return value from python script to shell script

You can also use exit() without sys; one less thing to import. Here's an example:

$ python
>>> exit(1)
$ echo $?
1

$ python
>>> exit(0)
$ echo $?
0

You can't return message as exit code, only numbers. In bash it can accessible via $?. Also you can use sys.argv to access code parameters:

import sys
if sys.argv[1]=='hi':
    print 'Salaam'
sys.exit(0)

in shell:

#!/bin/bash
# script for tesing
clear
echo "............script started............"
sleep 1
result=`python python/pythonScript1.py "hi"`
if [ "$result" == "Salaam" ]; then
    echo "script return correct response"
fi

Pass command line arguments to shell script to Python like this:

python script.py $1 $2 $3

Print the return code like this:

echo $?