K. L. Gauba was born on the day of Krishna Janmashtami in 1899 to prominent businessman Lala Harkishen Lal and his mother who was the daughter of police inspector Malik Amirchand. She passed a few years later in 1903. His childhood was filled with material luxury and exposure to Lahore's politics and high society due to his father's illustrious career and connections. Educated in upper class schools as well as English tutors, Gauba excelled at reading and writing from an early age, and published in Spink's Journal and Hindustan Review as a teenager. He studied law in England, where he was a member of the original Cambridge Majlis society. He returned to practice law in the Lahore High Court. His civil marriage to a Muslim woman in 1923 raised both scandal and praise among newspapers and society. His conversion to Islam in 1933 is speculated to be related to his public differences with his father, however it was a major public event for Punjabi Muslims, with Mohammad Ali Bogra, Muhammad Iqbal, Feroze Khan Noon, Muhammad Zafarullah Khan and the Nawab of Mamdot in attendance. Hindu press reacted strongly against the conversion and politician Bhai Parmanand claimed that Gauba must be mentally ill. Gauba went on to represent Muslim clients in high profile cases, and in 1933 won a seat in the Indian Legislative Assembly in a highly contested election against a Muslim League candidate. When his father was under judicial investigation and imprisoned by Chief Justice Douglas Young, Gauba wrote a book critical of the judge, titled Sir Douglas Young’s Magna Carta. He was found in contempt of the court and jailed. The book was never published, but copies circulated among political leaders in India and London, and Young was advised to resign his post. Despite winning public favor in the affair, Gauba suffered significant financial losses. During the Partition of India, Gauba decided that his opposition to the Muslim League would compromise his political career in newly established Pakistan and moved to India to continue practicing law and writing. He returned to Pakistan for a month-long visit on invitation of Prime MinisterZulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1975. Following his death in Mumbai, Khushwant Singh wrote "Fifty years ago, K.L. Gauba’s cortege would have been followed by half the city of Lahore; last week he did not have a dozen to mourn his departure."
Select Publications
Gauba's first novel, Uncle Sham, was written as a response to Katherine Mayo's Mother India which was described by Mahatma Gandhi as a “drain inspector’s report.” Gauba claimed that the bestseller was reprinted twenty times in the first year and he built a bungalow in Lahore with the profits. His next bestseller, His Highness, gave scandalous descriptions of sex orgies involving Indian princes.
Uncle Sham, being the strange tale of a civilisation run amonk 1929
