Yashpal (3 December 1903 – 26 December 1976) was a Hindi-language writer, 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. Early life and activism Yashpal was born on 3 December 1903 in the village of Bhumpal, (present-day Hamirpur district) situated within the Kangra Hills in British India. His mother was poor and had sole responsibility for raising her two sons. He 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. He attended an Arya Samaj gurukul in Haridwar on a "freeship" basis, due to the family's poverty. Such gurukuls were considered by the colonial administration to be "hotbeds of sedition" because they fostered pride in Hindu culture and Indian achievements, encouraging the notion that British rule was a "temporary setback or punishment for having permitted laxity in the Aryan religion." Yashpal later said that during his schooldays he had daydreamed of a time when Indians would reverse the current situation to the point of ruling the British in England. He 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. Reunited with his mother in Lahore, Yashpal attended middle school there before progressing to high school in Ferozepur Cantonment, where the family had subsequently moved. He 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. He 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. It was after one such tour that he received his matriculation results, the success in which entitled him to a scholarship at a government college. He declined that award in favour of having to fund himself through studies at National College, Lahore, an institution that had been