New Delhi: When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the country witnessed a new wave of protest, wherein, several scholars and litterateurs announced to return their awards. This has started especially in the wake of incidents that occurred at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh in 2015, and in Karnataka. These writers and ideologues had expressed their dismay over increasing intolerance in the country and decided to return their awards in the protest.
In 2015, Ashok Vajpayee was the first litterateur who announced to return his Sahitya Akademi award. After him, 39 other scholars from across the country followed the suit to return their Sahitya Akademi awards. The list included big names like Nayantara Sehgal, Uday Prakash, Krishna Sobti, Manglesh Dabral, Kashinath Singh, Rajesh Joshi, Keki Daruwala, Ambikadatta, Munawwar Rana, Khalil Mamoon, Sarah Joseph, Ibrahim Afghan, and Aman Sethi.
All these litterateurs and writers were in the media headlines, but no one ever tried to know whether the award could actually be returned? Did these people who announced to return their awards try to submit their souvenirs and prize money? Or their announcement was just restricted to the media headlines.
The Zee News correspondent visited the Sahitya Akademi, Delhi to know the whole matter, and met Srinivasava Rao, Secretary, Sahitya Academy, to check the full list of writers and litterateurs who had announced to return their awards. The, however, has many shocking revelations.
Out of 39 writers, who announced to return their awards, 26 did not return their souvenirs, only 13 returned their mementos. The four authors neither returned their memento nor their prize money, but returned merely their award.
Notably, only 13 authors returned both money and souvenirs, while 35 out of 39 scholars have made an offer to return the prize money through cheques to the Sahitya Akademi. On the contrary, there no such rule in the Sahitya Akademi under which the award can be withdrawn.
The 35 writers who handed over cheques to the Sahitya Akademi still have the amount in their accounts as the prize money can not be returned to the Academy. All these writers and litterateurs are pretty aware of the rules, as the academy is run by these scholars, writers, and litterateurs.
The 4 writers who merely announced to return their awards, but did not start any process for the same are:
1- Urdu Academy’s Khalil Mamoon received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2011. He announced to return the award, he neither offered to return either the memento or the prize money. He was given an amount of Rs one lakh.
2- Assamese writer Nirupama Borgohain received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1996, along with a memento and the prize money of Rs 25,000. She neither returned the memento nor offered to return the money.
3- Marathi writer Ibrahim Afghan received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2002, along with an honorarium of Rs 15,000 but he neither offered to return the souvenirs nor the prize money, but merely announced to return the award.
4- English author Aman Sethi was given the Yuva Sahitya Puraskar in 2012, along with a sum of Rs 50,000. He too had announced to return the award, but he neither offered to return the souvenirs nor the prize money.
There are 26 other authors who announced to return their award money but not the mementos are:
1- Uday Prakash of Hindi received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2010, along with the prize money of Rs 1 lakh. He handed over a cheque of Rs 1 lakh to the Sahitya Akademi but did not return the memento, according to the Sahitya Academy.
2- Ashok Vajpayee received the Sahitya Puruskar in 1994, along with the prize money of Rs 25,000. Vajpayee returned the cheque of Rs 1 lakh to the Sahitya Akademi but did not return the memento.
3- Krishna Sobti received the Sahitya Puraskar in 1980 along with the prize money of Rs 5000. She handed over a cheque of Rs 10,000 to the Sahitya Akademi but not the memento.
4- Kashinath Singh received the award in 2011, along with an amount of Rs 1 lakh. He handed over the cheque of the same to the Sahitya Akademi but did not offer to give the memento.
5. Nayantara Sehgal too received the Sahitya Puruskar in 1986, along with an amount of Rs 10,000. She returned the check of Rs 1 lakh to the Sahitya Akademi but did not return the souvenirs.
6- Rajesh Joshi received the award in 2002. He offered to return the money but not the memento.
7- Keki Daruwala received the award in 1984, offered to return the money but not a memento.
8- Anil Joshi too received the award in 1990, offered to return the money but not the memento.
9- Varyam Singh Sandhu, Surjeet Patar, Jaswinder, Gurvash Bhullar, Baldev Singh, Darshan Butare, Ajmer Singh Aulakh, Mohan Bhandari, and Pargat Singh from Punjab offered to return the award money but not the memento.
10- Ambikadatta of Rajasthan received the award in 2013, along with an amount of Rs 1 lakh. He offered to return the money but not the memento.
11- Gulab Nabi Khyal of Kashmiri had received the award in 1976, along with an amount of Rs 5,000. He offered to return the money but not the memento.
12- Homen Borgohain of Assamese language and Mandakranta Sen of Bengali also failed to return their mementos.
13- Nand Bhardwaj of Rajasthan, however, withdraw his decision to return the award.
The names of 13 authors who offered to return both the prize money and the memento include 1-Manglesh Dabral; 2-GN Davy; 3-Atmajit; 4-Kum Veerabhadrappa; 5-Rahamate Tarikare; 6-Devanuru Mahadeva; 7-Margub Banihli; 8-Munawwar Rana (He sent an anonymous cheque of 1 lakh to Sahitya Akademi); 9- Sarah Joseph; 10- Katyayani Vidmehe; 11-Chamanlal; 12-GN Ranganatha Rao; and 13-M Bhupal Reddy
The Sahitya Akademi is an autonomous organization, which is run by scholars and litterateurs only. A jury comprising these learned people annually select the names to whom the awards are given. Instituted in 1954, the Sahitya Akademi Awards have been given to around 1900 litterateurs in the last 66 years, and only 39 people have so far announced to return their award.
Every year, around 2,400 writers, litterateurs, and scholars are involved in the selection process of the four literary awards.
