Her action comes in the wake of a parade of litterateurs renouncing their coveted prizes.
Eminent poet and writer K Satchidanandan on Saturday resigned from all committees of the Sahitya Akademi, saying the literary body had "failed" in its duty to stand with writers and uphold freedom of expression.
Noted poet K Satchidanandan has alleged that he was restrained by Facebook from liking, commenting and sharing posts for 24-hours after he tried to upload online a satire video on the Bharatiya Janata Party's defeat in the recently concluded Kerala assembly polls.
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.
"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.
Writers from across the country gathered at Shri Ram Centre near Mandi House and marched towards Sahitya Akademi in the capital, wearing black ribbons on their heads as a sign of protest.
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.
Ria Vithasha, 17, known by her pen name Muddu Thirthahalli, returned her Karnataka Sahitya Akademi award.
The noted writer said the space for dissent has vanished and dissenters are now being attacked with sticks, stones, black paint and even murder.
Gulzar said communal harmony is being harmed to such a level that people are not allowed to even talk with freedom.
'In India those who want change cannot bring about change, and those who can bring about change do not want change.'
In a letter to Secretary of Sahitya Akademi on Wednesday, Bhardwaj, also attached a cheque of Rs 50,000 which he got with the award in 2004.
Eminent Punjabi writer and Padma Shri winner Dalip Kaur Tiwana decided to return her award protesting "recurrent atrocities" on Muslims in the country, as another Kannada writer joined authors giving up their Sahitya Akademi Awards against "growing intolerance".
After eminent writers Nayantara Sahgal and Ashok Vajpeyi, Malayalam novelist and Aam Aadmi Party leader Sarah Joseph today said she would return the Sahitya Akademi award in protest against what she called the "growing communalism" and "life threat faced by writers" in the country after Narendra Modi government assumed office.
'Dadri was an extension of the cultural fascism that was happening in the country.' 'All the people in the country suffered under the Emergency, but now we see one community trying to crush the other community. Do they know what is brewing in the minds of the other side? What is happening today can lead to a very dangerous situation in the country.' 'We have lost religious tolerance in today's India.' Writer Sarah Joseph on why she returned her Sahitya Akademi Award.
'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.'
'Communal tension and violent mobs have been part of our country, whichever government is in power. What has happened since the BJP came into power is that individuals or group activities asserting Hindutva have become louder, more aggressive.' 'Now we are finding ourselves in a country where reasoning and thinking have no place, the power lies with the goons.' 'I find any ban, whether on what we write, what we eat, how we dress etc, absolutely abominable. They have no place in a democracy.' Shashi Deshpande on why she joined the writers' protest against the growing intolerance in India.
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.
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.
He also wrote the lyrics of Hosh waalon ko khabar kya from Sarfarosh.
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.
The noted writer, who was awarded D.Lit (Doctor of Letters, honoris causa) by the Central University of Hyderabad few years ago, said the institution has "acted against human dignity and knowledge."
An ugly spat ensued after a JD-U spokesman took potshots at state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal over his offer of help to family members of those who died in a hooch tragedy in West Champaran district last year.
The author was flooded with a barrage of hate messages following his tweet in support of writers who returned their Sahitya Akademi awards.
'Religion has divided our country like it never had done.' 'I can't remember a time of such focused hatred.'
Mukesh was most emotionally bonded to this tune, so all we will do is look at his songs engaging with this raag in films. In his fascinating book, Windows To The Soul: And Other Essays on Music, Manek Premchand reveals something we don't much know about the legendary singer, who was born 100 years ago on July 22.
A former IAS officer, historian and novelist, Vishwas Patil makes his debut as a director with Kangana Ranaut starrer Rajjo.
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.
A prolific novelist and storyteller, Gangopadhyay remained a dedicated servant of poetry and declared poetry to be his 'first love'.
'Does anyone understand India?' 'Does anyone have a larger perspective for India as a whole?' 'Today we have rulers who do not understand the ruled.'
Novelists are speaking for millions across India who are alarmed at where this country is headed.
Nadda also met Chandrashekar Kambar, a Jnanpith award recipient as part of the BJP's ongoing nationwide campaign on the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian author Perumal Murugan's Tamil novel Pyre is among 13 books from across Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America to make it to the longlist of the International Booker Prize 2023, announced by the Booker Prize Foundation in London on Tuesday.
History, incidentally, has often been the stick that the BJP and the JD-U have used to beat each other with.
Poet, artist and award-winning diplomat Abhay K whose sixth book Candling the Light was released recently at the Sahitya Akademi in New Delhi tells Rediff about his life in the Indian Foreign Service and how he maintains a balance between his career and creative life.
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"
The 91-year-old went beyond her role as a writer to help tribals in organising themselves in groups so that they could take up development activities in their own areas.
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.
'The boys allowed themselves to become tools of politicians.' 'That age is a dangerous one, children or young men and women can easily be moulded to hate.'
State minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, a national spokesman of the party, made the averment in Patna at a press conference he addressed jointly with Sanjay Jaiswal, the Bihar BJP president.
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