https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Purushottam_Yashwant_DeshpandePurushottam Yashwant Deshpande - Revision history2026-11-04T04:13:05ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Purushottam_Yashwant_Deshpande&diff=527421&oldid=prevVernellSteward1: creating new post - done2024-12-27T12:03:15Z<p>creating new post - done</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Indian writer (1899–1896)}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2023}}<br />
'''Purushottam Yashwant Deshpande''' (popularly called '''''P.Y. Deshpande''''', or simply '''''P.Y'''''), (December 1899 – 26, July 1986) was an Indian writer in [[Marathi language|Marathi]]. He was awarded the [[Sahitya Akademi Award]] for [[List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for Marathi|Marathi language in 1962]] for his philosophical work ''Anamikachi Chintanika'' (''Meditations of an anonymous person'').<ref>{{cite web |title=Akademi Awards (1955-2021) in Marathi |url=https://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/awards/akademi%20samman_suchi.jsp#MARATHI |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |access-date=22 May 2022}}</ref><br />
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Deshpande was known as a multi-faceted personality, who was at various times a novelist, journalist, political activist and a philosopher and commentator of Indian scriptures, besides being associated with the [[Jiddu Krishnamurti|Krishnamurti school]] of philosophy.<ref name ="Sheorey">{{cite book |last=Sheorey |first=Indumati |author-link= |date=1992 |title=PY Deshpande |url= https://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/publications/pdf/p-y-deshpande_english.pdf|location=Mumbai |publisher=The Sahitya Akademi |page=1 |isbn=81-7201-052-4}}</ref> He also served as a member of the Provisional Parliament of India, between 1950 and 1952, representing [[Madhya Pradesh]] (which was formed out of the erstwhile [[Central Provinces and Berar]], along with some princely states which acceded to India)<ref>{{cite web |title=Lok Sabha Debates |url=https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/818350/1/08_VI_07-08-1986_p7_p8_PII.pdf |website=Parliament of India, Lok Sabha, Digital Library |publisher=Lok Sabha Secretariat, Government of India |access-date=7 May 2022}}</ref><br />
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He was the father of Indian social activist and former member of the [[Rajya Sabha|Upper House]] of the Indian parliament [[Nirmala Deshpande]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dhawan |first1=Himanshi |title=Nirmala Deshpande, Gandhian, dies at 79 |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/nirmala-deshpande-gandhian-dies-at-79/articleshow/3002797.cms |access-date=7 May 2022 |work=The Times of India |agency=The Times of India |publisher=The Times Group |date=2 May 2008}}</ref> His wife Vimalabai, also a poet,<ref name="Sheorey"/>{{rp|page=85|style=ama}}<ref>{{cite news |title=Nirmala Deshpande - a gutsy Gandhian |url=https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-nirmala-deshpande-a-gutsy-gandhian-1162223 |access-date=7 May 2022 |work=DNA India (Daily News and Analysis) |agency=IANS |publisher=Zee Media |date=May 2008}}</ref> was a minister (parliamentary secretary) of Central Provinces and Berar, under the premiership of [[Ravishankar Shukla]], at the time of Indian independence in 1947.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Das |first1=Durga |title=Sardar Patel's Correspondence 1945-50, Volume VI |date=1973 |publisher=The Navjivan Trust |location=Ahmedabad |page=44 |edition=First |url=https://archive.org/details/sardar_patels_correspondence_volume6/page/n9/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=7 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Deshpande |first1=Nirmala |title=For a change, let's listen to him |url=https://twocircles.net/2008jan30/change_lets_listen_him.html |website=Twocircles.net |date=30 January 2008 |publisher=TCN |access-date=7 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Iyengar |first1=AS |title=Provincial Guide |journal=Indian Information |date=1 Jan 1947 |volume=20 |issue=199 |page=115 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0fCFzLGjiLMC |access-date=7 May 2022}}</ref><br />
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==Early life==<br />
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Deshpande was born in December 1899 in the town of [[Amravati]],<ref name="Deshpande">{{cite book |last1=Deshpande |first1=Sunita |title=Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Marathi Literature |date=1 October 2009 |publisher=Global Vision Publishing House |location=New Delhi |isbn=978-81-8220-221-4 |page=143 |language=en}}</ref> in the erstwhile [[Berar Province|Berar region]] in Central India (also known as [[Vidarbha]]). He was born the third son of Y.G. Deshpande, a prominent lawyer and a local aristocratic [[zamindar|landowner]].<ref name="Sheorey"/>{{rp|page=4|style=ama}}<br />
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After completing his [[Matriculation#India|matriculation]] in 1917, Deshpande enrolled at [[Fergusson University|Fergusson College]] at [[Pune]], for his [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] During this period, he gained his first exposure to political activism. During his student years, Deshpande was taken by concepts such as [[rationalism]] and [[liberal humanism]], and was inspired by English [[Romantic poetry|romantic poets]] like [[Robert Browning]] and [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|P.B. Shelley]]. He was also influenced deeply by the [[Russian Revolution]]. India of the early 1920s was also infected by revolutionary fervor against the [[British Raj]], following several events including the deeply unpopular [[Rowlatt Act]], and the infamous [[Jallianwala Bagh massacre]]. [[Mahatma Gandhi]] had launched one of his first [[Satyagraha]] campaigns in the form of the [[Non-cooperation movement (1919–1922)|Non-cooperation movement]]. Deshpande actively participated in the movement, suspending his studies in the fourth year of his course. He was briefly imprisoned, and completed his B.A. post his release from jail<ref name="Sheorey"/>{{rp|page=5|style=ama}}<br />
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He went on to complete his [[Master of Arts|M.A]] from the [[University of Mumbai|Bombay University]] in 1925, and his [[Bachelor of Laws|L.L.B]] from [[Nagpur University]] in 1931, and briefly practiced law under his father.<ref name="Deshpande"/><br />
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==Political career==<br />
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In 1929, Deshpande joined the [[Indian Civil Service]]<br />
,<ref name="Arunam">{{cite book |last1=Arunam & Sheel |title=Personalities - A Comprehensive and Authentic Biographical Dictionary of Men who Matter in India: Parliament Section |date=1950 |publisher=Arunam & SHeel |location=New Delhi |page=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y40MAAAAYAAJ |access-date=7 May 2022}}</ref> specifically attached to the Judicial Services of what was then the [[Berar Division]]. However, his stint was short-lived, and he quit his post by 1931, unable to tolerate what he saw was a high-handed attitude from his superiors in the judicial service.<br />
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The very same year, he formally joined an organization of freedom fighters called the ''Berar Youth League''. Persuaded by [[Waman Gopal Joshi]], who was then the regional president of the Berar Congress Committee, affiliated with the [[Indian National Congress]], he joined active politics.<ref name="Sheorey"/>{{rp|page=6|style=ama}}<ref name="Arunam"/> When Gandhi launched the [[Salt March]] in 1930, the Berar Congress Committee organized symbolic protests in [[Akola]], before launching a war council at [[Nagpur]] to create a broader appeal for a [[Satyagraha]] in the region. Deshpande was among the several prominent people recruited to mobilize public opinion for the protests.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chaudhari |first1=K.K. |title=Source Material for a History of the Freedom Movement in India (Volume XI, Civil Disobedience Movement, Apr-Sep 1930) |date=2007 |publisher=Gazetteers Department, Government of Maharashtra, India |location=Mumbai |page=Foreword (iv) |edition=e-Book |url=https://cultural.maharashtra.gov.in/english/gazetteer/VOL-XI/Home.html |access-date=11 May 2022}}</ref> Deshpande also found cause with the local peasants struggle. Berar was affected by a severe famine, during this period and Deshpande also agitated for famine relief and revenue exemption, which led to a brief imprisonment in 1932. Connecting these struggles with his readings of the philosophies of [[Karl Marx|Marx]], [[Friedrich Engels|Engels]] and [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] he started shifting towards [[communism]]. His novel ''Vishal Jeevan'', published in 1933 dealt with the farmer's cause and his growing attraction towards communism.<ref name="Sheorey"/>{{rp|page=6|style=ama}} <ref name="Arunam"/><br />
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He joined the [[Indian National Trade Union Congress]], and became active in organizing labour strikes in the Nagpur region. In 1934, he shifted to Nagpur, and joined the Nagpur bar and also briefly accepted a position as a lecturer at the Nagpur University Law College. He started a weekly Marathi magazine called ''Bhavitavya'' (''The Future''), that was intended as a platform of Communist ideas. This brought him in close contact with many leftist politicians in the Congress pantheon like [[Jayaprakash Narayan]], [[Ram Manohar Lohia]], [[Achyut Patwardhan]], [[Minoo Masani]] and [[Yusuf Meherally]] among others. These contacts and inspirations he derived from Marxist literature, led him to drift away from Gandhian ideology that informed the political positions of the mainstream Congress party. He became one of the founding members of the [[Congress Socialist Party]], a socialist caucus within the Congress party and was one of the elected members of its first executive committee.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Prasad |first1=Bimal |last2=Prasad |first2=Sujata |title=The Dream of Revolution: A Biography of Jayaprakash Narayan |date=2021 |publisher=Penguin Random House |isbn=9780670096176 |page=Ch 3 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H1k7EAAAQBAJ&dq=Ram+manohar+lohia+%22PY+Deshpande%22&pg=PT52 |access-date=11 May 2022}}</ref><br />
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==Bibliography==<br />
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===Collection of Poems in Marathi===<br />
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* ''Nirmalya Mala'' (1926)<br />
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===Marathi Novels===<br />
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* ''Bandhanacbya Palikade'' (''Beyond the Bondage'') (1927)<br />
* ''Sukalele Phool'' (''The Faded Flower'') (1931)<br />
* ''Sadaphuli'' (''Ever Blossoming'') (1933)<br />
* ''Vishal Jeevan'' (''Large Life'') (1939)<br />
* ''Kali Rani'' (''Black Queen'') (1940)<br />
* ''Nave Jag'' (''New Place'') (1941)<br />
* ''Ahuti'' (''Sacrifice'') (1959)<br />
* ''Bherigosh Ki Dharmakosh'' (''Bugle of War or a Treatise of Dharma'') (1972)<br />
* ''Amulagra'' (''Radical'') (1978)<br />
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===Essays and Commentaries in Marathi===<br />
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* ''Anamikachi Chintanika'' (1961)<br />
* ''Nasadiya Sukta Neerajan'' (1958)<br />
* ''Anubhawamrit Rasarahasya'' - Volumes 1 to 3 (1962-1965)<br />
* ''Saptashloki Bhagwat'' (1960)<br />
* ''Manavopanishad'' (1977)<br />
* ''Khara Patanjal Yoga'' (1979)<br />
* ''Nityanutan Bhagwadgita ani Jeevan Darshan ''(1986)<br />
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===Works in English===<br />
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* ''Jnanadeva'' (1973), a biography on the thirteenth-century Marathi saint [[Dnyaneshwar|Jnanadeva]]<br />
* ''The Authentic Yoga'' (1978), a treatise on the [[Yoga Sutras of Patanjali]]<br />
* ''Tathagata Buddha'' (1984), a novel on the life of the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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[[Category:1899 births]]<br />
[[Category:1986 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Marathi-language writers]]<br />
[[Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Marathi]]</div>VernellSteward1