The Sahitya Akademi (India’s National Akademi of
Letters) celebrated 60 years of promoting Indian literature in March this year.
 It not only recognises Indian writers
and poets who have immensely contributed to literature but also organises
hundreds of workshops, seminars, lectures, discussions and symposia, all across
India to bring the country’s diverse reading community together.

Instituted in 1954, it supports a total of 24 Indian
languages including English, Bodo, Kashmiri, Sanskrit, Hindi, Manipuri, Nepali,
Urdu, Punjabi, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, among others. While scholarly work of
authors is eligible for grants issued by the Akademi, the Sahitya Akademi Award
bestows a cash prize of Rs 100000 to authors with outstanding literary merit.

Its annual literary festival, Sahitotsav 2015 (Festival
of Letters 2015) held in Delhi from March 8-14, 2015 was a grand affair as the Akademi
completed 60 years of existence on March 12.  Special programmes (including performing arts)
were held and around 170 authors participated in the event.

Literary
Highlights

A total of 24 authors and poets were honoured at the event.
Eight books of poetry, three essays and short stories each, and five novels were
shortlisted for the award this year.

Celebration
of Literature

The Samvatsar lecture, the event’s highpoint was this
year delivered by noted critic and political scientist, Ashish Nandy. He delved
into factors that pose a threat to the world’s cultural diversity. Some of the
other highlights were Purvattori i.e. a programme wherein distinguished writers
from the northeast addressed and interacted with the audience.

‘Yuva Sahitya’, an illustration workshop for children
and ‘spin-a-tale’, a panel discussion on what topics to write children’s
stories on, were also major attractions. ‘Writers’ meet’ conducted on March 9
saw the award-winning authors talk about their creative journey.

Find below a list of authors, poets,
novelists from across India who were honoured:

    Author                                                          Language

Arupa Patangia Kalita                                 Assamese

Utpal Kumar Basu                                        Bengali

Urkhao Gwra Brahma                                   Bodo

Shailender Singh                                           Dogri

Ashvin Mehta                                               Gujarati

Adil Jussawalla                                            English

Ramesh
Chandra Shah                                 Hindi

G.H. Nayak                                                  Kannada

Shad Ramzan                                              Kashmiri

Madhavi Sardesai                                       Konkani

Asha Mishra                                                 Maithli

Subhash Chandran                                   Malayalam

Jayant
Vishnu                                               Marathi

Naralikar

Nanda Hankhim                                            Nepali

Gopalkrushna Rath                                        Odia

Jaswinder                                                     Punjabi

Rampal Singh Rajpurohit

                         Rajasthani

Jamadar Kisku                                              Santali

Gope Kamal                                                  Sindhi

Poomani                                                          Tamil

Rachapalem Chandrashekara Reddy           Telegu

Munawwar Rana                                              Urdu

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