This Day In History- August 31

1919 – Popular poetess, novelist, essayist and a prominent figure in Punjabi literature Amrita Pritam was born. She penned over 100 books of essays, poems, fiction and autobiography.

Her first collection of poems ‘Amrit Lehren’ was published in 1936 when she was 16. She was pained to see the communal violence that claimed a million lives during the partition in 1947 and expressed her anguish through the poem ‘Ajj Akhaan Waris Shah Nu’ (Today I ask Waris Shah).

Amrita Pritam

Amrita Pritam

Her novel ‘Pinjar’ is one of her most popular works and is regarded as the epitome of humanism and was also made into an award winning movie of the same name by Chandra Prakash Dwiwedi in 2003. Two of her autobiographies ‘Rasidi Ticket’ and ‘Shadows of Words’ were published in 1976 and 2004 respectively. In 1956, she was awarded the ‘Sahitya Akademi Award’ for her anthology of poems called ‘Sunehey’ as became the first woman to receive the honour.

In 1982 she received the ‘Jnanpith Award’ for another poetry anthology ‘Kaagaz Te Canvas’. She was also honoured internationally. In 1979 the Republic of Bulgaria bestowed on her the ‘Vaptsarov Award’ while the government of France conferred on her ‘Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ in 1987. She was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1986.

The Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri in 1969 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2004.

Javagal Srinath

Javagal Srinath

1969 – Former India speedster Javagal Srinath was born. Srinath together with Venkatesh Prasad spearheaded the Indian pace attack in Tests as well as ODIs for several years. Srinath made his first class debut for Karnataka against Hyderabad in 1989 and claimed a hat-trick in the first innings. His exploits in his first two seasons in the domestic circuit earned him the coveted India cap.

Srinath made his debut versus Pakistan at Sharjah in 1991. In the same year he also made his test debut against Australia at Brisbane. In 1996 during India’s tour of South Africa Srinath bowled at a blazing 156 kmph and fired consistently at 150 kmph. Srinath was also regarded as a great team player. In 1999 during the famous India Vs Pakistan test match at the Ferozeshah Kotla in New Delhi when Kumble needed one more wicket to claim all 10 wickets in an innings Srinath continually bowled outside the off stump to avoid taking a wicket so that Kumble could achieve the coveted feat. He even bowled two wides in the process.

Srinath retired from international cricket after the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa with 236 wickets from 67 Tests and 319 wickets from 229 ODIs. Even after retirement he has been a regular in the cricketing arena as a commentator and currently officiates as match referee for the ICC. In recognition of his contributions and achievements Javagal Srinath was honoured with the Arjuna Award in 1996.

1969 – Gopal Swarup Pathak was sworn in as the fourth Vice President of India. He relinquished office in 1974.

1974 – Basappa Danappa Jatti was sworn in as the fifth Vice President of India. He relinquished office in 1979.

1979 – Justice Muhammad Hidayatullah was sworn in as the sixth Vice President of India. He relinquished office in 1984.

1984 – Ramaswamy Venkataraman was sworn in as the seventh Vice President of India. He relinquished office in 1987.

1995 – Chief Minister of Punjab Beant Singh was assassinated in a car bomb blast. The blast took place as the bomb went off when he was stepping into his car at the Secratariat Complex in Chandigarh.

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