yashpal biography in english

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Born on 03 December 1903 in the village of Bhumpal (present-day Hamirpur district) situated in the Kangra Hills of Himachal Pradesh, Yashpal was a prolific writer in Hindi, a political commentator, a socialist, and a freedom fighter. He was also an ardent Gandhian, and initially, he worked to spread the Non-Cooperation Movement. However, he later joined the revolutionary group the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA), as he felt that independence from the British regime could be attained only by forceful means. The objective of the HSRA was to fight against British colonial rule in India and achieve independence for the country through aggressive means if necessary. On 23 December 1929, Yashpal detonated a bomb on a train carrying the then Viceroy, Lord Irwin. In 1932, he was elected Commander-in-Chief of the HSRA. On 22 January 1932, he was arrested and jailed by the British authorities in Allahabad for putting his name on a seditious handbill that was widely distributed. After his release from prison, he took to writing. Yashpal saw literature as a means for correcting the wrongs that he perceived to exist in Indian society.  His writings included essays, short stories, novels, and plays. His autobiography, Sinhavalokan (A Lion's Eye-View), is acknowledged for its detailed account of the armed struggle for independence in India, and it also has information about his early life. In 1970, Yashpal was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Govt. of India. Yashpal passed away on 26 December 1976, leaving behind a rich legacy in modern Hindi literature.

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About: Yashpal

Yashpal (3 December 1903 – 26 December 1976) was a Hindi-language writer who is sometimes considered to be the most gifted writer since Premchand. A political commentator and a socialist, he wrote in a range of genres, including essays, novels and short stories, as well as a play, two travel books and an autobiography. He won the Hindi-language Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel, Meri Teri Uski Baat in 1976 and was also a recipient of the Padma Bhushan. Yashpal's writings form an extension to his earlier life as a revolutionary in the cause of the Indian independence movement.

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Remembering Yash Pal, the People’s Scientist Who Left an Indelible Mark on India!

Yash Pal was fascinated by the logic required to solve geometrical problems. He says in his biography that he would have missed this joy if he had not discovered it on his own.

C an you think of a scientist who believes that science should be taught to the people for it to be understood and not for it to be reciprocated and that teaching science to all is how we would grow as a nation?

Prof Yash Pal was a renowned scientist, known not just for his numerous contributions to the scientific community, but also to the general public. No wonder he is fondly remembered as ‘The People’s Scientist’.

A dynamic personality, Prof Pal was a scientist, a manager, an educator, a communicator and most importantly, a clairvoyant for science and its teachings.

Yash was born in colonial India on 26th November 1926 in the district of Jhang, which is currently in Pakistan. He soon moved to Madhya Pradesh as his father had acquired a job in Jabalpur. This is where his interest in science and mathematics took a versatile form. Due to the change in education, he had to learn a lot of things by himself, which included Euclidean Geometry.

He was fascinated by the logic required to solve geometrical problems. He says in his biography that he would have missed this joy if he had not discovered it on his own.

During his school years, he had a teacher named Pawar who taught mathematics, geography and physics and emphasised understanding rather than memorising–a trait that Yash would carry on till the end of his life.

Yash went to study in a government college, where he picked up the habit of reading. Books on Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, Ruskin Bond, Thoreau and Tagore soon filled his desk. It is when he was immersed in these books that he asked himself–What do I want to do with my life?

Soon, India saw its partition in 1947, when Yash had just finished BSc and was taking up MSc in Delhi. The riots and the agitation of the people were running high.

Amongst all the commotion, Yash Pal recalls how there was hope amidst all the adversity. He says in his biography, “It was a time of great tragedy, but also a time of tremendous hope, and something new was beginning to happen.”

As his MSc was coming to an end, he applied to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). This would undoubtedly become a start to his long research career. He moved to Mumbai and studied nuclear emulsion techniques. This photographic technique allows scientists to study the interaction of high energy particles in cosmic rays with other specified particles.

It was at TIFR that Yash found an interest in cosmic rays and did numerous experiments with balloon flights, which were previously not conducted at the institution.

While pursuing his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he explored cosmic rays in depth and researched about particle mixture theories. After completing his doctorate, he returned to India to work with TIFR on nuclear emulsions with his own team of researchers and students.

It was in 1972 that Prof Satish Dhawan approached him to take up the reins for setting up the Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad. Yash was convinced and took a five-year deputation from TIFR to build the SAC–a task which was gargantuan and would take up all his blood and sweat to be completed.

“I had never worked this hard; I did not know what happened. Firstly, the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) was very much delayed. In fact, I remember some people came to see me as soon as I was there and told me that people are saying that those who have joined the SITE team better get off before the ship sinks!” recalls Pal.

But his determination didn’t let him give up. Due to his consistent and continued efforts, the SAC was completed. Simultaneously, Vikram Sarabhai’s dream project–the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment or SITE, also took off due to Yash Pal’s contributions.

SITE’s main objective was mass education. And for this, they had to carry out surveys of how it benefitted the people. For this, they had to travel to villages to document change. It was here that Yash found the importance to advocate science to all people.

He had the opportunity to make science programmes for children with Doordarshan. Although thrilled, he was rather puzzled about how to go about it.

Prof Yash Pal says in his biography, “I had been to villages, and I had by that time started believing that science can be learnt only through doing. You must have experiments, and you must do things to learn science properly. But in villages there were one/two-room schools, with no equipment; some did not even have a blackboard. If we had to make science programmes for them, what were they going to do?”

He sought inputs from TIFR and MIT and the response was overwhelming. Soon, production began for the show Turning Point which was an immense success with the masses.

The objective of the show was clear– that science is everywhere. And for children to learn, their immediate environment can be questioned, understood, explained, using scientific methods. And most importantly, to emphasise the learning of the scientific method, more than the mere transfer of information.

With the programme, Yash Pal became a favourite among the viewers. He would answer people’s questions each week, explaining things in such a manner that invoked curiosity and made the imparting of knowledge seamless. His insights and brilliance influenced a generation of innovators.

The programme ran for 150 episodes and had film actors like Naseeruddin Shah as hosts.

In 1976, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India for his contribution to science and space technology. In 1980, he was awarded the Marconi Fellowship in recognition of his “wise and humane leadership in applying modern communications technology to meet the needs of isolated rural villagers in India.”

Yash, for the most part, was concerned with education in India. According to him, it was not simply delivering knowledge but acquiring, constructing and creating knowledge. His idea of good education was “drastically reducing loads of sterile information and giving emphasis on comprehension and understanding, and sharing the joy of understanding.”

Prof Yash Pal passed away at the age of 90 on July 24th, 2017. His death left a mark on the scales of progress in India. But his work remains intact with the development India has made.

Hrushikesh Senapaty, Chairman, NCERT, told Livemint, “Prof Yash Pal loved kids and told many times that child-centric learning is a must to improve education outcome. He pushed for more visualization of text books to make them fun and reduce the impact of rote learning.”

With all his love towards imparting knowledge, Prof Yash Pal will surely go down as a scientist who changed how people thought about science.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Hey, you may also like:  10 Incredible Facts About Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the Father of the Indian Space Programme

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Category: Literature

Yashpal Profile

• December 3, 1903
• December 26, 1976
• Born / Home Town:
• Profession / Known For:
• Freedom Fighter , Writer
• Prakashvati Pal

Yashpal Biography

Yashpal was a noted author of Hindi literature and revolutionary freedom fighter of India. He won Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Meri Teri Uski Baat in 1976. Jhoota Sach, Raah beeti and Dekha Socha Samjha – are other noted Hindi books of this author. Yashpal was a freedom fighter too and has been sentenced to 14 years of hard labour by British government. He was only 28 then. But he was released 6 years later. In the year 2003-2004, his birth centenary was celebrated in a grand fashion throughout the country and the most noted event, after Prem Chand’s birth centenary celebrations. In his autobiography `Simhabalokan’ published in three volumes, he has given a complete account of his association with freedom struggle and revolutionary movement.

Yashpal was born in 1903, December 3rd in a small village in Kangra hills. During his childhood days, he struggled in poverty. His mother served as a teacher in the orphanage of Ferozepur Cantonment, earning just 30 rupees a month. Yashpal passed matriculation in 1921. He was deeply influenced by revolutionary leaders like Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev in his youth and very soon, he became a Marxist. He completed his graduation from National College, Lahore. But his sole aim was to join Indian freedom struggle movement than to make his career. He was deeply influenced by Non-cooperative movement of Gandhiji also.

Following the death of Chandrasekhar Azad in 1931, he was appointed as the commander of the Hindustan Socialist Democratic Army. He was arrested in Allahabad on 23rd February, 1932. He married Prakashvati Pal, another revolutionary in August 1936 while he was spending his days at Bareilly Central Jail. With the formation of Congress Ministry, he got released two years later. His noted story collections include - Pinjare ki Udaan, Sach, Phulo Ka Kurta and Dharmayudha. Manushya Ke Roop, Dada Comrade, Amrita and Meri Teri Uski Baat are a few of his novels.

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Who is Professor Yash Pal, the man who reformed education in India, made a mark in study of cosmic rays, astrophysics

A man known for excellence in Physics, one of India’s most respected scientists Professor Yash Pal became a very known face when he appeared in a popular science series, Turning Point, Doordarshan in the 1980s for explaining scientific concepts to layman.

A man known for excellence in Physics, one of India ’s most respected scientists Professor Yash Pal became a very known face when he appeared in a popular science series, Turning Point, Doordarshan in the 1980s for explaining scientific concepts to layman. The 90-year-old scientist passed away on Monday night. He had earlier fought back lung cancer and overcame the disease around five years ago. Due to age-old ailments, he was admitted to hospital at the time of his death. His last rites will take place at 3 pm today afternoon.

Born in 1926, in Jhang district, now in Pakistan , a physicist of international repute, Pal was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1976 and the Padma Vibhushan, in 2013. He began his career at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. To pursue his PhD, Pal went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in United States and completed it in the year 1958 after which he again returned to the Tata Institute, where he remained until 1983.

Pal made significant contributions to bring reforms in education and in the study of cosmic rays, astrophysics, and high-energy physics etc. Pal was appointed in several schools and higher education reform committees by the government, according to The Times of India. He was also the Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University from 2007 to 2012. The human resources development ministry in 2009 set up a committee on higher education naming after him, the Yash Pal Committee, which Yash Pal chaired, to reform higher education in the country. He served as the Chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC) for full single-term of five years.

Among his other achievements, he was the first Director of Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad and was also awarded the Kalinga Prize by UNESCO for the popularisation of science in 2009. Professor Pal served as the Chief Consultant of the Planning Commission between 1983 and 84 and also acted as the Secretary of Department of Science and Technology, from 1984 to 1986.

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Hero of '83, Yashpal Sharma’s true legacy stands on his simplicity

Yashpal was a man of substance, less of style a quality that made him an integral part of the 1983 World Cup winning squad

Yashpal Sharma woke up in the morning, decided to ditch his morning run due to rain, and sipped his tea. A brief while later, he took a deep breath, and just like that, a mighty figure in the history of Indian cricket left for heavenly abode. 

Yashpal Sharma passed away, aged 66, after a cardiac arrest on Tuesday. 

If one needs to understand Yashpal Sharma on a macro level, here is a fact. The World Cup triumph in 1983 wouldn’t have happened if not for this man from Ludhiana. As Cricket.com columnist and historian Abhishek Mukherjee penned down on Twitter, “In the 1983 World Cup, Yashpal top-scored against

- West Indies at Old Trafford (West Indies' first ever defeat in the World Cup)

- Australia at Chelmsford (must-win for India)

- England at Old Trafford (semi-final)

Remove the Zimbabwe matches, and he was India's top scorer.”

On his passing away, Indian cricket has lost a crowning jewel who epitomized the word “grit and determination” more than anyone else. When he batted, he was not the most charismatic batsman and his obvious technical limitations were laid bare even to the naked eye. But the ability to complement that with innings of substance made him such an invaluable asset in the late 70s and early 80s. 

However, it is the persona for which he will be remembered the most for. Always laden with a smile, Sharma never let down his boyish sense of charm, which was a complete contrast to his serious demeanor on the field. In May 2019, I sent him a message for a few quotes on the Indian cricket team’s No.4 musical chair ahead of the 2019 World Cup campaign. Due to his association with another news channel as an analyst, he couldn’t honor my request but made it a point to ring me up to explain his situation. 

He didn’t need to, but he did. That was the generosity of his being. We spoke a couple of times after that and he was always gracious with his time and never forgot to wear a smile.

Unlike Kapil Dev, he couldn’t hit the ball with brute force. Unlike Sunil Gavaskar, he didn’t have silken beauty. Unlike Ravi Shastri, he didn’t have a beaming presence. But his sturdy presence coupled with the inherent ability to maximize his own strengths culminated with arguably the most beautiful shot of that World Cup. Bob Willis was stunned as Yashpal flicked the English captain over backward square leg for a nonchalant six just after stepping down the track to hit Paul Allott over long-on.

But Yashpal was a man of substance, less of style. He ensured his mortal contribution would give more joy to Indian fans than any sixes would. 

India were already down to 50/2 with openers Sunil Gavaskar and Krishnamachari Srikkanth back in the hut. It needed someone to stand up to the occasion and it was invariably Sharma who did it. A 92-run partnership for the third wicket with Mohindar Amarnath was followed by a 63-run partnership with Sandeep Patil that helped India set up the final date with the mighty Windies. Talk about impact.

To give it a more modern-day context, he was more of a Cheteshwar Pujara than Virat Kohli. He could bore the bowling attacks to death and could patiently wait for a rank bad ball to dispatch them for a boundary. The contrast was visible in the Chennai Test of 1981-82 when he shared a world record stand with stylish GR Viswanath. The duo regaled comfortably, leaving the English attack at an unfathomable edge. 

“We batted the whole day. I cannot forget that innings because I never expected myself to bat for the whole day in Test cricket because of my temperament. The two of us played and had a massive partnership. Yashpal was a very good cricketer, a very good fielder, and a team man to the core,” Viswanath told Sportstar after the sad news arrived on Tuesday morning.

“It was sort of a bouncy wicket and we lost the openers early. Once Dilip (Vengsarkar) was retired hurt, we had to settle down and take it from there. Both of us had talked about how to go ahead. The idea was to stick around for a couple of hours and probably pitch will be easy and the England bowlers (like Ian Botham, Bob Willis) will be tired. We had to ensure that we did not lose any more wickets. We never expected to play the whole day, but we could hang in there and played our shots. Yashpal too played a magnificent and an authoritative innings,” the Karnataka man added.

These two innings epitomized Yashpal’s class and irrefutable vigor. Indian Cricket loved him for what he brought to the table and he continued to be a servant till his last breath. A legacy that stood on strong-willed determination left for the heavenly abode just as peacefully as it caressed the ball. That touch will be missed, Yashpal Ji!

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1903 - 1976

Yashpal Singh (3 December 1903 – 26 December 1976) was a Hindi-language writer, political commentator, a socialist and an essayist. He wrote in a range of genres, including essays, novels and short stories, as well as a play, two travel books and an autobiography . Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Yashpal has received more than 299,676 page views. His biography is available in 16 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 15 in 2019) . Yashpal is the 3,855th most popular writer (up from 4,258th in 2019) , the 446th most popular biography from India (up from 466th in 2019) and the 71st most popular Indian Writer .

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Notable Works

Page views of yashpals by language, among writers.

Among writers , Yashpal ranks 3,855 out of 5,755 .  Before him are Ida Vitale , Fernando del Paso , Tsubouchi Shōyō , Frik , Françoise d'Eaubonne , and Paula Fox . After him are Frans Michael Franzén , Yusuf Idris , Iwan Bloch , Joachim Ringelnatz , Manuel José Quintana , and Runer Jonsson .

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

1923 - Present

Rank: 3,849

Fernando del Paso

1935 - 2018

Rank: 3,850

Tsubouchi Shōyō

1859 - 1935

Rank: 3,851

1234 - 1315

Rank: 3,852

Françoise d'Eaubonne

1920 - 2005

Rank: 3,853

1923 - 2017

Rank: 3,854

Rank: 3,855

Frans Michael Franzén

1772 - 1847

Rank: 3,856

Yusuf Idris

1927 - 1991

Rank: 3,857

1872 - 1922

Rank: 3,858

Joachim Ringelnatz

1883 - 1934

Rank: 3,859

Manuel José Quintana

1772 - 1857

Rank: 3,860

Runer Jonsson

1916 - 2006

Rank: 3,861

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1903 , Yashpal ranks 193 .  Before him are Vincent Richards , Graham Sutherland , Natallia Arsiennieva , Claude Dauphin , Alejandro Casona , and Cyril Jackson . After him are Ivan Galamian , Nathanael West , Wage Rudolf Supratman , Adolph Gottlieb , Vladimir Lossky , and Josefina Pla .  Among people deceased in 1976 , Yashpal ranks 144 .  Before him are Conduelo Píriz , Viggo Kampmann , Hidetsugu Yagi , Pál Turán , Stanley Baker , and Walter Piston . After him are Maurice Dobb , Rudi Fischer , Mariano Ospina Pérez , Giuseppe Cavanna , Ivo Van Damme , and Richard Hughes .

Others Born in 1903

Vincent Richards

1903 - 1959

Graham Sutherland

1903 - 1980

Natallia Arsiennieva

1903 - 1997

Claude Dauphin

1903 - 1978

Alejandro Casona

1903 - 1965

Cyril Jackson

1903 - 1988

Ivan Galamian

1903 - 1981

Nathanael West

1903 - 1940

Wage Rudolf Supratman

1903 - 1938

Adolph Gottlieb

1903 - 1974

Vladimir Lossky

1903 - 1958

Josefina Pla

1903 - 1999

Others Deceased in 1976

Conduelo Píriz

1905 - 1976

Viggo Kampmann

1910 - 1976

Hidetsugu Yagi

1886 - 1976

Stanley Baker

1928 - 1976

Walter Piston

1894 - 1976

Maurice Dobb

1900 - 1976

Rudi Fischer

1912 - 1976

Mariano Ospina Pérez

1891 - 1976

Giuseppe Cavanna

Ivo Van Damme

1954 - 1976

Richard Hughes

Among people born in India , Yashpal ranks 446 out of 1,493 .  Before him are Udham Singh (1899) , Rajinikanth (1950) , Roshan Seth (1942) , S. P. Balasubrahmanyam (1946) , Balaji Baji Rao (1720) , and Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi (1887) . After him are Shammi Kapoor (1931) , Rekha (1954) , Derek Prince (1915) , Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888) , Nirmal Verma (1929) , and Mahadev Desai (1892) .

Others born in India

Udham Singh

1899 - 1940

Rajinikanth

1950 - Present

Roshan Seth

1942 - Present

S. P. Balasubrahmanyam

1946 - 2020

Balaji Baji Rao

1720 - 1761

Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi

1887 - 1971

Shammi Kapoor

1931 - 2011

1954 - Present

Derek Prince

1915 - 2003

Tirumalai Krishnamacharya

1888 - 1989

Nirmal Verma

1929 - 2005

Mahadev Desai

1892 - 1942

Among WRITERS In India

Among writers born in India , Yashpal ranks 71 .  Before him are Ibn Warraq (1946) , Altaf Hussain Hali (1837) , Krishan Chander (1914) , Nagarjun (1911) , Arundhati Roy (1961) , and Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi (1887) . After him are Nirmal Verma (1929) , Mahadev Desai (1892) , Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay (1898) , Dharamvir Bharati (1926) , Kamini Roy (1864) , and Saadat Hasan Manto (1912) .

Indian born Writers

1946 - Present

Altaf Hussain Hali

1837 - 1914

Krishan Chander

1914 - 1977

1911 - 1998

Arundhati Roy

1961 - Present

Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay

1898 - 1971

Dharamvir Bharati

1926 - 1997

1864 - 1933

Saadat Hasan Manto

1912 - 1955

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Yashpal Sharma, hero of India’s maiden World Cup win, dead at 66

Sharma was the second highest run-getter for India at the 1983 cricket tournament after captain Kapil Dev.

Yashpal Sharma, part of the India team that won the 1983 World Cup, has died of a heart attack at the age of 66, cricket authorities said.

Sharma played a key part in India’s first World Cup win that triggered cricket’s rise in South Asia. He played 37 Tests and 42 one-day internationals as a middle-order batsman between 1979 and 1985.

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Sharma was the second highest run-getter for India at the 1983 tournament after captain Kapil Dev. He scored 89 against the West Indies in a first-round game and 61 in the semi-final against England.

India beat two-time champions the West Indies in the final at Lord’s.

In his condolence tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sharma was a member of India’s “legendary 1983 squad” and an “inspiration for teammates”.

Shri Yashpal Sharma Ji was a much beloved member of the Indian cricket team, including the legendary 1983 squad. He was an inspiration for teammates, fans as well as budding cricketers. Anguished by his passing away. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 13, 2021

“Shocked and deeply pained by the demise of Yashpal Sharma-ji. Have fond memories of watching him bat during the 1983 World Cup,” batting great Sachin Tendulkar wrote on Twitter.

“His contribution to Indian cricket shall always be remembered.”

Oh dear, so sorry to hear of the death of Yashpal Sharma who played such a big part in one of Indian cricket's most glorious hours #WorldCup1983 . Too early to go. Condolences to his family. — Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) July 13, 2021

Sharma made his Test debut in England in 1979.

After retiring, Sharma remained involved in coaching, commentary and cricket administration, including two stints as national selector.

Jay Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, said Sharma “will always be remembered for his knock of 89 runs against West Indies, which provided impetus to India’s World Cup journey in 1983”.

aaj ik aur baras biit gayā us ke baġhair

jis ke hote hue hote the zamāne mere

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Yash Pal Age, Death Cause, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Some lesser known facts about yash pal.

• Did Yash Pal drink alcohol?: Not Known
• He was born in Jhang district (Punjab Province, Pakistan).
• He was brought up in Pai, Kaithal, Haryana.
• After completing his Masters in Physics from Panjab University in 1949, he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to pursue his Ph.D. in Physics.
• He started his career as a member of the “Cosmic Rays Group” at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bombay (now Mumbai).
• In 1973, Yash Pal became the first Director of the Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad.
• During his tenure as the Chairman of UGC, Yash Pal advocated the setting up of Inter-University Centres.
• In 1993, he chaired the National Advisory Committee set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. The Committee’s report, entitled “Learning Without Burden,” is considered a seminal document in the Indian School Education.
• He was also asked to chair the NCERT’s National Curriculum Framework.
• In 2009, to examine the reform of Higher Education in India, MHRD set up a Committee known as Yash Pal Committee.
• He became popular after his regular appearances in Doordarshan’s science programme “Turning Point” in which he used to explain scientific concepts in layman’s language.
• Yash Pal used to answer reader’s questions in a column of the Indian English daily The Tribune.
• On 24 July 2017, he died of age old ailments after being admitted to the Max Hospital in Noida. Earlier, he had battled with lung cancer. However, he overcame the disease around five years ago to his death.
• Here’s the story of Yash Pal’s life in his own words:

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Who is Professor Yash Pal?

Here is everything you need to know about the renowned scientist professor yash pal who passed away late night on monday.

Eminent Indian scientist and academician Professor Yash Pal passed away at his residence in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida district late Monday night. The 90-year-old scientist had earlier battled with lung cancer and overcame the disease around five years ago. He was admitted in hospital due to age-old ailments at the time of his death.

Professor Pal was born in 1926 in Jhang district of British India that is now in Pakistan. The 1976 Padma Bhushan award-winning scientist did his graduation in Physics in 1949 from Punjab University and went on to complete his Phd in 1958 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with specialisation in high-energy physics, astrophysics, communication, science policy and space technology.

He gained recognition because of his contribution in the study of cosmic rays. His science-based programme on Doordarshan titled ‘Turning Point’ made him a cult figure during the 90s. He had held the position of professor at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai . He also served as the Director at Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad for almost nine years, between 1973 and 1981.

Read | Renowned Indian scientist Professor Yash Pal dead

Professor Yash Pal was later appointed as the Chief Consultant of the Planning Commission in 1983-84. He acted as the Secretary of Department of Science and Technology, a position that he held for two years, from 1984 to 1986. He was appointed as the Chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC) where he served a full single-term of five years. During his term, Professor Pal started several innovative programmes to improve the standard of education.

In the international arena, he served as a member of UN Advisory Committee on Science and Technology for Development. He was also a member of Scientific Council, International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste and Executive Committee and United Nations University. He was also the Vice-President of IUPAP and INSA Council between 1980 and 1981.

Owing of his achievements in the fields of science and academics, Professor Yash Pal was awarded the Macroni International Fellowship Award in 1980. Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) bestowed on him the prestigious GP Chatterjee Memorial Award in 1987. He was also honoured with the Association of Space Explorers Award in 1989.

In 2013, Professor Yash Pal was given the country’s second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan.

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Yashpal - Biography

Yashpal grew up at a time of ferment and agitation of Indian independence. In his school days he was drawn at first to Mahatma Gandhi's non-cooperation movement, but later felt that such movements were unresponsive to the needs of the poor and that non-cooperation with the British was ineffective. He joined National College, Lahore, a hotbed of nationalist sentiment, which was founded by Lala Lajpat Rai, the venerable leader of pre-partition Punjab. There he met Bhagat Singh, who was hanged for his role in the assassination of policeman J.P. Saunders in Lahore (1928), and for exploding a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly in New Delhi (1929).

Yashpal wrote in his reminiscences, Sinhavalokan , “One day I and Bhagat Singh got a chance to practice rowing in the Ravi river. Just two of us, no one else was there. I don’t remember how the subject came up, but in that solitude I said to Bhagat Singh, trusting him implicitly: Let us pledge our lives to our country.

Bhagat Singh’s face turned very serious, and extending his hand to me he said: I do pledge.” He is the great man walk on fott of shamsher.

At first Yashpal took part in the activities of Naujawan Bharat Sabha organized by Bhagat Singh, but after the Lahore Bomb Factory was unearthed in 1929, he too went underground and never looked back. As an active member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA), he came into contact with another well-known revolutionary, Chandra Shekhar Azad, who shot himself (1931) in a shootout with police in Allahabad. It is somewhere during 1930-31 that he became a police agent and provided valuable information to the British.

During those years, Yashpal took part in many HSRA activities, like making explosives at several secret factories, blewing up the train carrying Viceroy Lord Irwin in 1929, and took part in an attempt to free Bhagat Singh from Borstal Jail in Lahore. He shot and grievously wounded two police constables in Kanpur when they tried to block an attempt by his group to escape. He also met his future wife, 17-year old Prakashvati who had left home to join the revolutionary party.

Yashpal was arrested in Allahabad in 1932 when his bullets ran out after an armed encounter with the police, a claim refuted by Dharmendra Gaur. Yashpal actually fired only one round on Pilditch, Police Superintendent, Special Branch, and surrendered after Pilditch fired. He was one of the main accused in the concluded Lahore and Delhi conspiracy cases, but after a lengthy trial the government decided not to reopen these cases in view of the expenses involved. Some other charges against him could not be proven for the lack of witnesses. In the end, he was given a life sentence.

In prison, Yashpal taught himself enough French, Russian and Italian to read original works in those languages. He also wrote and re-wrote short stories that were later published as Pinjre ki Udaan (Flights of a Caged Mind). In this life of discipline and contemplation came a surprise in the form of a petition by Prakashvati to the jail authorities that she wanted to marry Yashpal, the prisoner serving a life sentence.

Since the jail manual did not forbid a prisoner from getting married, the British superintendent gave his consent. The police did not want the notorious revolutionary to go to the civil court without handcuffs and leg irons, and Yashpal refused to get married tied up like a criminal. A compromised was reached when the Deputy Commissioner agreed to perform the marriage inside the prison. After the ceremony, Yashpal was returned to his cell to serve his life sentence, and Prakashvati went back to Karachi to finish her studies to become a dental surgeon which she had begun after her own arrest and subsequent release by the police.

Their’s might be the only marriage ever to take place inside a prison in India. When the news of the marriage leaked outside, the newspapers seized upon the novel idea, provoking the government to add a section to the Indian Jail Manual forbidding a sentence-serving prisoner to be married in the prison in future.

India moved toward self-government in 1938. As part of the election campaign, the Congress Party promised to release of all political prisoners. Workers of Gandhi’s movement were released immediately, but assurances were sought from the revolutionaries that they no longer believed in violence. Yashpal refused on the ground that it would appear that he had bargained with the government for his release. He was the last to be set free, on the condition that he would not be permitted to go back to Punjab. He then decided to make Lucknow, the capital of United Provinces (UP) where he was serving his sentence, his home.

Yashpal and Prakashvati, as he wrote in his reminiscences, were penniless. After a few months of hardship, Yashpal founded the Hindi monthly Vipalava (revolution) while Prakashvati worked as a dentist. Her dental practice was flourishing in those days of few women dentists, but she gave it up to help her husband. Soon they brought out the magazine’s Urdu edition, Baagi. The masthead of their publication said it all: “You may preach the message of peace and equality. Let revolution sing its fiery song.”

Viplava was a milestone in Hindi and Urdu political journalism. Besides being immensely popular, it was also a forum where staunch Gandhians and avowed believers in non-violence and satyagraha (civil disobedience) debated social and political issue with equally staunch Marxists and hardcore revolutionaries. When Yashpal was put in prison for seditious writing, Prakashvati filled in as editor.

In an attempt to muzzle the fiery enthusiasm of the couple, the government demanded huge security deposits from the magazine. The two closed down Viplava and Baagi, and began publishing Viplavi Tract. But police raids and constant harassment took its toll, and it all came to an end after five years of trend-setting journalism. Viplava reappeared briefly in 1948, but could not survive the censorship laws in a free India!

Yashpal, his own freedom regained and India’s on the horizon, soon made his mark as a writer. Mahadevi Verma, the eminent Hindi poet, summed it up: “When other writers were praying to Saraswati, the muse of literature, for her blessing, Yashpal was making bombs in a dark, secret cellar. When he arrived on the literary scene much behind others, it was him that Saraswati gave her undivided attention.”

If the literature of social reform and social protest in Hindi found a worthy advocate in Yashpal, he wielded a sledgehammer when writing about the exploited and the economically deprived in his fiction, and in the editorials and columns he wrote for Viplava.

Yashpal set about immediately on one his lifelong missions: repudiation of what he considered to be backward and unrealistic in the Indian society. But unlike most people devoted to causes, he went about it with gentle humour and tongue-in-cheek wit. His criticism of ancient Hindu ideals as a basis for contemporary society can be seen in his story Dharmraksha (To Uphold Righteousness) where a man denying his normal instincts under the discipline of brahmacharya (celibacy), attempts to rape his 19-year old daughter. Such questioning of long-practiced religious rites and rituals, of the Hindu doctrine of karma and reincarnation as preached by the orthodox often earned him threats to his life.

Yashpal never hid his preference for Marxist ideals, and the inefficacy of the movement led by the Congress Party and Mahatma Gandhi. His Gandhiwad ki Shav-pariksha (Post-mortem on Gandhiism), written in 1941 when Gandhi was alive, continues to be among his best-selling works. Although some of his early works showed the Communist Party as the saviour of Indian people, he himself never joined the party; in fact, the Communists later turned against him for his criticism of comrades who sacrificed free will and independent judgment to the Party’s dictates.

Another consistent feature of Yashpal’s writing is his compassion for women and his special concern for the inferior position of women in India. The women protagonists in his writings often break free, or try to, from the traditions of society that keep them in total dependence upon their family. Divya (1944), his novel set in the 1st century BC when there was a wide mingling of Indian and Hellenic cultures in northern India, is about Divya from an aristocratic Brahmin family who tries to find her identity in a male-dominated society. Assertions by Divya such as “the mistress of a noble family is not a free woman; she is not independent like a disreputable courtesan” outraged many of Yashpal’s contemporaries. Others tried to ignore it because they felt that a story about India’s so-called Golden Age could not be considered ‘literature’ if it expounded an unacceptable political ideology. Fortunately, a core of young critics and scholars of successive generations has continued to stand - and even swear - by Divya’s yearning for independence when she decides to be a prostitute, so as to be a free woman and have ownership rights over her body. The work showed Yashpal’s deep knowledge of Indian classics and his command of Sanskrit.

His novel Jhootha Sach (1958 & 1960), similar in scope and breadth to Tolstoy's War and Peace, and has been compared to the works of Balzac and Victor Hugo. Probably the only work of its kind in any language and often acclaimed as the definitive novel on India's partition, it chronicles the ups and downs in the lives of two families (a brother and sister, and his girlfriend/wife) in pre- and post-partition India. Critics praised the novel for its balanced depiction of both Hindus and Muslims, and readers loved its merciless portrayal of the Congress Party leaders on the make in British-free India.

That portrayal was so merciless that Yashpal was blatantly passed over for the Sahitya Akademi Award given by the government. The issue of Congress Party criticism, and of Jawaharlal Nehru, resurfaced a decade later when his name was on the national honours list. Indira Gandhi, then prime minister, reportedly read the ‘objectionable’ pages of Jhootha Sach and found nothing objectionable. Yashpal, the born anti-establishment rebel, was finally bestowed Padma Bhushan in 1970. The Sahitya Akademi tried to make amends by giving him the denied award in 1976 for his last novel Meri Teri Usaki Baat. It’s not known if he’d have accepted it; he was too unwell to say either yes or no.

Yashpal's more than fifty books of short stories, essays, novels, a play and his 3-vol. reminiscences had a profound influence on Hindi literature, and on social and political philosophy in India. Corinne Friend, translator of several works by him, said it all in her book Yashpal: Author and Patriot: “Yashpal, in his concern for the common man and commitment to social justice, his understanding of the quirks of human nature and ability to portray human beings with compassion and humour, and in his simple and powerful writing style, is heir to Prem Chand,” the greatest Hindi writer of pre-independence India.

Yashpal died in 1976 while writing the fourth volume of his reminiscences. Praskashvati, who had been the publisher of her husband’s books for 60 years, died at age 88 in September 2002.

In the year 2003-2004, events to celebrate Yashpal’s birth centenary were held across the length and the breadth of nation with an enthusiasm not seen except at the time of Prem Chand’s birth centenary celebrations: from national seminars organized by the Sahitya Akademi (India’s National Academy of Letters) at Shimla and at Kolkata, and by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi at Cochin, to local affairs in small towns in the Hindi-speaking heartland of India. These events were marked by a forceful and unequivocal acknowledgment of Yashpal being the towering figure in the post-Prem Chand era, as well as of the author’s importance and his impact on Hindi literature and on the successive generations of young writers. The Government of India issued a commemorative Yashpal Centenary postage stamp.

Books by Yashpal in English translation · Yashpal: Author and Patriot, Corinne Friend, 1969, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, USA ¹ · The Essence of Love, Yashpal, 1975, Arnold Heinnemann, New Delhi, India ¹ · Amita, Yashpal, 1977, Arnold Heinnemann, New Delhi, India ² · Yashpal Looks Back (Sinhavalokan), Yashpal, 1988, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, India ³ · The Second Nose and Other Stories, Yashpal, 2005, Rupa & Co., New Delhi, India ¹ · Divya, Yashpal, 2005, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, India ² · The Colour of Truth (Jhootha Sach), Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, India (in press) ²

1 Short stories, 2 Novel, 3 Memoirs

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