Sukhpal Vir Singh Hasrat: Punjabi poetry and criticism

A Punjabi poet

Sukhpal Vir Singh Hasrat was a Punjabi poet whose writing also included criticism and fiction. A profile in The Sikh Encyclopedia places his birth in Khanewal and describes his family’s move to the Indian side of Punjab after the 1947 Partition. It records Punjabi study at Panjab University and work in the Punjab government’s public relations department. The profile is a biographical account written from a particular point in his career; dates and later events should be checked against further records. His full literary name helps distinguish him from other writers called Sukhpal Vir.[1]

Collections and recognition

The Punjabi Kavita archive lists Hasrat’s collections and makes individual poems freely available to readers in Gurmukhi. Among the titles it records are Sarsabz Patjharan and Suraj te Kahkashan. Romanized titles can vary between catalogues; looking for both the author’s full name and the Punjabi script can help identify an edition. A single list does not cover every aspect of a writer’s literary work.[2]

The Sahitya Akademi lists Suraj Te Kehkashan as Hasrat’s 1980 Punjabi poetry award.[3]

Reading his place in poetry

Surjit S. Dulai’s 1974 review article, hosted by ERIC, identifies Hasrat among seven poets represented in a Punjabi anthology. It discusses changes in his poetry alongside that of other modern writers, showing one contemporary critical view rather than a final judgment. Dulai reviews two books while developing his own account of literary change. The review places his work in an anthology alongside poets including Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, Sohan Singh Misha and Ravinder Ravi. Taken together, an award list, an anthology review and an accessible poetry archive offer different kinds of evidence: recognition, interpretation and texts to read. They do not resolve every detail of his biography, so claims about dates should be compared with reliable catalogues and further archival research.[4]