Purushottam Yashwant Deshpande

Purushottam Yashwant Deshpande (popularly called P.Y. Deshpande, or simply P.Y), (December 1899 – 26, July 1986) was an Indian writer in Marathi. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Marathi language in 1962 for his philosophical work Anamikachi Chintanika (अनामिकाची चिंतनिका, Meditations of an anonymous person). 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 Krishnamurti school of philosophy. 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) He was the father of Indian social activist and former member of the Upper House of the Indian parliament Nirmala Deshpande. His wife Vimalabai, also a poet,(p85) was a minister (parliamentary secretary) of Central Provinces and Berar, under the premiership of Ravishankar Shukla, at the time of Indian independence in 1947.