Gurdial Malik (1896-1970)

Born in the North-West Frontier Province, Gurdial Malik spent the early part of his life in Quetta. As a student he came to know about Rabindranath through translations. He came to Santiniketan to meet Rabindranath where he also met C. F. Andrews. After the Jallianwalabagh massacre, when C. F. Andrews went to the Punjab for investigation, Gurdial was his companion. In 1920 he came to Santiniketan and started teaching English literature at the school. He knew Urdu, Pushto, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi and a little Persian.

Utterly unselfish, Gurdialji would take no salary for his services, until the time when his own limited resources were depleted, when he did accept a meagre allowance. In 1928, Rabindranath asked him to teach at Siksha Bhavana. Again in the 40s he taught in the school and college. He also edited the Visva-Bharati Quarterly for a couple of years. He was in charge of Rabindra Bhavana for a while.