The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...
, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22
languages of the 8th Schedule to the Indian constitution as well as in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
Rajasthani language
Rajasthani (Devanagari: ) refers to a group of Indo-Aryan languages and dialects spoken primarily in the state of Rajasthan and adjacent areas of Haryana, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh in India. There are also speakers in the Pakistani provinces ...
.
Established in 1954, the award comprises a plaque and a cash prize of ₹ 1,00,000. The award's purpose is to recognise and promote excellence in Indian writing and also acknowledge new trends. The annual process of selecting awardees runs for the preceding twelve months. The plaque awarded by the Sahitya Akademi was designed by the Indian film-maker
Satyajit Ray. Prior to this, the plaque occasionally was made of marble, but this practice was discontinued because of the excessive weight. During the
Indo-Pakistan War of 1965
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...
, the plaque was substituted with national savings bonds.
Recipients
Other literary honors
Sahitya Akademi Fellowships
They form the highest honor which the Akademi confers through a system of electing
Fellows and Honorary Fellows. (Sahitya Akademi Award is the second-highest literary honor next to a Sahitya Akademi Fellowship).
Bhasha Samman
Sahitya Akademy gives these special awards to writers for significant contribution to Indian languages other than the above 24 major ones and also for contributions to classical and medieval literature. Like the Sahitya Akademi Awards, Bhasha Samman too comprise a plaque and a cash prize of Rs. 1,00,000 (from 2009). The Sahitya Akademi instituted the Bhasha Samman in 1996 to be given to writers, scholars, editors, collectors, performers or translators who have made considerable contribution to the propagation, modernization or enrichment of the languages concerned. The Samman carries a plaque along with an amount equal to its awards for creative literature i.e. rupees 1,00,000. It was Rs.25,000 at the time of inception, increased to Rs.40,000 from 2001, Rs.50,000 from 2003 and to Rs. 1,00,000 from 2009. The Sammans are given to 3-4 persons every year in different languages on the basis of recommendation of experts' committees constituted for the purpose.
The first Bhasha Sammans were awarded in to Dharikshan Mishra for
Bhojpuri, Bansi Ram Sharma and M.R. Thakur for
Pahari (Himachali), K. Jathappa Rai and Mandara Keshava Bhat for
Tulu and Chandra Kanta Mura Singh for
Kokborok
Kokborok (also known as Tripuri or Tiprakok) is the main native language of the Tripuri people of the Indian state of Tripura and neighbouring areas of Bangladesh. Its name comes from ''kok'' meaning "verbal" and ''borok'' meaning "people" or ...
, for their contribution to the development of their respective languages.
Sahitya Akademi Prize for Translation
Awards for translations were instituted in 1989 at the insistence of then-Prime Minister of India,
P. V. Narasimha Rao.
The Sahitya Akademi annually gives these awards for outstanding translations of major works in other languages into one of the 24 major Indian languages. The awards comprise a plaque and a cash prize of Rs. 50,000. The initial proposal for translation prizes contained provisions for a prize for translations into each of the twenty-two languages recognised by the Akademi; however, this was soon found to be unviable for several reasons: the Akademi found that there were insufficient entries in all the languages, and there were difficulties in locating experts knowledgeable in both, the language of translation and the original language, to judge the translations.
Consequently, the Board decided to dispense with its original requirement for additional expert committees to evaluate the translations, and also ruled that it was not obligated to grant prizes in languages where suitable books were not nominated.
The Akademi also requires that both, the original author as well as the translator, are to be Indian nationals.
Over time, the Akademi has modified and expanded the conditions for the Translation Prizes. In 1992, the Akademi began to allow translations made in link languages to be eligible for the Awards, although it noted that translations made directly from the original language would always be preferred.
In 1995, the Akademi also held that joint translations would be eligible, and in 1997, it dispensed with the process of advertising for nominations and replaced it with invitations for recommendations from advisory boards and Committee members.
As of 2002, 264 prizes have been awarded to 266 translators.
Yuva Puraskar
Golden Jubilee Awards
On the occasion of its Golden Jubilee,
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...
awarded the following prizes for outstanding works of poetry in translation from Indian languages.
*
Rana Nayar for his translation of the verses of the Sikh saint
Baba Farid
Farīd al-Dīn Masʿūd Ganj-i-Shakar ( ; – 7 May 1266) was a 13th-century Punjabi Sunni Muslim preacher and mystic, who was one of the most revered and distinguished Muslim mystics of the medieval period. He is known reverentially as B ...
from
Punjabi.
*
Tapan Kumar Pradhan
Tapan Kumar Pradhan (born 1972) is an Indian poet, writer and translator from Odisha. He is best known for his poem collection "Kalahandi" which was awarded second place in Sahitya Akademi's Golden Jubilee ''Indian Literature'' Translation Prize ...
for English translation of his own
Odia poem collection
Kalahandi
Kalahandi (locally pronounced ''Kalahani'') is a district of Odisha in India. Archaeological evidence of Stone Age and Iron Age human settlement has been recovered from the region. Asurgarh offered an advanced, well civilised, cultured and ur ...
* Paromita Das for English translation of
Parvati Prasad Baruwa
Parvati Prasad Baruva (1904–1964) was a noted poet, lyricist, and dramatist: an icon of Assamese literature and the culture of Assam. Known for his simple and sensitive use of the Assamese language, he is popularly known as the ''Geetikavi''; ...
's poems in
Assamese.
The Golden Jubilee Prizes for Life Time Achievement and young achievers were awarded to
Namdeo Dhasal
Namdeo Laxman Dhasal (15 February 1949 – 15 January 2014) was a Marathi poet, writer and Dalit activist from Maharashtra, India. He was one of the founders of the Dalit Panthers in 1972, a social movement aimed at destroying caste hierarchy ...
,
Ranjit Hoskote
Ranjit Hoskote (born 1969) is an Indian poet, art critic, cultural theorist and independent curator. He has been honoured by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, with the Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award and the Sahitya ...
,
Mandakranta Sen
Mandakranta Sen (born 1972) is an Indian poet of Bengali language. She became the youngest ever winner of Ananda Puraskar in 1999 for her very first poetry book. In 2004, she was awarded Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award for poetry. She is al ...
,
Abdul Rasheed,
Sithara S.
Sithara S. (born 1972) is an Indian feminist writer in Malayalam from Kerala. In her short stories and novels she has highlighted women's issues, gender conflict and lesbian rights. In 2004 she won Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award for her c ...
and
Neelakshi Singh
Neelakshi Singh (born 17 March 1978 is a contemporary Hindi author. In 2004 she won Sahitya Academy Golden Jubilee Award, Kalinga Book of the year award 2021 & Valley of Words Award 2022.
Personal life
Neelakshi Singh was born at Hajipur in ...
.
Ananda Coomarswamy Fellowships
Named after the
Ceylon Tamil
Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Pr ...
writer
Ananda Coomaraswamy
Ananda Kentish Muthu Coomaraswamy ( ta, ஆனந்த குமாரசுவாமி, ''Ānanda Kentiś Muthū Kumāraswāmī''; si, ආනන්ද කුමාරස්වාමි ''Ānanda Kumārasvāmī''; 22 August 1877 − 9 Septem ...
, the fellowship was started in 1996. It is given to scholars from Asian countries to spend three to twelve months in India to pursue a literary project.
Premchand Fellowships
Named after
Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
and
writer
Premchand, the fellowship was started in 2005. It is given to persons of eminence in the field of Culture from
SAARC countries. Notable awardees include
Intizar Hussain
Intizar Hussain ( ur, ; 21 December 1925 – 2 February 2016) was a Pakistani writer of Urdu novels, short stories, poetry and nonfiction. He is widely recognised as a leading literary figure of Pakistan. He was among the finalists of the Man Bo ...
,
Selina Hossain
Selina Hossain (born 14 June 1947) is a Bangladeshi novelist and the current president of Bangla Academy since February 2022. Her major works include ''Hangor Nodi Grenade'' (1976) and ''Poka Makorer Ghor Boshoti'' (1996). She earned all major nat ...
,
Yasmine Gooneratne,
Jean Arasanayagam
Jean Arasanayagam (born Jean Solomons; 2 December 1931 – 30 July 2019) was a Sri Lankan poet and fiction writer. Although she wrote her books in English, they have been translated into German, French, Danish, Swedish and Japanese.
Her husband ...
and
Kishwar Naheed
Kishwar Naheed ( ur, ) (born 1940) is a feminist Urdu poet and a writer from Pakistan. She has written several poetry books. She has also received awards including Sitara-e-Imtiaz for her literary contribution towards Urdu literature.
Early l ...
.
Returns and Declines of Sahitya Akademi Awards
The Akademi has seen several instances of Awards being returned or declined as an act of protest.
1950s–1980s
In 1973,
G.A. Kulkarni returned the Award for his collection of short stories in
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
, ''Kajal Maya,'' because a controversy had arisen regarding the date of publication of the book and its consequent eligibility for the Award.
In 1969,
Swami Anand declined the Award for contributions to
Gujarati literature on the grounds that his religious beliefs precluded him from accepting any pecuniary benefits for public services.
In 1981, Telugu writer V. R. Narla was given the Sahitya Akademi Award for his play, ''Sita Josyam'', but returned it on the grounds that the Akademi had allowed an adverse review of the play to be published in their journal, ''
Indian Literature.''
In 1982, Deshbandhu Dogra Natan was given the Sahitya Akademi award for his
Dogri
Dogri ( Name Dogra Akkhar: ; Devanagari: डोगरी; Nastaliq: ; ) is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, India, with smaller groups of speakers in adjoining regions of western Himachal Prad ...
novel, ''Qaidi'' ('Prisoner') but returned it on the grounds that he should have received the Award much earlier.
In 1983, Gujarati writer
Suresh Joshi also returned the Award on the grounds that his book, ''
Chintayami Manasa'', did not, in his opinion, deserve the Award, and also expressed the opinion that the Award was generally granted to authors who were "spent forces".
This provoked a response from the then-President of the Akademi,
Vinayaka Krishna Gokak
Vinayaka Krishna Gokak (9 August 1909 – 28 April 1992), abbreviated in Kannada as Vi. Kru. Gokak, was an Indian historian and writer in the Kannada language and a scholar of English and Kannada literatures. He was the fifth writer to be hon ...
, who said, concerning the awards that, "It is not possible to generalise on the basis of age. Nor can we expect the Akademi panels to be on the watch for a literary force on the upward curve and catch it at the moment before it starts going downwards. Panels change from year to year and they have to select not literary men but literary works which are adjudged to be the best among the publications of a particular period."
1990s
In 1998,
Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...
writer
Jayant Kothari also declined the Sahitya Akademi Award on the grounds that he had made a religious vow that precluded his acceptance of any competitive award, prize or position.
In 1991,
Jagannatha Prasad Das, who was given the Award for his poetry in
Odia declined for 'personal reasons'.
In 1996,
T. Padmanabhan, who was given the Award for a book of short stories in
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...
, declined on the grounds that the Akademi had not shown interest in supporting the short story form, although he noted that he was grateful to the Akademi for the honour.
2000s
, the award has been returned by many writers for various reasons. 38 recipients had announced their returning of the award in protest of the "rising intolerance in India" under the
Modi government
The premiership of Narendra Modi began on 26 May 2014 with his swearing-in as the prime minister of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He became the 14th Prime Minister of India, succeeding Manmohan Singh of the Indian National Congress. Modi' ...
due to the incidences of murder of author
M M Kalburgi and the
Dadri lynching incident.
Among others, Ajmer Aulakh,
Aman Sethi,
Ganesh Devy, Kum Veerabhadrappa and
Shashi Deshpande
Shashi Deshpande (born 1938) is an Indian novelist. She is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Shri Award in 1990 and 2009 respectively.
Biography
She was born in Dharwad, Karnataka, the second daughter of the Kannada dramati ...
have publicly announced their return of the award. To show their condemnation Deshpande, K Satchidanandan, PK Parakkadvu and
Aravind Malagatti have also resigned their posts at the Sahitya Akademi institution.
The recipients who announced to return the awards include:
Ajmer Singh Aulakh (Punjabi),
Ambika Dutt (Hindi),
Anil R. Joshi (Gujarati),
Ashok Vajpeyi (Hindi),
Atamjit Singh (Punjabi),
Baldev Singh Sadaknama (Punjabi),
Bhoopal Reddy (Telugu),
Chaman Lal (Hindi),
Darshan Buttar (Punjabi),
Ganesh Devy (Gujarati/English), Ghulam Nabi Khayal (Kashmiri), GN Ranganatha Rao (Kannada),
Gurbachan Singh Bhullar (Punjabi),
Homen Borgohain
Homen Borgohain (7 December 1932 – 12 May 2021) was an Assamese author and journalist. He was awarded the 1978 Sahitya Akademi Award in Assamese language for his novel ''Pita Putra''. He was also the President of Assam Sahitya Sabha from 20 ...
(Assamese)
Jaswinder Singh (Punjabi),
K. Katyayani Vidhmahe (Telugu),
Kashi Nath Singh
Kashinath Singh ( hi, काशीनाथ सिंह, born 1937) is an Indian writer and scholar of Hindi language and known for writing novels and short stories in Hindi. He was formerly a professor of Hindi literature in Banaras Hindu Univ ...
(Hindi),
Keki N. Daruwalla (English),
Krishna Sobti
Krishna Sobti (18 February 1925 – 25 January 2019) was an Indian Hindi-language fiction writer and essayist. She won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1980 for her novel ''Zindaginama'' and in 1996, was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, the ...
(Hindi),
Kumbar Veerabhadrappa (Kannada),
Mandakranta Sen
Mandakranta Sen (born 1972) is an Indian poet of Bengali language. She became the youngest ever winner of Ananda Puraskar in 1999 for her very first poetry book. In 2004, she was awarded Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award for poetry. She is al ...
(Bengali),
Manglesh Dabral
Manglesh Dabral (16 May 19489 December 2020) was an Indian Hindi poet and journalist. He was associated with Hindi-language newspapers including '' Jansatta'', ''Hindi Patriot'', and ''Purvagrah''. Some of his popular works include ''Pahar Par ...
(Hindi),
Marghoob Banihali (Kashmiri),
Mohan Bhandari
Mohan Bhandari (31 July 1937 – 24 September 2015) was an Indian actor who featured in several popular TV serials such as '' Saat Phere: Saloni Ka Safar''. He died of brain tumor. His son Dhruv Bhandari is also a TV actor.
Acting career
Moh ...
(Punjabi),
Munawwar Rana
Munawwar Rana (born 26 November 1952) is an Indian Urdu poet.
Early life
Munawwar Rana was born in Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, India in 1952, but spent most of his life in Kolkata, West Bengal.
Poetic style
He uses Hindi and Awadhi words an ...
(Urdu), Nand Bhardwaj (Rajasthani),
Nayantara Sahgal
Nayantara Sahgal (born 10 May 1927) is an Indian writer who writes in English. She is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family, the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.
She was awarded the 1986 S ...
(English),
Nirupama Borgohain (Assamese),
Rahman Abbas (Urdu),
Rahamat Tarikere (Kannada),
Rajesh Joshi (Hindi),
Sarah Joseph (Malayalam), Srinath DN (Kannada),
Surjit Patar (Punjabi),
Uday Prakash
Uday Prakash (born 1 January 1952) is a Hindi poet, scholar, journalist, translator and short story writer from India.
He has worked as administrator, editor, researcher, and TV director. He writes for major dailies and periodicals as a freelance ...
(Hindi),
and
Waryam Singh Sandhu (Punjabi).
See also
*
Indian Literature
*
List of literary awards
This list of literary awards from around the world is an index to articles about notable literary awards.
International awards
All nationalities & multiple languages eligible (in chronological order)
* Nobel Prize in Literature – since 1901 ...
*
Lists of Sahitya Akademi Award winners
Lists of Sahitya Akademi Award winners cover winners of the Sahitya Akademi Award, a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the twenty-four maj ...
References
External links
Sahitya Akademi Awards Winners List 2019Complete List of Sahitya Akademi Awards Winners*
*
{{India Honours and Decorations
Indian literary awards
Awards established in 1954
Bal Sahitya Puraskar
1954 establishments in India
Literary awards by language