Writers, one after the other, have returned their Sahitya Akademi awards to protest against the rise of intolerance. But till Monday evening, at least, Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma was unmoved. He said there was nothing to it unless these writers actually stopped writing. He also wanted to know who they were, what ideology they subscribed to.
Here, Mr Culture Minister, are some of the writers who have returned their awards. They speak in different languages, write in various forms and are moved to speech for several reasons –love, death, rain, exile, marigolds, time, darkness, injustice, freedom, governments, language itself.
Homen Borgohain: The Assamese journalist and writer won the Sahitya Akademi award for his novel, Pita Putra (Father Son), which depicts the lives of two generations in a country emerging from colonial rule. It explores the turbulent advent of democracy to an Assamese society still controlled by landlords. His first novel was Subala, about a village girl driven to prostitution in the city. In 2013, he quit the Asam Sahitya Sabha, protesting against irregularities within the organisation.
Keki N. Daruwalla: One of the venerable voices of Indian writing in English, Daruwalla will be known to every ICSE student who has had to read about hoor-eyed Fatima in “Love Across the Salt Desert”. A former police officer and additional director at the Research and Analysis Wing, Daruwalla turned out to be a civil servant with a tasted for romance. Daruwalla’s works are filled with voyages and memory, weaving myth and history to create fiction. He won the award for Keeper of the Dead, a book of poetry.
Ganesh Devy: Gujarati critic and activist Devy won his Sahitya Akademi award for After Amnesia, a book on Indian literary criticism. Devy is concerned with retrieving Indian traditions of criticism from the dominance of Western models, and with rescuing bhasha literatures from the ravages of colonialism. Along with Bhalchandra Nemade, recent adversary to Salman Rushdie, Devy belongs to the Nativist or Desivad school of thought, which “insists that literature be treated as a sub-system of the native culture” and that it reflect social realities. Authors can only write truly in their native language, according to this logic. A provocative critic, Devy has also worked to preserve the linguistic and literary heritage of tribal groups.
Sarah Joseph: She won the award for her novel, Aalahayude Penmakkal, the first of a trilogy where each novel is centred on a female protagonist. A feminist with an abiding concern for the plight of all oppressed groups, Joseph is one of the most prominent women writers in Malayalam today. In 2014, she made a foray into electoral politics, contesting as the Aam Aadmi Party candidate in the Thrissur. She lost to the Communist Party of India candidate.
Ghulam Nabi Khayal: He is a prominent Kashmiri journalist who has published in Kashmiri, Urdu as well as English. He won the award in 1975 for his book Gashik Minar (Pillars of Light). Once involved in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme, Khayal became interested in producing literature for children. He has drawn on Kashmiri folklore and songs to create collections for younger readers. As an author, he has also grappled with how to write about three decades of violence in Kashmir. In Khayal’s poetry, a Thomas Grey-esque melancholy inhabits the shadows and treetops of the Valley. In the process, he expresses a sense of place and a sadness that is peculiarly Kashmiri.
Uday Prakash: A Hindi poet, fiction writer, essayist and journalist, Prakash won the award for a collection of short stories entitled Mohan Das. His best known work is a novella called Peeli Chhatri Waali Ladki (Girl With the Golden Parasol). In his essay, “Exiled from Poetry and Country”, Prakash says he is “unable to read a story that does not have dreams or illusions”. Fantasy mingles with history and a keen sense of social and political realities in his writing.
Nayantara Sahgal: One of the most familiar names in Indian writing in English, Sahgal received her award for the novel, Rich Like Us, a sharp critique of the Emergency. Niece to Jawaharlal Nehru, daughter of Vijayalakshmi Pandit and detractor of Indira Gandhi, Sahgal has been the doyenne of the political novel in post-colonial India. Some may remember her famous literary spat with VS Naipaul, who interrupted a speech by Sahgal at a literary conference to accuse Indian writers of “drumming up the issue of colonialism”.
Mandrakanta Sen: Sen has written over 19 collections of poems, eight novels, two volumes of short stories and a book of essays in Bengali. At 27, she won the Golden Jubilee Young Writers’ Award from the Sahitya Akademi, for a collection of poems called Hriday Abadhya Meye (The Heart’s A Disobedient Girl). Known for her leftwing politics, Sen uses sensuality as a form of rebellion in her poems.
Atamjit Singh: The Punjabi theatre personality was given the award for the play, Tatti Tawi Da Sach, which deal with the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev. It casts a political and cultural eye on a story that is part of religious lore. In his dramatic vision, Singh emphasises the values of plurality, secularism and human dignity that he believes Arjan Singh stood for.
Ashok Vajpeyi: An eminent Hindi poet, art critic, editor and former head of the Lalit Kala Akademi, He won for a volume of poetry called Kahin Nahin Wahin. Vajpeyi has been very much a part of the cultural establishment, dispensing literature and the arts from the power centre of Delhi. He once called the Sahitya Akademi a “contradictory organisation” because it was in “the nature” of literature and writers to “suspect power”. His own spare, expressionistic poetry is very different from the measured cadences of Daruwalla.
Kum Veerabhadrappa: A well-known Kannada writer, he got the Sahitya Akademi award for his novel, Aramane. Fiction is blended with social reform in his work, and Kumvee says much of the material for his novel came from his 34 years as a teacher in the border districts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. He describes teaching in a village school that was located in a temple, which meant that lower caste children were excluded. He then shifted the school into a Dalit colony and enrolled children from the area in school.
And the list goes on, with more authors joining every day. Which one looks anti-national to you, Mr Culture Minister?
