ਰਾਸ਼ਟਰੀ ਕਵੀ · Rashtriya Kavi of India
ਜਸਵੰਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਰਾਹੀ
جسونت سنگھ راہی
16 March 1913 — 11 April 1996
In the galaxy of progressive Punjabi bards of North India, Jaswant Singh Rahi excels in composing quatrains in an unparalleled style. He has endeavoured to preach unity of godhead, brotherhood of man, secularism, and above all international friendship.
— Joginder Singh Bedi, The Tribune, Chandigarh, 1992
ਜੀਵਨ · Life & Times
Jaswant Singh Rahi was born on 16 March 1913 in the sacred town of Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur district, Punjab. Born into a Rajput (Jaswal) family devoted to India's independence movement, his early life was shaped by travel, struggle, and literary awakening.
Rahi spent his formative years across the breadth of colonial India — in Bengal, Lahore, and Rawalpindi — absorbing the currents of revolutionary thought and progressive literature that were reshaping the subcontinent. He was deeply close to Baba Pyare Lal Bedi, the Punjabi Sikh philosopher and author, whose influence shaped his political and literary compass.
Inspired by the freedom struggle, he joined the Communist movement and formally adopted the name Rahi — meaning "the traveller on the path." He eventually returned to Dera Baba Nanak, where he spent the rest of his life writing with fearless honesty until his final year.
He married Satwant Kaur of Fatehgarh Churian, Gurdaspur. Critics noted that his three-part autobiography, Main Kiven Jeeveya, concealed nothing — every incident recorded with complete candour, regardless of consequence.
ਸਨਮਾਨ · Honours
Rahi's six-decade contribution to Punjabi literature and India's freedom movement was recognised at the highest levels of government.
ਰਚਨਾਵਾਂ · Bibliography
Across six decades of writing, Rahi produced poetry collections, short stories, novels, a historical verse-epic, and a three-volume autobiography — all in Punjabi, all rooted in his commitment to social justice and human dignity.
"He did not make any attempt to hide or manipulate any incident irrespective of the consequences." — Kulbir Singh Kang, on Main Kiven Jeeveya
ਉਸਦਾ ਨਾਅਰਾ · His Slogan
ਸਾਹਿਤਕ ਵਿਰਾਸਤ · Literary Legacy
Rahi's literary vision was rooted in the progressive movement that transformed 20th-century Punjabi letters. His poetry does not merely protest — it demands transformation: of the self, of society, of the bond between human beings.
Scholar Manpreet Kaur wrote that Rahi "begins his poems with the repugnancy existing between imagination and realism," seeking to liberate individuals from "communalism, slavery and inhuman behaviour."
ਖੋਜ ਸ੍ਰੋਤ · For Researchers
ਪਰਿਵਾਰ · Family
Rahi married Satwant Kaur of Fatehgarh Churian, Gurdaspur. They had eight children — three sons and five daughters.