History of Sahitya Akademi- Last 10 years Award Winners

The Sahitya Akademi, 1ndia's premier I literary institution, was formed in 1954 in order to “preserve and promote literature contained in twenty-four Indian languages recognised by it through awards, fellowships, grants, publications, literary programs, workshops and exhibitions.”

The Sahitya Akademi was formally inaugurated by the Government of India on 12 March 1954. The Government of India Resolution, which set forth the constitution of the Akaderni, described it as a national organisation to work actively for the development of Indian letters and to set high literary standards, to foster and co-ordinate literary activities in all the Indian languages and to promote through them all the cultural unity of the country. Though set up by the Government, the Akademi functions as an autonomous organisation. It was registered as a society on 7 January 1956, under the Societies Registration Art, 1860.

Sahitya Akademi is 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. Over the almost 70 years of its existence, it has been at the forefront of developing a serious literary culture through the publication of journals, monographs, individual creative works of every genre, anthologies, encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies, who's who of writers and histories of literature.

Sahitya Akademi Award

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. Its major awards include the Bal Sahitya for young writers, the Yuva Puraskar for young adults, the Bhasha Samman translation prize, and the iconic Sahitya Akademi Award. It also gives special awards called Bhasha Samman to significant contribution to the languages not formally recognized by the Akademi as also for contribution to classical and medieval literature_

Sahitya Akademi Award consists of a copper plaque and a cash prize of ₹50,000. The ceremony for celebrating the contribution of literature and language was established in 1955. The categories to which Sahitya Akademi Award is presented are Poetry, Short Stories, Novels, Plays, Biographies, Autobiographies, literary Criticism, and Epic Poetry. The first Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar was awarded to R.K. Narayan for his novel The Guide in 1960.

The Akaderni has Centres for Transla-tion in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Delhi, and an Archive of Indian Lit-erature in Delhi. A project office for the promotion of Tribal and Oral literature was set up in the North Eastern Hill University Campus, Shillong.

Last 10 Years Sahitya Akademi Award Winners

Here is the list of writers who have received the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Awards in the last 10 years:

So these include some of the leading contemporary writers and poets across various Indian languages recognized for their literary works over the last decade by Sahitya Akademi.

Languages Recognised

Besides the 22 languages enumerated in the Constitution of India, the Sahitya Akademi has recognised English and Rajasthani as languages in which its programme may be implemented.

Head Office: The Head Office of the Sahitya Akademi is housed in Rabindra Bhavan, 35 Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi. This building was constructed in 1961 to commemorate the birth centenary of Rabindranath Tagore, and houses all the three National Akademies, namely, the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the Lalit Kala Akademi and the Sahitya Akademi.

The Head office looks after the publication and programmes in Dogri, English, Hindi, Kashrniri, Maithili, Nepali, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Santhali and Urdu and functions as a regional office as far as these languages are concerned.

Sahitya Akademi Library

The Sahitya Akademi Library is one of the most important and unique multi-lingual libraries in India with a rich collection of books on literature and allied subjects in the 24 languages recognised by the Sahitya Akademi, The Library is well-known for its huge collection of books on criticism, of works of translation and reference books including dictionaries.

Centre for Oral and Tribal Literature

The Centre at New Delhi for Oral and Tribal Literature is designated to preserve our heritage in a systematic and scientific way so that Indian masses comprehend the world-view of our ancient societies and keep abreast with our traditional knowledge. The Akademi proposes to archive the original oral texts available in these languages in audio and audio-video formats accompanied by translation in written forms in Scheduled languages and English for wider distribution. The idea is to create a 'House of Voices'.