26 Writers across India return Sahitya Akademi Awards

At least 26 Writers, Poets and Translators across the country, have returned the Sahitya Akademi Awards, saying the country is going through a bad phase of intolerance and rising communal tension. They had received the awards years ago. Another person has returned the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.

The ‘Elite Club’:

* Uday Prakash (Hindi)
* Nayantara Sahgal (English)
* Ashok Vajpeyi (Hindi)
* Sarah Joseph (Malayalam)
* Krishna Sobti (Hindi)
* Ghulam Nabi Khayal (Kashmiri)
* Rahman Abbas (Urdu)
* Srinath DN (Kannada)
* Mangalesh Dabral (Hindi)
* Rajesh Joshi (Hindi)
* N Shivdas (Konkani)
* Waryam Sandhu (Punjabi)
* G N Ranganatha Rao (Kannada)
* Maya Krishna Rao (Sangeet Natak Akademi)
* Surjit Pattar (Punjabi)
* Baldev Singh Sadaknama (Punjabi)
* Jaswinder (Punjabi)
* Darshan Buttar (Punjabi)
* Gurbachan Bhullar (Punjabi)
* Ajmer Singh Aulakh (Punjabi)
* Atamjit Singh (Punjabi)
* Ganesh Devy (Gujarat)
* Anil Joshi (Gujarat)
* Kum Veerabhadrappa (Kannada)
* Chaman Lal (Punjabi)
* Rahamat Tarikere (Kannada)
* Homen Borgohain (Assamese).

In addition, K. Satchidanandan, Shashi Deshpande, Aravind Malagatti, P.K. Parakkadavu and K.S. Ravikumar have resigned from the Sahitya Akademi Board.

IndiaPoetsSahitya Akademi AwardSangeet Natak AkademiWriters