Kedarnath Agarwal

Kedarnath Agarwal (केदारनाथ अग्रवाल) (also spelt as Agrawal and Aggarwal) (1911–2000) was a famous Hindi language poet and littérateur.

Biography

Kedarnath was born on April 1, 1911 to Hanuman Prasad Gupta and his wife Ghasiti Devi. He was born in the village of Kamasin in Banda district in the Bundelkhand region of the present-day Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. He acquired the B.A. and L.L.B. degrees, and became a practising advocate in Banda in 1938.

However, his first love was Hindi literature, and he contributed much to that field. He was a member of the Pragatisheel Lekhak Sangh, a body inspired by the leftist Progressive Writers' Movement. His writings have been translated into English, German, and Russian.

In recognition of these contributions, Kedarnath Agarwal was awarded the Soviet Land Nehru Prize in 1973. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1986. In 1995, Bundelkhand university conferred an honorary doctorate in literature (D.Litt) upon him. Other accolades included the Hindi Sansthan Uttar Pradesh Puraskar (1981); Tulsi Puraskar (1986); Mythili Sharan Gupta Puraskar (1990-91); and the Sahitya Vachaspati Manad Upaadhi (1990).

Kedarnath Agarwal was also involved in several educational and literary bodies. He served as president of the Arya Kanya Intermediate College for many years. He was associated with the Vinoba Bhave College located in Kamasin village, his birthplace. He also served for one year as president of the local...
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