Shrilal Shukla (31 December 1925 – 28 October 2011) was a

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

writer, notable for his satire. He worked as a PCS officer for the state government of Uttar Pradesh, later inducted into the IAS. He has written over 25 books, including Raag Darbari, ''Makaan'', ''Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj'', ''Pehla Padaav'' and ''Bisrampur Ka Sant''. Shukla has highlighted the falling moral values in the Indian society in the post

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

era through his novels. His writings expose the negative aspects of life in rural and urban India in a satirical manner. His best known work '' Raag Darbari'' has been translated into English and 15 Indian languages. A television serial based on this continued for several months on the national network in the 1980s. It is a little-known fact that he also wrote a detective novel entitled ''Aadmi Ka Zahar'' which was serialised in the weekly magazine 'Hindustan'.

Awards

Shukla received the

Jnanpith Award The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian w ...

, the highest Indian literary award, in 2011. His first major award was the

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

for his novel Raag Darbari in 1969. He received the Vyas Samman award in 1999 for the novel ''Bisrampur ka Sant''.Vyas Samman 1999
In 2008, he was awarded the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

Padma Bhushan Official listings

Govt. of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

website. by the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Mur ...

for his contribution to Indian literature and culture. On his 80th birthday in December 2005, his friends, peers, family and fans organised a literary and cultural event in New Delhi. To mark the occasion, a volume titled ''Shrilal Shukla – Jeevan Hi Jeevan'' was issued about him which contains the writings of eminent literary personalities such as Dr. Naamvar Singh,

Rajendra Yadav Rajendra Yadav (28 August 1929 – 28 October 2013) was a Hindi fiction writer, and a pioneer of the 'Nayi Kahani' movement of Hindi literature. He edited the literary magazine ''HANS'', which was founded by Munshi Premchand in 1930 but ceased ...

, Ashok Bajpai, Doodhnath Singh, Nirmala Jain, Leeladhar Jagudi, Gillian Wright, Kunwar Narayan and Raghuvir Sahay among others. His friends, family and fans also contributed to the book.

Personal account

*1925 – Born in village

Atrauli Atrauli is a town and a municipal board in Aligarh district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Situated on the bank of river Ganges, Atrauli is around from Aligarh and from Khair. Atrauli is famous for a variety of Chaat, Tikki, Panipuri ...

in Mohanlalganj , Lucknow district of Uttar Pradesh *1947 – Graduated from

Allahabad University , mottoeng = "As Many Branches So Many Trees" , established = , type = Public , chancellor = Ashish Chauhan , vice_chancellor = Sangita Srivastava , head_label ...

*1949 – Entry into the Civil Service *1957 – First novel ''Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj'' published *1958 – First collection of satire ''Angad Ka Paanv'' published *1970 – Awarded the

for ''Raag Darbari'' (for 1969) *1978 – Awarded the Madhya Pradesh Hindi Sahitya Parishad Award for ''Makaan'' *1979–80 – Served as Director of the Bhartendu Natya Academy, Uttar Pradesh *1981 – Represented India at the International Writers' Meet in Belgrade *1982–86 – Member of the Advisory Board of the Sahitya Akademi *1983 – Retirement from the Indian Administrative Service *1987–90 – Awarded the Emeritus Fellowship by the ICCR, Government of India *1988 – Given the Sahitya Bhushan Award by Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthaan *1991 – Awarded the Goyal Sahitya Puraskaar by Kurukshetra University *1994 – Awarded the Lohia Sammaan by Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthaan *1996 – Awarded the Sharad Joshi Sammaan by the Madhya Pradesh Government *1997 – Awarded the Maithili Sharan Gupta Sammaan by the Madhya Pradesh Government *1999 – Awarded the Vyas Sammaan by the Birla Foundation *2005 – Awarded the Yash Bharati Samman by the Uttar Pradesh Government *2008 – Awarded the

by the President of India *2011 – Awarded the

for year 2009.

Literary works

Novels *''Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj'' – 1957 *''Agyaatvaas'' – 1962 *

Raag Darbari (novel) ''Raag Darbari'' is a satirical Hindi novel written by Sri Lal Sukla, published in 1968. He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award, the highest Indian literary award, in 1969 for this novel. The novel illustrates the failing values present in ...

– 1968 – original is in Hindi; an English translation was published under the same title in 1993 by

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.List of Indian writers This is a list of notable writers who come from India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countri ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shukla, Shri Lal Indian male novelists Indian satirists Indian civil servants Hindi-language writers 1925 births 2011 deaths Writers from Uttar Pradesh Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education Recipients of the Jnanpith Award Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Hindi 20th-century Indian novelists 20th-century Indian male writers