Early life and activismPash was born as Avtar Singh Sandhu in 1950 in a small village called Talwandi Salem in Jalandhar district of Punjab, India, in a middle-class farmers family. His father Sohan Singh Sandhu was a soldier in the Indian Army who also composed poetry as a hobby. Pash grew up in the midst of the Naxalite movement, a revolutionary movement in India against the landlords, industrialists, traders, etc. who control the means of production. This was in the midst of the Green revolution which had addressed India's problem of famine using high yield crops, but had also unconsciously led to other forms of inequities in Punjab.

In 1970, he published his first book of revolutionary poems, Loh-Katha (Iron Tale), at the age of 18. His militant and provocative tone raised the ire of the establishment and a murder charge was soon brought against him. He spent nearly two years in jail, before being finally acquitted.

On acquittal, the 22-year-old became involved in Punjab's Maoist front, editing a literary magazine, Siarh (The Plow Line) and in 1973 Pash founded 'Punjabi Sahit Te Sabhiachar Manch' (Punjabi Literature and Culture Forum). He became a popular political figure on the Left during this period and was awarded a fellowship at the Punjabi Academy of Letters in 1985. He ran to the United Kingdom and the United States the following year; while in the US, he became involved with the Anti-47 Front, opposing Khalistani violence. His words had a great influence on the minds of the people.