Nayantara Sahgal

Nayantara Sahgal Biography

Nayantara Sahgal is one of the first female Indian writers in English to receive wide recognition. She is a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family. She is the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. Thus she is the niece of Nehru. Noted feminist and social activist, Gita Sahgal is her daughter. Sahgal has been married twice. She was later married to E. N. Mangat Rai, an Indian Civil Service officer who died in 2003. Though part of the Nehru-Gandhi family, she created her own path to be known as one of the leading female English novelists from India. In 1986, she received Sahitya Akademi Award for English for her novel, Rich Like Us (1985).

Sahgal was born on 10 May 1927. Her father Ranjit Sitaram Pandit, was a successful barrister and Sanskrit scholar. He died in Lucknow prison jail in 1944, following an arrest and imprisonment of Indian freedom struggle movement. During this time, she was attending BA at Wellesley College, US. Nayantara has two sisters, Chandralekha Mehta and Rita Dar. Her uncle Jawaharlal Nehru too was in and out of prison during this time. Earlier she graduated from Woodstock School in the Himalayan hill station of Landour in 1943. She completed graduation from Wellesley College, US in 1947. Later she settled in Dehradun.

As a writer, her published works are mostly novels. From Fear Set Free, A Time to Be Happy, This Time of Morning, Storm in Chandigarh, Sunlight Surrounds You, The Day in Shadow, Indira Gandhi: Her Road to Power, Plans for Departure, Rich Like Us, Mistaken Identity, A Situation in New Delhi and Lesser Breeds are her published novels. Other works are A Voice for Freedom (1977), Indira Gandhi's Emergence and Style (1978) and Prison and Chocolate Cake (memoir, 1954).

Published: N/A

Updated: December 24, 2013