Kanwal was born on March 13th, 1929. Kanwal's father was Srikrishna Hazari and his mother was Kishan Mohini Raina. His paternal grandparents were Meghraj Hazari and Poshi. He had two brothers and a sister, named Brij, Shiv and Kamini. He died from cancer at the age of 91 on January 10th, 2021 in Gurgaon.