Harish Vaswani

Influenced by French philosopher-thinkers like Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, he was an atheist who debated religious faith, the political establishment and conformist attitudes. His literary writings are filled with metaphors around the complex narrative and ironies of human existence and the pain of partition, which, like most other Sindhi writers of his generation. He became an avid reader and follower of Buddhism and of psychoanalysis in his later life and briefly took to becoming a Buddhist counselor for a brief period after his retirement. These later influences turned him into a melancholic loner, who stopped writing in 1995, after publicly declaring this intent through his column in Sindhi magazine Rachana. He distanced himself from social engagements in the pursuit of worldly renunciation. He continued visiting Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh in religious pursuits.

He translated Jhaverchand Meghani's Gujarati classic Mansaina Deeva as Insaniyat Ja Deep in 1987.

He was awarded Sahitya Akademi Award for Sindhi writers in 1987 for his work on criticism, 40–84.

He edited Sindhi Tanqueed (1985), a collection of selected critical essays. He also co-edited Choonda Sindhi Kahaniyoon (1980), a collection of selected short stories. He also edited Shabda ain Sanskriti (1982) and Shaair Shyam.

40-76 (Chalih Chhahattar, 1976) is an anthology of poems selected by Prem Prakash. 40-80 (Chalih Assi, 1980) is his collection of short stories selected by Hari Motwani. 40-84 (Chalih Chourasi, 1984) is a collection of criticism selected by Namdev Tarachandani. his other works are Azadai-a Khan Poy Sindhi Kahani, Biyo Dafo, Danh, Mout, Purush Veshya, Vado Shahr and Hik Zazbe Jo Mout. 0:000 (2001) is a literary collection of poems, articles, travelogue on Kutch and critical essays selected by Hari Motwani. Dhara (2015, posthumous) is a compilation of literary columns written by Harish Vaswani which were published over the years in Sindhi magazine Rachana.

In 1966, he married Indira Vaswani, a school teacher who had also migrated as a child with her family from the Larkana district of Sindh during the Partition. She went on to become a Sindhi writer and was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi award posthumously in 2012, two months after her death. The Vaswanis has a daughter; Shefalee Vasudev, an English language journalist and author.

Harish Hansraj Vaswani (Sindhi:ھريش ھنسراج واسواڻي) (November 22, 1940 – April 13, 2013) was a Sindhi writer, poet and critic. and academic. He was a professor of Political Science and English literature. He is known as a pioneer of new Sindhi poetry and he was influential writer of Sindhi literature. He was awarded Sahitya Akademi award in 1987.

Harish Vaswani was born in November 1940 in Lor Ilaayi in hill area of Baluchistan (now in Pakistan) to Vaswani family. His family, with his four siblings, fled to India after the Partition of India in 1947. They reached Saurashtra State (now part of Gujarat) by sea as refugees. They faced numerous hardships and had to live in refugee camps. His school education was frequently interrupted as the family moved from one town to another until it settled temporarily in Bantwa in Saurashtra.