Jagdish Chandra Mathur (16 July 1917 –14 May 1978) was a

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

playwright and writer.Chatak 2000 pg.''v'' He came into fame by his first play ''

Konark Konark is a medium town in the Puri district in the state of Odisha, India. It lies on the coast by the Bay of Bengal, 65 kilometres from the capital of the state, Bhubaneswar. It is the site of the 13th-century Sun Temple, also known as the '' ...

''. He was born in a village near

Khurja Khurja is a city (and a municipal board) in Bulandshahr district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is situated around 20 km from Bulandshahr, 85 km from Delhi. Khurja supplies a large portion of the ceramics used in the country, henc ...

.Chatak 2000 pg.9 His other famous works includes '' Phela Raja'', '' Shardiya'', ''Dasrath Nandan'', ''Bhor ka Tara'' and ''Oo mere Sapne''.

Early life

He near Khurja,

Bulandshahar district Bulandshahr district (also spelled Bulandshahar) is a district in the Meerut region in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), situated between the two rivers Ganga and Yamuna. It is a part of the National Capital Region of India, and ...

U. P. U is the twenty-first letter of the Latin alphabet. U may also refer to: Science Mathematics * \cup, union (set theory) * U-set, a set of uniqueness * U, the unitary group Chemistry * Uranium, symbol U, a chemical element * u, the Dalton (un ...

, got a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...

degree from Prayag University in 1939. He joined the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

in 1941, becoming the education secretary of Bihar. He was the Director General of '' Akashvani'' from 1955 to 1962. He worked in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...

for three and half years under

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

(FAO). As Education Secretary of Bihar State from 1949 to 1955 and later, as Director-General, All India Radio(1955-1961), Mr. Mathur initiated several projects of significance. He served as a member of a four-member Committee appointed in 1954 by the Government of India to plan Higher Rural Education. He was Chairman of the Regional Seminar on Visual Aids in Fundamental Education and Community Development in South and South East Asia. In 1960 he was invited by UNESCO to deliver a special lecture at the World Adult Education Congress, Montreal. In 1962 he presented a paper on "Mass Media and Freedom of Expression" at the Human Rights Seminar organized by the UN at New Delhi. He was a member and Vice-Chairman of UNESCO's International Committee for the Advancement of Adult Education. He was a member of the Indian Adult Education Association and of the Executive Committee of the India Literacy Board. In 1963-64, he was in the Harvard University USA, as a Fellow, at its Center for International Affairs. He was co-author(with Paul Neurath) of " An Indian Experiment in Radio Farm Forums" (UNESCO) and another of his reports-"Television for Citizenship" is with UNESCO. His book "New Lamps for Alladin" concerned with the impact of mass-media on under-developed countries, is in the press . His monograph at Harvard on "Rural Development and the Indian Villager" has been well received. He is also the author of one of the few studies in English of the village drama in India, published under the title "Drama in Rural India" by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi. He has also edited medieval vernacular plays of Northern India under the title Bhasha Natak Sangrah (Agra University). He is the Honorary Editor of the Quarterly The Bihar Theatre(Patna) and was, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National School of Drama. He is the founder and General Secretary of the Vaisali Sangha, an organization devoted to the encouragement of rural culture in North Bihar and was one of the founder-members of the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama( Sangeet Natak Academy), New Delhi. He studied folk forms of drama and also compiled and edited medieval plays of Northern India. Fellow at the Harvard University 1963-64. Vice-Chairman International Committee for adult education(UNESCO) Founder and Secretary Vaisali Sangha Bihar connected with Sangit Natak Akademi and National School of Drama for some years.

References

Works cited

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mathur, Jagdish Chandra 1917 births 1978 deaths Dramatists and playwrights from Uttar Pradesh People from Bulandshahr district 20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights Hindi-language writers