Rajendra Yadav

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Rajendra Yadav (born 1929) is one of the eminent Hindi fiction writers. He was born in Agra, Uttar Pradesh in a traditional Yadav family. He completed M.A in hindi from Agra University. He has by now edited the famous magazine HANS for 20 years. HANS, was founded by Munshi Prem Chand. He is the author of a number of Hindi books. Rajendra Yadav is regarded as principal architect of the 'New Wave' phenomenon in post-Independence Hindi fiction. He is one of the pioneers of this movement, which comprised in absorbing the spirit of the contemporary and presenting it starkly.His wife Mannu Bhandari is also a famous Hindi fiction Writer.

His first novel, Pret Bolte Hain (that is, the Howling Pretas) (later renamed as Sara Akash, the Infinite Cosmos) has reportedly sold about one million copies^{[citation needed]}, an enviable figure for any book published in India, and has been translated into almost all Indian languages, and several other languages of the world. Sara Akash is considered the first Hindi novel which attempts to shock and shake Indian culture out of its centuries-old somnolence. Basu Chatterjee made a film out of it, which, along with Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan Shome, launched Parallel Cinema in Hindi.

Ukhre Huey Log, (that is, The Rootless People) his next novel, depicts the trauma of a couple arising out of socio-economic condition which forced them to desert the conventional path - and, still they failed to acclimatize themselves to a corrupt and devilish world. This novel envisages "living in" concept for the first time.

He wrote two more novels, Kulta (that is, The Wayward Wife), and Shaah aur Maat (Check and Mate). He also wrote several stories and translated into Hindi many works of Russian language writers like Turgenev, Chekhov, and Lermontov (A Hero of Our Times), as also Albert Camus (The Outsider).

Ek Inch Muskaan (that is, A Little Smile) which Rajendra Yadav and wife Mannu Bhandari wrote together, is a love tragedy of schizophrenic individuals.

Besides being a writer, Rajendra Yadav was also nominated as a board member of Prasar Bharti in 1999. He retired from that position in November 1999.