Sahitya Akademi Honour

Malayalam writer Sara Joseph, who early this month returned her Sahitya Akademi honour to protest its silence at attacks on writers, said she will not reconsider her decision even as the Akademi for the first time today condemned the killings and urged the writers to take back the awards.

The "manufactured controversy" (to quote our honourable Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley) over the return by over 40 writers of their Sahitya Akademi Awards in protest against the Dadri butchery of Mohammed Akhlaq and related killings refuses to die down.

Six more authors have decided to return their Sahitya Akademi awards as a mark of protest against rising intolerance and communal atmosphere after the death of rationalist MM Kalburgi, taking the number of such authors returning the literary honour to 16.

Nayantara Sahgal, whose renunciation of the Sahitya Akademi Award triggered a wave of return of honours by eminent writers, today hit back at the Akademi chairperson Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari for his criticism of her action.

Joining an increasing number of writers and poets who have returned honours and given up positions in recent weeks, author Sara Joseph said today that she is returning the Sahitya Akademi Award that she got in 2003.

Novelist Shashi Deshpande today offered her resignation from the Sahitya Akademi General Council denouncing "growing intolerance" in the country, joining a protest by writers and poets who have resigned and turned down honours in recent weeks.

Malayalam writer Sara Joseph, who early this month returned her Sahitya Akademi honour to protest its silence at attacks on writers, said she will not reconsider her decision even as the Akademi for the first time today condemned the killings and urged the writers to take back the awards.

The "manufactured controversy" (to quote our honourable Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley) over the return by over 40 writers of their Sahitya Akademi Awards in protest against the Dadri butchery of Mohammed Akhlaq and related killings refuses to die down.

Six more authors have decided to return their Sahitya Akademi awards as a mark of protest against rising intolerance and communal atmosphere after the death of rationalist MM Kalburgi, taking the number of such authors returning the literary honour to 16.

Nayantara Sahgal, whose renunciation of the Sahitya Akademi Award triggered a wave of return of honours by eminent writers, today hit back at the Akademi chairperson Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari for his criticism of her action.

Joining an increasing number of writers and poets who have returned honours and given up positions in recent weeks, author Sara Joseph said today that she is returning the Sahitya Akademi Award that she got in 2003.

Novelist Shashi Deshpande today offered her resignation from the Sahitya Akademi General Council denouncing "growing intolerance" in the country, joining a protest by writers and poets who have resigned and turned down honours in recent weeks.