Writers start to take back awards

After months of controversy over alleged “growing intolerance” in the country, Sahitya Akademi on Friday said some of the writers, including Ms Nayantara Sahgal, have agreed to take back the awards they had returned at the outset of the issue.

“Sahitya Akademi has started sending back the awards to the writers. It has already been sent to Nayantara Sahgal. Anot-her writer Nand Bhard-waj has also agreed to take back the award. It would be sent to other writers as well,” Sahitya Akademi president Vish-wanath Prasad Tiwari told agencies.

He said the Akademi is also sending a copy of their resolution to all writers mentioning that there was no provision in its constitution to return the honours.

On October 23, the Akad-emi passed a unanimous resolution appealing to state and Central governments to take steps to prevent such incidents and asked authors to take back the awards they had returned to protest against “rising intolerance”. “The Akademi strongly condemns the killing of writer Kalburgi and appeals to the state and Central government to take steps to prevent such incidents in the future,” Krishnaswamy Nachimuthu, an executive committee board member had said after the meeting. About 40 writers had returned their awards in the past few months to the Sahitya Akademi in the backdrop of Akademi’s silence on the murder of fellow writer M.M. Kalburgi, as well against the “communal” atmosphere in the country following the Dadri lynching incident.

A culture ministry source said, “There is is a list of 10 writers who ha-ve agreed to take back the awards they had returned.”

Sahgal and Bhardwaj are two confirmed names in the list.”

According to the source, Ms Sahgal decided to take back her award as there is no provision to return the award.

Rajasthani writer Nand Bhardwaj, who had returned his Sahitya Akademi award to protest against failing to stand up for writers and condemning attack on them, has reverted his decision. Mr Bhardwaj during the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival, of which he has been a regional director, said that he was “taking back” his award.

Though, Mr Bhardwaj said that his decision shouldn’t be construed as a change in his position on intolerance. “Intolerance and other issues remain as they were when the awards were returned. There has always been intolerance in our society. It is the government and system’s duty to act whenever there is use of violence against anyone,” he said.

According to Mr Bhardwaj, his decision to return award was a symbolic gesture against Sahitya Akademi’s silence, despite attacks and killing of writers. “The situation was different during the time when we had returned the award. At that time writers and rationalists were being killed yet the Akademi did not condemn the attacks, which is why awards were returned to protest against its silence,” he said.

He said that now the Akademi held a meeting and condemned the killing. “The Akademi has stated that it would stand with the writers. I respect the Akademi’s decisions,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Ashok Vajpayee, who had also returned Sahitya Akademi award and very recently returned D. Lit conferred by Hyderabad University to protest against the death of Dalit student Rohith Vemula, said that intolerance is on the rise in the country. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and not the writers should be blamed for this.