A Pakistani author who wrote in the Punjabi language, he is best known for his 1942 novel, Pavitar Paapi. He was arrested by the British government in the early 1920s for his role in the Indian Independence Movement.
He was a Songwriter as well as a Novelist and poet, and his first published work was Satguru Mehma, a book of hymns dedicated to the Sikh Gurus. His later famous work, Pavitar Paapi, was translated into several languages and adapted into a motion picture.
His novel, One Sheath and Two Swords, won him the Sahitya Akademi Award, India’s highest literary honor, in 1962.
He was born Hans Raj to a Punjabi family in Pakistan. His grandson, Dilraj Singh Suri, translated Singh's book, Chitta Lahu, into English.
His book, Chitta Lahu, was translated into Russian by the granddaughter of the great Russian Novelist, Leo Tolstoy.
