27 Facts About Yashpal

Yashpal Singh was a Hindi-language writer, political commentator, a socialist and an essayist.

Yashpal wrote in a range of genres, including essays, novels and short stories, as well as a play, two travel books and an autobiography.

Yashpal won the Hindi-language Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Meri Teri Uski Baat in 1976 and was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan.

Yashpal was born on 3 December 1903 in the village of Bhumpal, situated within the Kangra Hills in British India.

Yashpal's mother was poor and had sole responsibility for raising her two sons.

Yashpal grew up in an era when the popularity of the Indian independence movement was steadily increasing and with a mother who was a keen supporter of Arya Samaj.

Yashpal attended an Arya Samaj gurukul in Haridwar on a "freeship" basis, due to the family's poverty.

Yashpal was bullied by his fellow pupils at the gurukul on account of his poverty, and he left the school when he suffered a prolonged attack of dysentery.

Yashpal found the urban environment and schooling to be more to his taste and he finished first in class in his matriculation exam.

Yashpal had been a follower of Mahatma Gandhi's Congress organisation from the age of 17, while still in high school.

Yashpal toured villages to promote Gandhi's message of non-cooperation among peasant people but they appeared disinterested and he realised that there was nothing in the Congress programme that addressed issues that affected them.

Yashpal declined that award in favour of having to fund himself through studies at National College, Lahore, an institution that had been established by the Arya Samajist and Congress activist Lala Lajpat Rai with the aim of promoting social service and providing a quality education to Indians who did not want to be taught in British-administered colleges.

Yashpal became a fugitive in April 1929, hiding for a few weeks with a relative in the Kangra area after a recently established HSRA bomb factory in Lahore was raided by police.

Sukhdev Thapar was able to give him details of another member after Yashpal visited him in prison, posing as a lawyer, but the information was voided soon after due to a police raid on the HSRA's other bomb factory, in Saharanpur.

Yashpal then held discussions with leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha.

Yashpal detonated that bomb, which destroyed the dining car but only inconvenienced Irwin.

Yashpal was appointed to the central committee and became organiser in Punjab.

Yashpal tried then to reunite the HSRA and was eventually successful, being elected commander-in-chief in January 1932 and putting his name to a seditious handbill that was distributed.

Yashpal was arrested by the British in Allahabad on 22 January 1932.

Yashpal received a 14-year sentence of rigorous imprisonment, seven of those being on the charge of attempted murder in Cawnpore and a further seven for attempting to kill a police officer in a shoot-out that had occurred a day after his arrival in Allahabad.

Yashpal's release came on 2 March 1938, without any requirement for him to renounce his past activities.

Yashpal had been banned from entering Punjab following his release from prison and so settled with his wife in Lucknow.

Yashpal's first work, Pinjre ki Uran, was a notable success.

Yashpal worked briefly for Karmayogi, a Hindi-language magazine, before establishing his own magazine, Viplav, which was published in Hindi and Urdu until its closure in 1941.

Yashpal was writing a fourth volume of this autobiography at the time of his death on 26 December 1976.

Yashpal produced more than 50 works in Hindi, many of which have been translated into other languages.

Yashpal wrote two works based on his travels in Eastern Europe, Rah Beeti and Dekha Socha Samjha.