Context
Recently, the Sahitya Akademi announced its prestigious “Sahitya Akademi Awards, Yuva Puraskar as well as Bal Sahitya Puraskar” for 2021 in various languages.
Key-highlights
- This year 07 books of poetry, 02 of the novel, 05 of short stories, 02 Plays, one each of Biography, Autobiography, Criticism and Epic Poetry have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2021.
- The Awards, recommended by distinguished Jury members in 20 Indian languages, were approved by the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi.
- Awards in Gujarati, Maithili, Manipuri and Urdu languages will be announced at a later date.
Basis of Selection
- The books were selected on the basis of recommendations made by a Jury of three members in the concerned languages in accordance with the procedure laid down for the purpose.
- According to the procedure, the Executive Board declared the Awards on the basis of unanimous selections made by the Jurors or selections made on the basis of majority vote.
- The Awards relate to books first published during the five years immediately preceding the year of the Award (i.e. between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2019).
The Sahitya Akademi Award
- The Sahitya Akademi was formally inaugurated by the Government of India on 12 March 1954.
- It is a literary honour in India, conferred annually by the Sahitya Akademi.
- It is India’s National Academy of Letters and the central institution for literary dialogue, publication and promotion in the country and the only institution that undertakes literary activities in 24 Indian languages, including English.
- Akademi gives 24 awards annually to literary works in the languages it has recognized and an equal number of awards to literary translations from and into the languages of India, both after a year-long process of scrutiny, discussion and selection.
- Every year since its inception in 1954, the Sahitya Akademi Award prizes to the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the major Indian languages recognised by the Akademi.
- The award amount, which was 5,000 since inception, had been enhanced to Rs.10,000 from 1983, Rs.25,000 from 1988, Rs.40,000 from 2001, Rs.50,000 from 2003 and is now Rs.1,00,000 from 2009.
- The first Awards were given in 1955.
