Newstrack is remembering Pandit Makhanlal Chaturvedi on his 129th birth anniversary today. He was a prominent freedom fighter and was the first person to receive the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1955 for his exceptional contribution to the Neo-Romanticism Movement in Hindi literature.

One of the outstanding personalities, Born in Babai village in the Hoshangabad district of present Madhya Pradesh in the year 1889, Pandit Makhanlal Chaturvedi was a tremendous writer, essayist, poet, playwright and journalist. He was a special child as he became a school teacher when he was young and16 years old. He was the editor of Prabha, Pratap and Karmaveer, which were all nationalist journals.

As a journalist in the British period and even in the post-independence time, Panditji (he was fondly called) kept using his pen to fight against mistreatment and for an equal society.

Among his popular works are Deep Se Deep Jale, Sahitya Devata, Yug Charan, Kaisa Chhand Banana Deti Hai, as well as several more.

He received the first-ever Sahitya Akademi Award for Hindi writing in Him Taringini in the year 1955. He was also awarded a Padma Bhushan in the year 1963. In the capital city of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal, the journalism college has been named in his honour. Also in his honour, the Madhya Pradesh Cultural Council (Madhya Pradesh Sahitya Akademi) hosts a yearly literature festival called Makhanlal Chaturvedi Samaroh since the year 1987. In this program, Poets are awarded for their excellence in poetry and conferred the Makhanlal Chaturvedi Puraskar. Panditji took his last breath in 1968 at the age of 78.