Historian Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi and novels and essays by Gopalakrishna Pai, Kashinath Singh and Manik Sitaram Godghate alias Grace are among 22 books which were awarded prestigious Sahitya Akademi Awards for this year.
Eight books of poetry, seven novels, three essays and one each short story, narrative history, biography and play were selected for this year's awards.
While Guha got the award for his book of narrative history -- India After Gandhi, Pai and Kashinath Singh were recognised for their novels Swapna Saraswata and Rehan Per Ragghu respectively. Manik Sitaram Godghate alias Grace was awarded for his essay.
The books were selected on the basis of recommendations made by a jury of three members in each language in accordance with procedure laid down for the purpose.
Writers in 23 languages are recognised every year by the Akademi.
Other writers who got the award are Late Kabin Phukan (Assamese), Manindra Gupta (Bengali), Premananda Mosahari (Bodo), Lalit Magotra (Dogri), Mohan Parmar (Gujarati), Naseem Shafaie (Kashmiri), Melvyn Rodrigues (Konkani), M K Sanu (Malayalam), Kshetri Bira (Manipuri), Grace (Marathi), Kalpanakumari Devi (Odia) and Baldev Singh (Punjabi). Atul Kanakk (Rajasthani), Harekrishna Satapathy (Sanskrit), Adiyta Kumar Mandi (Santali), Mohan Gehani (Sindhi), S Venkatesan (Tamil), Samala Sadasiva (Telugu) and Khalell Mamoon (Urdu).
The awards in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs. 1,00,000/- was presented to the authors of these books at a special function held in Delhi.
{{/usCountry}}The awards in the form of a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs. 1,00,000/- was presented to the authors of these books at a special function held in Delhi.
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