"It is for the first time that books in the newly recognised Bodo and Santhali language were selected for the awards," Narang said while declaring the awards.
Acclaimed writer Nayantara Sahgal, the niece of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, has returned the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award to protest against the "vicious assault" on India's diversity and the government's failure to protect cultural diversity.
The train of writers returning government-conferred honours has now been joined by Vadodara-based author and poet Anil Joshi who announced that he will give up his Sahitya Akademi award over the recent killing of rationalist MM Kalburgi and a few others.
Revenue generated from the final podcast featuring Zubeen Garg will be placed in a 20-year fixed deposit to support emerging artists.
She turned down the award in protest against the Indian government toeing the United States line.
Tamil writer S Balasubramanian and Marathi playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar are also among the 22 litterateurs selected.
8 Member of Parliaments were suspended from Lok Sabha for tearing & throwing papers at the Chair till April 2. Uproar started when Rahul Gandhi was barred from citing former Army Chief, General M M Naravane's memoir on 2020 India-China clash. Rediff.com brings you the details of these MPs who were suspended.
Voicing displeasure over the Dadri lynching incident and a string of killings of rationalists, he also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's continued silence on these.
'A truly original Hindi writer whose writing no other author can match.'
Kashinath Singh and Katyayani Vidmahe announced their decision to return their awards.
The Assam government will request the Gauhati High Court to set up a fast-track court to decide on singer Zubeen Garg's death case. The cabinet also decided to appoint a special public prosecutor for the case.
The Delhi HC asked the Centre to produce record related to writers who returned their Sahitya Akademi awards.
Booker Prize winning author Salman Rushdie joined the growing chorus of protests by leading writers against spread of "communal poison" and "rising intolerance" in the country even as seven more authors decided to return their Sahitya Akademi awards.
S L Bhyrappa, who passed into the ages last week, remains an enigma, with his clear and unwavering voice resonating through his writings. Standing apart from the literary trends over the course of the last fifty years, he succeeded in establishing his own style, sensibility and creative tradition, points out Shridhar C R.
'We met Gulzar sahab at his residence to honour him with the Jnanpith Award. Gulzar sahab's son-in-law Govind Sandhu, filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj, his wife Rekha, and a few writers were present on this occasion.'
A parliamentary committee has suggested 'consent of the recipient' was a must in case a National Akademi decided to confer an award to prevent the honour's return by the individual for political reasons as it was 'disgraceful' to the country.
Jayant Narlikar wrote alternative what-if histories, explained difficult scientific theories with funny analogies, and leavened his lectures with jokes and humorous asides.
The great literary figure of Malayalam and Jnanpith Award winner M T Vasudevan Nair, who had been undergoing treatment at a private hospital here following heart failure, has died, hospital sources said on Wednesday.
Poet, writer and former IPS officer Keki N Daruwalla, whose magic with words gained him national and international repute, has died at a Delhi hospital after prolonged illness and a spell of pneumonia. He was 87.
Nagarkar, a Sahitya Akademi Award winner, had been ailing for some time and was admitted to a hospital in south Mumbai where he died at night, hospital sources said.
'I don't feel like going back to India, to the old Delhi that I grew up in. Because the place doesn't exist anymore.'
Ria Vithasha, 17, known by her pen name Muddu Thirthahalli, returned her Karnataka Sahitya Akademi award.
Professor TJ Joseph, whose hand was chopped off by activists of the Popular Front of India for alleged blasphemy 12 years ago, on Wednesday declined to respond to the Centre's ban on the radical Islamic outfit, saying observing silence was better at times than always talking.
Poet Ashok Vajpeyi on Friday said he won't participate in a cultural festival as he was scheduled to because the organisers asked him not to read poems critical of the government. A spokesperson from the Rekhta Foundation, which is co-organiser of the session, denied his claim that he was being censored.
Facing heat over a long list of writers who have returned Sahitya Akademi awards or resigned from their posts in the literary body, Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday denied that it was being soft on the issue of "intolerance" and said the ideological inclinations of the writers should be looked into.
Ramanunni had received an anonymous threat letter warning him that his right arm and left leg would be chopped off if he did not convert to Islam within six months.
A former IAS officer, historian and novelist, Vishwas Patil makes his debut as a director with Kangana Ranaut starrer Rajjo.
Thayil, the author of 'Narcopolis' and winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award, will join his fellow judges to look for the best works of translated fiction, selected from entries published in the UK and Ireland between May 2019 and April 2020.
'I am not in favour of the hijab myself.' 'I personally think it wrong to make women shut themselves out of the world, where there is so much to see.' 'But I can't dictate to others about what they should wear.'
A clueless Sahitya Akademi has now called a meeting of its executive council on October 23 to decide the future course of action.
Shrilal Shukla, author of the iconic Raag Darbari and a winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award, passed away last week. In a touching tribute, Sidharth Monga revisits Shukla's most famous work, in which he created a "world inhabited by 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro' on crack, minus the momentary optimism"
"I have decided to return the award. The minorities in the country are feeling unsafe and threatened. They feel their future is bleak," Khayal said.
Her action comes in the wake of a parade of litterateurs renouncing their coveted prizes.
'In India those who want change cannot bring about change, and those who can bring about change do not want change.'
The noted writer said the space for dissent has vanished and dissenters are now being attacked with sticks, stones, black paint and even murder.
'If they oppose the government on different issues, what has the Sahitya Akademi got to do with it?'
The Janata Dal-United parliamentary board chief latched on to reports of KS Eshwarappa, a minister in the BJP-ruled southern state, having said that the tricolour may be replaced by a saffron flag sometime in the future.
Olympic medallist boxer Vijender Singh, who joined the farmers' agitation at the Haryana-Delhi border on Sunday, said he will return his Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award if the Centre's new farm laws are not withdrawn.
He was known for his work in Mumbai Dinank, which was his first novel, and the book Simhasan, which was adapted into a Marathi film.
Akademi Secretary K Sachidanand said they are trying to make her reconsider.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances