Parvez Dewan


Parvez Dewan is an Indian administrator, author and librettist. He is an Indian Administrative Services officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre. He became Secretary of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in 2011, and also the chairman of the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre. In 2012 he was appointed India's Tourism Secretary.
Dewan has authored books on Jammu & Kashmir, religion as well as on Tibet.

Early life

Parvez Dewan was born on 13 October 1972 in Srinagar. His father was a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force and grandfather an Army Brigadier, who later became the first Indian Inspector General of Police of Jammu and Kashmir.
Dewan was educated at St Joseph's, Allahabad; St. George's Grammar, Hyderabad; Stanes, Coimbatore; The Air Force Central School, Subroto Park, New Delhi and St. Stephen's College in Delhi. He was elected President of St. Stephen's College. He did his higher education from the Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. Dewan was Senior Treasurer of the CU Friends of the Earth; and active with the CU Greens and CU Mystical Society.
Dewan was later elected as a visiting research fellow of Queen Elizabeth House at the University of Oxford. At Cambridge, he won the Jennings Prize for obtaining the highest marks, as well as a distinction, in the Development Studies class. At St. Stephen's he was awarded the L. Raghubir Singh History prize for ranking first in his class.

Career

Civil services

Dewan joined the IAS and was allotted the Jammu and Kashmir cadre.
During his first posting as Sub-Divisional Magistrate in Basohli, he revived its school of miniature painting.
Dewan was the Divisional commissioner of Kashmir from 2001 to 2003. and also chairman of the state co-operative bank between 2002 – 2003. Dewan was also the resident commissioner of Jammu & Kashmir before he took charge as the chairman and managing director of India Tourism Development Corporation in 2006. The company recorded its three highest-ever profits under him, and declared the only three dividends that it has since 1997.
Dewan was the Tourism Secretary of India. He helped WoNoBo.com devise virtual walking tours of Indian cities, five in the first place, with almost fifty more to follow, making Incredible India the first national tourism authority anywhere to offer such a useful and entertaining facility.
In October 2014 Dewan asked for and was granted voluntary, premature retirement, in order to concentrate on his career as a writer, especially to work on his South Asian encyclopaedia, Indpaedia.com.
Advisor
In 2016 Dewan was appointed Jammu and Kashmir's Advisor for twelve departments including Education, Tourism, Public Works, Culture, Health & Medical Education, Consumer Affairs, Information Technology, Youth Services and Sports.

Writer

Dewan translated the Hanuman Chalisa into English, written The Names of Allah, and bought out Jesus Christ Superstar in Urdu. He has also converted Habba Khatun's songs into Urdu songs, set to the same tune.
Dewan is also the co-author of Tibet: fifty years after with Siddharth Shrivastava. Dalai Lama has written the foreword to this book. In the foreword, HE the Dalai lama advocates peace for Tibet and China, and states that violence is counter-productive and creates misery. Dewan and Shrivastava visited Tibet after the 2008 failed uprising of Tibetans against the Chinese rule, & documented the population figures and the socio-political situation in the region.
Dewan has researched into various caste and religious groups in India. He has focused on the biased projections that the media has created for minority religious and ethnic groups within the country—and tried to compare them with similar prejudices against internal ethnic groups in Pakistan, the USA, the UK, Turkey, Indonesia, Europe and Africa.

Books

Dewan has published twenty books till date, some of which are listed in the table below
S.No.YearTitlePublisherISBN
011987Hiñdî-Urdû Phrasebook: A language Survival KitLonely Planet, Australia
021989The Civil Services: What they are all about and how to get in20/ 20 Publications, Delhi
032001The Hanûmân ChâlîsâViking Penguin
042003The Names of AllahViking Penguin
052004Parvez Dewan's Jammu.Kashmir.Ladakh: KashmirManas Publications
062004Parvez Dewan's Jammu.Kashmir.Ladakh: LadakhManas Publications
072004The Book of HanumanViking Penguin Books
082004Allâh ké Muqaddas Naam Qaumi Council Bara-e Farogh-e-Urdu Zuban
092007Parvez Dewan's Jammu.Kashmir.Ladakh: JammuManas Publications
102008A history of LadakhManas Publications
112008A history of KashmirManas Publications
122008A history of JammuManas Publications
132009Tibet: fifty years afterShubhi Publications
142010Hanuman ji, His Vanars and His LankaShubhi Publications
152011The people and culture of Jammu, Kashmir LadakhManas Publications
162011The Other KashmirManas Publications
172012Jammu Kashmir Ladakh: Natural HeritageManas Publications
182012Amazing LadakhManas Publications
192013Amazing KashmirManas Publications
202013Religion in Jammu Kashmir LadakhManas Publications

Journalism

As a college student Dewan was for three years the Campus Correspondent of The Hindustan Times Evening News. During the same period, for Youth Times he reviewed music and did the Hodge Podge column under the pseudonym Ponga Muni.
Indian Express wrote about Dewan:
Parvez Dewan seems to have that rare quality to poke fun at himself. On the author’s profile page of his latest book on Kashmir, this J&K IAS officer has candidly revealed some interesting facts about himself.
“Most of the publications that Parvez has written for have folded up ”, it mentions. “The venerable Illustrated Weekly of India wrote a long story about how Parvez created the Ladakh Festival in difficult circumstances. That was its last issue,”
it carries on.
At another point, it talks about two of his ‘libretti’ having been recorded as rock operas in Denmark, and a third telecast on Britain’s Channel Four, adding: "And none of the three was ever heard of again."
A fourth pop-opera, Sanober and the Slave has had somewhat better luck. In 2012 it spent more than three months at no. 1 on reverbnation.com's DK charts for Indie, thanks to the much acclaimed music of Kim Barner, his Danish partner in rhyme. The complete lyrics/ libretto/ book can be read at http://sanoberandtheslave.blogspot.com/; the complete musical with music and vocals can be heard at reverbnation.com/barner

Libretti/ lyrics

Dewan has written some libretti. The status of the pop-operas of which he has written the libretti and which were conceived by him is.
S.No.YearTitleMusic byStatus
011994Jennifer MerchantKim Barner and Neils Holde Romantic comedy, recorded on CD with Koda, Denmark
021984Moscow Streets Are WetNot recordedA paean to Moscow as it then was
031989The Râmâyan John Robertson Performed on Channel 4, UK
041989The Râmâyan Not recorded
051987The Mahâbhârat John Robertson, ex-of the RubettesNot recorded
061987The Mahâbhârat Not recorded
071987Narasimh John RobertsonNot recorded
081987AtharvNot recordedHindi-Urdu version of Verdi's Otello
091995PawnsNot recordedA tribute to the six European and American tourists taken hostage by the Pakistan-based 'Al Faran.'
101993Jesus Christ SuperstarReverent Hindi-Urdu lyrics set to Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicNot recorded
111987The OdysseyKim Barner and Neils HoldeRock opera version of the Homer classic; performed in Amsterdam
121996Sanober and the SlaveKim Barnera fairy—in the old sense—tale
132005Paar sarhad sey aaya hai yaarParvez Dewan Performed at WISCOMP's Indo-Pak workshops in 2005 and 2012
141998Dastan e HabbaOriginal Kashmiri lyrics and music by Habba KhatoonFive songs by Habba Khatoon rendered into Urdu and performed at Lady Sri Ram College, Delhi