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 ...
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
Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...
. 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 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
Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries , Oxford U ...
, Bansi Ram Sharma and M.R. Thakur for Pahari (Himachali), K. Jathappa Rai and Mandara Keshava Bhat for
Tulu
Tulu may refer to:
People
*Derartu Tulu (born 1972), Ethiopian long-distance runner
*Walid Yacoubou (born 1997), Togolese footballer nicknamed "Tulu"
India
*Tulu calendar, traditional solar calendar generally used in the regions of southwest Kar ...
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
Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004) was an Indian lawyer, statesman and politician who served as the 9th prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He is known for introducing various liberal reforms to Indi ...
. 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
Rana Nayar (born 1957) is a translator of poetry and short fiction from Punjabi to English. He has more than forty volumes of poetry and translation works to his credit. He is also a theatre artist and has participated in a number of major full- ...
for his translation of the verses of the Sikh saint Baba Farid from
Punjabi
Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan
* Punjabi language
* Punjabi people
* Punjabi dialects and languages
Punjabi may also refer to:
* Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
.
*
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
Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to:
* Odia people in Odisha, India
* Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family
* Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...
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
Assamese may refer to:
* Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India
* People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam
* Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...
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 ...
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 de ...
Premchand
Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (31 July 1880 – 8 October 1936), better known by his pen name Premchand (), was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindustani literature. Premchand was a pioneer of Hindi and Urdu social fiction. He was one of ...
, the fellowship was started in 2005. It is given to persons of eminence in the field of Culture from
SAARC
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia. Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, ...
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
Yasmine Gooneratne (born 1935) is a Sri Lankan poet, short story writer, university professor and essayist. She is recognised in Sri Lanka, Australia and throughout Europe and the U.S.A., due to her substantial creative and critical publications ...
,
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
G. A. Kulkarni (Gurunath Abaji Kulkarni), or known simply as "GA" (10 July 1923 – 11 December 1987; Marathi: जी. ए. कुलकर्णी, "जीए"), was a legendary Sahitya Akademi Award winner Marathi writer of short stories.
GA ...
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
Swami Anand (1887 – 25 January 1976) was a monk, a Gandhian activist and a Gujarati writer from India. He was the manager of Gandhi's publications such as ''Navajivan'' and ''Young India'' and inspired Gandhi to write his autobiography, ''Th ...
declined the Award for contributions to
Gujarati literature
The history of Gujarati literature ( gu, ગુજરાતી સાહિત્ય) may be traced to 1000 AD, and this literature has flourished since then to the present. It is unique in having almost no patronage from a ruling dynasty, othe ...
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
Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognised languages.
The earliest works of Indian literature were o ...
.'' In 1982, Deshbandhu Dogra Natan was given the Sahitya Akademi award for his Dogri novel, ''Qaidi'' ('Prisoner') but returned it on the grounds that he should have received the Award much earlier. In 1983, Gujarati writer
Suresh Joshi
Suresh Hariprasad Joshi ( gu, સુરેશ હરિપ્રસાદ જોષી) was an Indian novelist, short-story writer, literary critic, poet, translator, editor and academic in the Gujarati language. Along with his teaching career, h ...
also returned the Award on the grounds that his book, ''
Chintayami Manasa
''Chintayami Manasa'' ( gu, ચિન્તયામિ મનસા; en, Thinking Deeply), published in 1983, is a critical work of essays in the Gujarati language by Indian writer Suresh Joshi. Joshi evaluated ideas based on European and Ame ...
'', 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 hono ...
, 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
Jayant Sukhlal Kothari was a Gujarati literary critic from India.
Life
Jayant Kothari was born on 28 January 1930 at Rajkot. He completed his primary and secondary education in Rajkot. He matriculated in 1948. He completed BA in Gujarati and ...
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
Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to:
* Odia people in Odisha, India
* Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family
* Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...
declined for 'personal reasons'. In 1996,
T. Padmanabhan
Thinakkal Padmanabhan (born 5 February 1931), popularly known as T. Padmanabhan, is an Indian short story writer of Malayalam literature. He is a recipient of several awards including the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literary award of t ...
, who was given the Award for a book of short stories in
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
, 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's ...
due to the incidences of murder of author
M M Kalburgi
Malleshappa Madivalappa Kalburgi (28 November 1938 – 30 August 2015) was an Indian scholar of Vachana sahitya (Vachana literature) in the Kannada-language and academic who served as the vice-chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi. A noted ...
Aman Sethi
Aman Sethi (Hindi: अमन सेठी) is an Indian journalist and writer. He is the editor-in-chief of openDemocracy.
Sethi was editor-in-chief of HuffPost India until it ceased operations in November, 2020. He is known for his debut ''A Fre ...
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
Ajmer Singh Aulakh (19 August 1942 – 15 June 2017) was a renowned Punjabi playwright from Mansa district, Punjab. He was born in 1942 at Kishangarh orf Pharwahi, Mansa district, Punjab, India.
Books and plays
Aulakh published his first collect ...
(Punjabi), Ambika Dutt (Hindi),
Anil R. Joshi
Anil Joshi ( gu, અનિલ જોશી) is a Gujarati language poet and essayist from Gujarat, India. He won Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati in 1990 for his essay collection ''Statue'' (1988). His significant works include ''Kadach'' (19 ...
(Gujarati),
Ashok Vajpeyi
Ashok Vajpeyi ( hi, अशोक वाजपेयी; born 1941) is an Indian Hindi-language poet, essayist, literary-cultural critic, apart from being a noted cultural and arts administrator, and a former civil servant. He was chairman, Lali ...
Baldev Singh Sadaknama
Baldev Singh (11 December, 1942), also known as Baldev Singh Sadaknaama, is an Indian novelist and story writer in Punjabi-language. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award 2011 for his novel ''Dhahwan Dilli De Kingre''. As of 2012, he has writ ...
(Punjabi),
Bhoopal Reddy
M. Bhoopal Reddy (born 1959) is a Telugu language writer and actor. He won the 2011 Kendra Sahitya Akademi Awards for Children's Literature for his work, ''Uggu Paalu'', a compilation of 90 children stories.
Early life
Bhoopal Reddy was born i ...
(Telugu),
Chaman Lal
Chaman Lal (born 27 August 1947 in Rampura Phul, Bathinda district Punjab) retired as a professor in Hindi translation from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is now Honorary advisor to Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi Archives of Del ...
(Hindi),
Darshan Buttar
Darshan Buttar (born in Nabha, Punjab, Indian, Punjab, India) is an Indian poet known for his short poems in Punjabi language, Punjabi. His work is a part of the syllabus at the Punjabi University, Patiala.
Books
* ''Maha Kambani'' (The Ultim ...
(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 Asam Sahitya Sabha, Assam S ...
(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
Keki N. Daruwalla (born 24 January 1937Krishna 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 ...
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
Ghulam Mohammed Giri (5 March 1937 – 27 April 2021) also known by his pen name Marghoob Banihali was a Kashmiri poet from Bankoot, Banihal, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir.
Personal life
Marghoob los ...
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
Nirupama Borgohain (née Tamuli; as, নিৰূপমা বৰগোহাঞি; 1932– ) is an Indian journalist and novelist in the Assamese language. She is a Sahitya Akademi award winner, best known for her novel ''Abhiyatri''. In ...
(Assamese),
Rahman Abbas
Rahman Abbas (born 30 January 1972) is an Indian people, Indian fiction writer and the recipient of the India's highest literary Award ''Sahitya Akademi Award'' for his fourth novel ''Rohzin'' in 2018. He is also the recipient of the two State A ...
(Urdu),
Rahamat Tarikere
Rahamat Tarikere (born 26 August 1959) is a Kannada writer, critic and teacher. He is well known for his sharp insights and his critical view on culture. He is one noted writers of the new generation of writers in Kannada. Currently he is a Pro ...
(Kannada),
Rajesh Joshi
Rajesh Joshi (born 18 July 1946) is a Hindi writer, poet, journalist and a playwright, who was the recipient of 2002 Sahitya Akademi Award in Hindi for his anthology of poems - 'Do Panktiyon Ke Beech' (Between Two Lines), given by Sahitya Akade ...
(Hindi), Sarah Joseph (Malayalam), Srinath DN (Kannada),
Surjit Patar
Surjit Patar is a Punjabi language writer and poet of Punjab, India. His poems enjoy immense popularity with the general public and have won high acclaim from critics.
Biography
Patar hails from village Pattar ( pa, ਪੱਤੜ) Kalan in Jala ...
(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
Waryam Singh Sandhu (born 10 September 1945) is an Indian author of short stories. In 2000, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for his short story collection ''Chauthi koot''. Although he writes in Punjabi language, Punjabi, his works h ...
(Punjabi).
See also
*
Indian Literature
Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognised languages.
The earliest works of Indian literature were o ...
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 ...