Bhisham Sahni was born at Rawalpindi in 1915, was the younger brother of the actor Balraj Sahni, taught Hindi literature, and wrote Tamas.
Tamas, 1974, is a novel about the days before Partition in a town clearly modelled on Rawalpindi, showing how the violence was organised, by whom, and how ordinary people were drawn into it. It won the Sahitya Akademi award.
The 1988 television serialisation by Govind Nihalani was broadcast nationally over the objections of those who tried to have it banned, and it is one of the very few mass-audience treatments of Partition ever made in India.
He was general secretary of the Progressive Writers' Association and worked as a translator in Moscow for several years.
The two Sahni brothers, from a Rawalpindi family, are tied to two of the best-known Indian screen works on Partition. Balraj Sahni starred in Garm Hava, the 1973 film about a Muslim family after Partition, and Bhisham Sahni wrote Tamas, the novel behind the 1988 television series about the violence of it.
Tamas, published in 1974, is about the days before a Partition riot in a Punjab town and about who organises one. The television adaptation in 1988 was litigated and broadcast.
He taught English at Delhi, worked as a translator in Moscow for several years, and wrote in Hindi rather than in Punjabi, which is where much of his audience is.
His brother was the actor Balraj Sahni. He wrote plays, stories and a memoir and headed the Progressive Writers' Association.