indians: A Book of Profiles and On India, written for the New Indian Express): http://www.newindianexpress.com/lifes...)
To mark 70 years of India’s independence, it is appropriate that not one but two publishing houses have seen fit to release books about India and Indians, from one of Indian literature’s foremost and most outspoken writers: the inimitable Khushwant Singh. Aleph’s Extraordinary Indians: A Book of Profiles brings together biographical essays of forty-nine Indians (and one Pakistani, Manzur Qadir, once foreign minister of Pakistan and a dear friend of Khushwant Singh’s), while Rupa’s On India consists of thoughts, memoirs and insights into India: its politics, its history, its society, its culture, and more.
Extraordinary Indians: A Book of Profiles runs the gamut of personalities, from those long-dead (Amir Khusrau, Maharaja Ranjeet Singh and Guru Nanak, among others) to many who have been a part of Indian life—cultural, political, literary, artistic—till very recently. Khushwant Singh’s background (his father Sobha Singh was one of the contractors who helped build Lutyens’s Delhi) and his own extensive network of friends and acquaintances means that Singh knew, at close quarters, just about everybody worth knowing. There are politicians here, from Indira Gandhi to Jayaprakash Narayan; artists and writers, including Ghalib, RK Narayan, RK Laxman, and (not an Indian, really) VS Naipaul. Actress Nargis Dutt, Khushwant Singh’s own parents and grandmother, and many others round off the lot.
These essays are eclectic in their style and length: they were, as editor (and Khushwant Singh’s daughter) Mala Dayal notes, culled from typescripts for various publications. Some, like that of Jawaharlal Nehru or Kabir, are brief sketches, consisting mostly of vignettes. Others follow the more standard ‘biography’ style: place of birth, education, career, and so on. All, however, have one thing in common, and that is Khushwant Singh’s own insights into the person in question. Each biography is peppered with anecdotes, with little-known facts about the person, and—most importantly—with Singh’s own views on them. Some of these are (as is to be expected from Singh) iconoclastic: he writes of Mulk Raj Anand and RK Narayan, for instance, as ‘… prolific in their output but mediocre craftsmen’, and lambasts Qurratulain Hyder’s translation of her own work, Aag ka Darya. Among the most endearing and poignant profiles here is that of Singh’s grandmother, who comes alive in his essay.
On India is somewhat different in flavour: Khushwant Singh writes on everything from the days of the maharajas, to the sadhus of India. There is a breathtakingly vivid description of the monsoon here, and some interesting reminiscences of the Delhi that Sobha Singh helped build. There are the seven reasons Khushwant Singh loves Delhi, and the reason why he calls himself an Indian. There is depth of knowledge, sincerity, a liberality that marks the writer as both a mirror of society and a no-holds-barred critic.
More than anything else, both books are a reflection of Khushwant Singh himself. The malice for which he was so notorious, the reputation of living life like a king—of all of that there is an occasional glimmer (Singh admits that his reputation as a hedonist of sorts is more fiction than fact, and propagated mainly by himself). What shines through most, though, is Singh’s own sensitivity, his powers of observation, his wisdom, and his insight.
All too often, he comes across as almost prophetic. This, for instance, was written in 1970, but rings uncannily true today as well: ‘As soon as you try to obliterate regional language in favour of one ‘national’ language or religion, in the name of one Indian credo, you will destroy the unity of the country… [In the wake of the Indo-China and Indo-Pak wars] We have proved that we are one nation. What then is this talk about Indianizing people who are already Indian? And has anyone any right to arrogate to himself the right to decide who is and who is not a good Indian?’
Two excellent books from an excellent writer.
To mark 70 years of India’s independence, it is appropriate that not one but two publishing houses have seen fit to release books about India and Indians, from one of Indian literature’s foremost and most outspoken writers: the inimitable Khushwant Singh. Aleph’s Extraordinary Indians: A Book of Profiles brings together biographical essays of forty-nine Indians (and one Pakistani, Manzur Qadir, once foreign minister of Pakistan and a dear friend of Khushwant Singh’s), while Rupa’s On India consists of thoughts, memoirs and insights into India: its politics, its history, its society, its culture, and more.
Extraordinary Indians: A Book of Profiles runs the gamut of personalities, from those long-dead (Amir Khusrau, Maharaja Ranjeet Singh and Guru Nanak, among others) to many who have been a part of Indian life—cultural, political, literary, artistic—till very recently. Khushwant Singh’s background (his father Sobha Singh was one of the contractors who helped build Lutyens’s Delhi) and his own extensive network of friends and acquaintances means that Singh knew, at close quarters, just about everybody worth knowing. There are politicians here, from Indira Gandhi to Jayaprakash Narayan; artists and writers, including Ghalib, RK Narayan, RK Laxman, and (not an Indian, really) VS Naipaul. Actress Nargis Dutt, Khushwant Singh’s own parents and grandmother, and many others round off the lot.
These essays are eclectic in their style and length: they were, as editor (and Khushwant Singh’s daughter) Mala Dayal notes, culled from typescripts for various publications. Some, like that of Jawaharlal Nehru or Kabir, are brief sketches, consisting mostly of vignettes. Others follow the more standard ‘biography’ style: place of birth, education, career, and so on. All, however, have one thing in common, and that is Khushwant Singh’s own insights into the person in question. Each biography is peppered with anecdotes, with little-known facts about the person, and—most importantly—with Singh’s own views on them. Some of these are (as is to be expected from Singh) iconoclastic: he writes of Mulk Raj Anand and RK Narayan, for instance, as ‘… prolific in their output but mediocre craftsmen’, and lambasts Qurratulain Hyder’s translation of her own work, Aag ka Darya. Among the most endearing and poignant profiles here is that of Singh’s grandmother, who comes alive in his essay.
On India is somewhat different in flavour: Khushwant Singh writes on everything from the days of the maharajas, to the sadhus of India. There is a breathtakingly vivid description of the monsoon here, and some interesting reminiscences of the Delhi that Sobha Singh helped build. There are the seven reasons Khushwant Singh loves Delhi, and the reason why he calls himself an Indian. There is depth of knowledge, sincerity, a liberality that marks the writer as both a mirror of society and a no-holds-barred critic.
More than anything else, both books are a reflection of Khushwant Singh himself. The malice for which he was so notorious, the reputation of living life like a king—of all of that there is an occasional glimmer (Singh admits that his reputation as a hedonist of sorts is more fiction than fact, and propagated mainly by himself). What shines through most, though, is Singh’s own sensitivity, his powers of observation, his wisdom, and his insight.
All too often, he comes across as almost prophetic. This, for instance, was written in 1970, but rings uncannily true today as well: ‘As soon as you try to obliterate regional language in favour of one ‘national’ language or religion, in the name of one Indian credo, you will destroy the unity of the country… [In the wake of the Indo-China and Indo-Pak wars] We have proved that we are one nation. What then is this talk about Indianizing people who are already Indian? And has anyone any right to arrogate to himself the right to decide who is and who is not a good Indian?’
Two excellent books from an excellent writer.
August 28, 2017
Extraordinary Indians is a collection of Khuswant Singh’s earlier published pieces. They have been culled out from his estate, after his death. So this book comes with a disclaimer that it is difficult to accurately source the name of the publication in which the pieces first appeared. That doesn’t make the book any less interesting.
The personalities in this book range from Gurunanak to Indira Gandhi and from Kabir to Protima Bedi. The book is divided into six sections – Politicians, Spiritual Leaders, Writers/Artists, Family and Friends and Others. Lal Krishna Advani and Sanjay Gandhi are listed under the section And Two Who Flattered To Deceive. Whether this heading is the handiwork of the author or the editor, we will perhaps never know.
The old Sardar was a living storm and even after his death he continues to ruffle a few feathers. The same is evident from the way he describes the cold, dry and detached attitude of Mother Teresa while tending to the sick. Speaking of Abdul Kalam he says, ‘However one hopes that like Atal Behari Vajpayee Kalam too will stop his little attempts at versification after he takes over as President of India.’
Figures of history like Gurunanak, Kabir appear an oddity in this collection. But yet Khuswant Singh enlightens us on little known faucets of these gems. Speaking of fasting Roza he tells us that Ghalib wrote ‘I observe fasts, but keep my fasts well-humoured with occasional sips of water, and a few puffs of the hookah. Now and then I eat a few morsels of bread also. People here have a strange sense of things and a strange disposition. I am just whiling away the fast, but they accuse me of non-observance of this holy ritual. They should understand that skipping the fasts is one thing, and whiling them away is quite another.’ In the post on Mir Taqi Mir he tells us that at one time Urdu novelists and chroniclers used to have appendices to their works in which they included their favourite jokes which had nothing whatsoever to do with the themes of their books.
Speaking of Maulana Azad he says that about Samad he said, ‘He stood on the minaret of love from which the walls of kaba and the temple appeared of equal height.’ He tells how Mr. Azad was against the partition of the country. Rather he had sensed it was of the opinion that Muslims should never be at the forefront of the freedom movement. He tells us that though there were translations of the Holy Quran in numerous languages, Mr. Azad felt that it had complicated the otherwise simple word of the God and hence undertook the task of translation.
Khuswant’s Singh writing as usual is piquant and engaging. Whether you are fan of Khuswant Singh or not, you will immensely enjoy this book.
The personalities in this book range from Gurunanak to Indira Gandhi and from Kabir to Protima Bedi. The book is divided into six sections – Politicians, Spiritual Leaders, Writers/Artists, Family and Friends and Others. Lal Krishna Advani and Sanjay Gandhi are listed under the section And Two Who Flattered To Deceive. Whether this heading is the handiwork of the author or the editor, we will perhaps never know.
The old Sardar was a living storm and even after his death he continues to ruffle a few feathers. The same is evident from the way he describes the cold, dry and detached attitude of Mother Teresa while tending to the sick. Speaking of Abdul Kalam he says, ‘However one hopes that like Atal Behari Vajpayee Kalam too will stop his little attempts at versification after he takes over as President of India.’
Figures of history like Gurunanak, Kabir appear an oddity in this collection. But yet Khuswant Singh enlightens us on little known faucets of these gems. Speaking of fasting Roza he tells us that Ghalib wrote ‘I observe fasts, but keep my fasts well-humoured with occasional sips of water, and a few puffs of the hookah. Now and then I eat a few morsels of bread also. People here have a strange sense of things and a strange disposition. I am just whiling away the fast, but they accuse me of non-observance of this holy ritual. They should understand that skipping the fasts is one thing, and whiling them away is quite another.’ In the post on Mir Taqi Mir he tells us that at one time Urdu novelists and chroniclers used to have appendices to their works in which they included their favourite jokes which had nothing whatsoever to do with the themes of their books.
Speaking of Maulana Azad he says that about Samad he said, ‘He stood on the minaret of love from which the walls of kaba and the temple appeared of equal height.’ He tells how Mr. Azad was against the partition of the country. Rather he had sensed it was of the opinion that Muslims should never be at the forefront of the freedom movement. He tells us that though there were translations of the Holy Quran in numerous languages, Mr. Azad felt that it had complicated the otherwise simple word of the God and hence undertook the task of translation.
Khuswant’s Singh writing as usual is piquant and engaging. Whether you are fan of Khuswant Singh or not, you will immensely enjoy this book.
February 3, 2019
Khushwant Singh is one of my favourite authors. In this collection of essays, the editor Maya Dayal took an effort to intelligently categorized personalities whom Khushwant was known in person and portrayed in various publications. I personally liked the profiles of some of the spiritual leaders. The writing about Mother Theresa filled my eyes with tears. As a reader, I felt that the editor could have been avoided some of the profiles, I do not wish to specify, those only occupied the space of the book in vain.
As an overall experience, the book greatly contrasts the very nature of eminent personalities in India. Khushwant picked up the life situations that he had with them and from that experience, he wisely evaluated their characters.
As an overall experience, the book greatly contrasts the very nature of eminent personalities in India. Khushwant picked up the life situations that he had with them and from that experience, he wisely evaluated their characters.
March 28, 2020
Why does it seem that out of every role that he played, every position that he held, Khushwant Singh's main claim to fame is that he has been friends with very important people across all fields. He is a very interesting case study on perks of good networking skills.
But, over a lifetime of 99 years he has not only made important friends but also lost many, showing the blunt life he has led all through. Upsetting friends takes courage.
This book is extremely interesting because we get a human view on many of the legends that India has produces. Its so humane and honest, we as reader get a boost of confidence knowing our idols have been less than perfect. We need not have unrealistic expectations from ourselves and burden ourselves. All we need to do is believe and keep working!!
But, over a lifetime of 99 years he has not only made important friends but also lost many, showing the blunt life he has led all through. Upsetting friends takes courage.
This book is extremely interesting because we get a human view on many of the legends that India has produces. Its so humane and honest, we as reader get a boost of confidence knowing our idols have been less than perfect. We need not have unrealistic expectations from ourselves and burden ourselves. All we need to do is believe and keep working!!
December 9, 2025
Extraordinary Indians, A Book of Profiles by Sardar Khushwant Singh, is a collection of essays on those fifty people who, according to the author, left an indelible imprint on India. This includes freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Azad; Indian prime ministers like Jawaharlal Nehru and Vishwanath Pratap Singh; writers like R. K. Narayan; cartoonists like R. K. Laxman; the first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak; and the first Sikh maharaja, Ranjit Singh, and other eminent personalities from the fields of cinema, politics, industry, and others.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews