Yashpal

Yashpal (1903-1976) was one of the most prolific and unusual Hindi writers of the post-Premchand generation. Yashpal studied at the National College, Lahore, where he joined the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). He began to write while serving a life sentence for his participation, as a comrade of Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad, in the armed struggle for India's independence. What he wrote formed his first collection of short stories, Pinjare ki Udan, published in 1938. After his release Yashpal dazzled Hindi readers with the political journal, Viplava, which he founded and published with the help of Prakashvati, a revolutionary, whom he later married in prison. He wrote more than fifty books including collections of short stories, novels, essays, a play and memoirs of his revolutionary days.

His two-volume magnum opus, Jhootha Sach (1958 and 1960), translated into English as This Is Not That Dawn, is widely considered to be one of the most penetrating narratives on the partition of India. His novel Meri, Teri, Uski Baat won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1976, and he was also a recipient of the Padma Bhushan.