Kamleshwar Prasad Saxena

Kamleshwar Prasad Saxena Biography

Kamleshwar Prasad Saxena was an Indian writer who predominantly writes in Hindi. He has worked as editor of many literary magazines of India. He is also a successful scriptwriter known for the powerful Hindi scripts of 1970’s - Aandhi, Mausam, Chhoti Si Baat, Burning train, Rajnigandha and Rang Birangi. For his contributions to Indian literature, Indian government honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2005. For his Hindi novel Kitne Pakistan, he received Sahitya Akademi Award in 2003. He is one among the pioneers of Nayi Kahani movement in Hindi literature, post Indian independence era. He has written more than 300 stories of which "Maans Ka Dariya", "Neeli Jheel" and "Kasbe Ka Aadmi" are most noted works.

He was born in UP. He published his first story, Comrade in 1948. His first published novel was ‘Badnam gali’ while he was a student. He took Master's degree in Hindi literature from Allahabad University. He started his career as a proof reader and later became editor of 'Vihan', literary magazine. He has also worked as editor of Hindi magazines like 'Nayi Kahaniyan' (1963–66), 'Sarika' (1967–78), 'Katha Yatra' (1978–79), 'Ganga' (1984–88) and weeklies, 'lngit' (1961–63) and 'Shree Varsha' (1979–80) and has revived Hindi magazine, Sarika. He has also edited columns of Hindi dailies, 'Dainik Jagaran' (1990–1992), and 'Dainik Bhaskar' (1996–2002).

With the publication of his story, 'Raja Nirbansiya' (1957) he became one of the prominent writers of Hindi literature. Apart from huge collection of stories, he has also contributed to Hindi literature with literary criticism, travelogue, memoirs and socio-cultural commentaries. As a scriptwriter also, he has given a few landmark movies to Hindi cinema, majority of them belonging to new set waves of parallel cinema. He has also written stories of television serials like Chandrakanta, Aakash Ganga, Yug and Betal Pachisi.

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Updated: January 21, 2014