Painter and writer, born in Punjab, India. He received his Master of Arts degree in English literature from Chandigarh University and was down for Oxford University, but a mishap prevented this, and he turned almost by chance to art. After a convalescent visit to France, he had first one-man show at New Vision Centre Gallery in 1965, but continued to lead a diverse life. He was a foreign correspondent in the India-Pakistan War, 1971–2; won the Royal Society of Literature’s Winifred Holtby Prize for his novel Nation of Fools in 1984; and was part-author of the report Art on the South Bank, commissioned by the Greater London Council in 1986. Khanna did some figurative work, but made a notable impact with colourful, kaleidoscopic, abstract works, witty and original, which have been compared to those of Klee and Miró but which are unique.