RSS leaders congratulate Dr Kambara

Senior RSS functionaries of Karnataka congratulated veteran Kannada writer and winner of Jnanpith award Dr Chandrashekara Kambara at his residence in Bengaluru on September 22. RSS National Executive Member Shri MC Jayadev, national president of Shaikshik Mahasangh Prof. K Narahari, editor of Utthana monthly Shri SR Ramaswamy, RSS Sah Prant Karyavah Prof BV Shreedhara Swamy, general secretary of Rashtrotthan Parishat Shri N Dinesh Hegde and chief of Samarasya Vedike Karnataka Shri Vadiraj visited Dr Kambara’s residence.

Shri Jayadev along with Shri Ramaswamy and Prof K Narahari honoured Dr Kambara. They also had an informal talk on education system with Dr Kambara for half an hour. Dr Kambara expressed happiness over the visit of RSS functionaries.

Full report here Organiser

Nationalise school education: Kambara

Jnanpith award-winning poet-playwright Chandra-shekhara Kambara on Friday strongly advocated imparting education in the mother tongue. “You can learn English as a language. I feel Kannada should be the medium of instruction. After 10th Standard, you can have a choice”, he contended. Mr Kambara argued that the State should not privatise education till 10th standard. “Let primary and high school education be state-sponsored till 10th standard to wipe out the disparity between children from upper class and downtrodden”, he said.

The playwright downplayed the Karnataka-Maharashtra border issue maintaining that one should not attach much importance to the ‘unwanted dispute’ created by some people from across the border. Mr Kambara, who hails from Belgaum district, said, “I have many friends, including several writers, in Maharashtra who are least bothered about this issue. For some politicians, this issue should be kept alive in the form of a dispute so that they can thrive. If there is no issue, these people will find it hard for their survival”, he said.

Full report here Deccan Chronicle 

Kambar bats for Kannada in schools

Jnanpith award winner Chandrashekhara Kambar on Friday suggested that all schools having classes from the lower kindergarten (LKG) to Standard 10 must be run by the government and that the medium of instruction up to class 10 must be in Kannada.

Kambar, noting that there is a wide divide between students who pass out of private, English medium schools and those passing out of government-run, Kannada-medium schools said: “This can be removed only when the government runs all the primary and high schools. They can allow any private management to run educational institutions from the PU level.”

His justification for having Kannada as the medium of instruction was that only mother tongue can provide an experience, which is an integral part of learning and learning through any other language only gives people information, which makes them less competent.

“I am not saying that one should not learn English. All I am saying is that learn even English through Kannada, because it is essential to have an experience when one is learning and being merely suffocated by information will not take us far. Even learn Japanese if you feel it is necessary but don’t compromise on having Kannada as the medium in primary and high school,” Kambar  explained.

Full report here Deccan Herald

‘Happy, but under pressure’

Flooded with congratulatory phone calls and messages from well-wishers and dear ones for winning the 45th Bharatiya Jnanpith award for 2009, Hindi literary giant Amar Kant looked relaxed and happy.

But the views of the octogenarian on the government’s attitude towards writers have not changed much.

“Does the government care? It is not only about writers. Young scientists, researchers and other such people — they all need support. Otherwise, how will you get fresh writing, new innovations and discoveries? These people need to experience the world and need to travel far and wide,” said Kant at his modest home at Panch Pushp Apartments here.

Nearly three years ago, fighting illness and a bad financial situation, Kant was so fed up with the apathetic attitude of the government that he contemplated selling his Sahitya Akademi Award, which he had won in 2007 for his novel Inhi Hathiyaaron Se. He had then said he wanted the government to “serve him” in the same way as he had served the people all these years through his works.

Full report here Indian Express

Guv congratulates Shukla for Jnanpith

Uttar Pradesh Governor B L Joshi today congratulated noted Hindi litterateur Shrilal Shukla on being chosen for the Jnanpith Award - country's highest literary honour. A Raj Bhawan release said that since Joshi was out of town, he could not go personally to greet Shukla.

The Governor's principal Secretary G Pattnaik, visited him and conveyed greetings from Joshi and presented a bouquet on behalf of the Governor. Shukla, born in 1925 in Uttar Pradesh, is an eminent novelist and a satirist whose works threw light on the falling moral values of the Indian society in the post independence era.

His noted works include Raag Darbari, Makaan, Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj, Pehla Padaav, Agyatvas and Bisrampur Ka Sant. He is winner of several awards which included Sahitya Akademi Award and Vyas Sammaan. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to Indian literature and culture. The announcement to confer Jnanpith Award for the year 2009 on him was made yesterday.

Kambara stunned, delighted

He may have received a number of awards, but when it came to the Jnanpith, he was unprepared and even disbelieving. A faulty phone meant he could not be reached by the awards committee and it was left to his son, Raju Kambara, to convey the news to him. But Chandrashekar Kambara remained sceptical, responding with: “Don’t believe what people tell you. They are probably pulling your leg. How can I get the Jnanpith, check again.”

But he had to believe it when television channels made the announcement. The modesty however, did not leave him. As always he attributes a lot of his success to the breaks he got early on in his life courtesy people like Krishnamurthy Puranik, a writer and teacher in Gokak, who conducted Sunday classes on literature to help bright students further their interest in literature.

Full report here Deccan Chronicle 

Shrilal Shukla, Kambar win Jnanpith

Eminent Hindi authors Amar Kant and Shrilal Shukla were on Monday chosen for India’s highest literary honour Jnanpith Award for the year 2009 while renowned Kannada litterateur Chandrasekhar Kambar won it for the year 2010.

The selection board chaired by noted writer and Jnanpith award winner Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra made the selections for the 45th and 46th Jnanpith awards.

86-year-old Kant is a leading author whose famous novel Inhin Hathiyaron Se earned him Sahitya Akademi Award in 2007.

His short stories like Hatiyare, Dopahar ka Bhojan and Diptee Kalaktari have found place in the syllabi of several Indian Universities.

Shukla, born in 1925 in Uttar Pradesh, is an eminent novelist and a satirist whose works threw light on the falling moral values of the Indian society in the post-independence era.

His noted works include Raag Darbari, Makaan, Sooni Ghaati Ka Sooraj, Pehla Padaav, Agyatvas, and Bisrampur Ka Sant. He is winner of several awards which included Sahitya Akademi Award and Vyas Sammaan. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to Indian literature and culture.

Full report here Hindu

Shahryar awarded 44th jnanpith

Justu-ju jiski thi usko toa na paaya hamne, is bahane se magar dekh li duniya hamne...” (What I longed for, was never mine, but on this pretext, I beheld the world...)”

These spine-tingling lines from the movie Umrao Jaan by Muzaffar Ali in 1981 still cut through to both heart and soul of a listener. The writer of these living lines — Akhlaq Mohammad Khan Shahryar — has unleashed his formidable power and control over words all through his life as an Urdu writer, a lyricist and an academician.

Mr Shahryar, who was awarded the 44th Jnanpith Award for the year 2008 in the national capital on Sunday by superstar Amitabh Bachchan, lyricist Gulzar and Cabinet minister M. Veerappa Moily, has maintained a conscious balance between tradition and modernity. “He expresses modern thought...with a new style but maintains a continuity of tradition.,” Dr Moily said. Mr Shahryar said, “Humans always try to maintain a balance between material and spiritual progress. Thank God we live in a world which at least as of now values emotions... there still exists a bond between humans. Art has a role to play in this world and I am glad to be part of it.” Born on June 16, 1936 in Anwala, Bareilly, he obtained his Ph.D in Urdu from AMU.

Full report here Asian Age

Jnanpith presented to Shaheryar

Legendary Urdu poet and academician Prof Shaheryar was on Sunday presented India's highest literary honour — the Jnanpith Award — for the year 2008.

Presenting the award, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan said, "Like Rahi Massom Raza, Shaheryar also believed in breaking the imaginary wall between Hindi and Urdu. He is a real mascot of Hindi-Urdu culture."

In the form of songs in 'Fasle', 'Anjuman', 'Gaman' and 'Umrao Jaan', Shaheryar has given unique gift to the film industry, Bachchan said. "Today I feel honoured because I got the opportunity to give this prize to Shaheryar sahab," the veteran actor said.

Full report here Times of India 

Birth anniversary of Amrita Pritam

Amrita Pritam was born in 1919 into a Sikh family in Gujranwala, Punjab, (today in Pakistan) as the only child of a schoolteacher and a poet. Her mother died when she was eleven. She began to write at an early age, and her first collection was published when she was only sixteen years old, the year she married an editor to whom she was engaged in early childhood.

In 1947, when the former British India was partitioned into the independent states of India and Pakistan, she moved to New Delhi, where she began to write in Hindi as opposed to Punjabi, her mother tongue.

Communal violence that followed the partition in 1947, saddened her as it did many. She explored and wrote extensively about that human dilemma. She worked until 1961 for All India Radio. She was divorced in 1960, and following that her work became more explicitly feminist, drawing on her unhappy marriage in many of her stories and poems.

A number of her works have been translated into English from Punjabi, including her autobiographical works Black Rose and Revenue Stamp. Her novel Pinjar (Skeleton) was made into a Hindi movie by the same name, which released in 2003. Pinjar is set against the backdrop of the violent frenzy and rioting that engulfed the whole of Punjab in the months preceding partition.

Pritam often wrote on the condition of Indian women and her writings reflected their neglect and suppression in Indian society. She was awarded the Jnanpith, India’s highest literary award, in 1981 for Kagaj te Canvas (Paper and Canvas).

Full report here Hindustan Times

‘My poetry is my response to life’

Malayalam poet and lyricist Prof Ottaplakkal Neelakandan Velu Kurup, 79, popularly known as ONV, was in Dubai on Friday, Sep 24 when he received news that he has been awarded the Jnanpith, India’s highest award for literature. In an exclusive interview with Khaleej Times, he spoke to Sajila Saseendran before he flew back to India.

There is a general opinion in the Malayalam literary circle that the award has been long-overdue.
I cannot claim an award and I don’t have the right to say it is long overdue. We shouldn’t aspire for awards when we write or create something. If you write something, that piece of work is like an award because of the satisfaction it gives you. However, in this long journey of 65 years of publishing my works, several awards have come to me and they are like a shadow or paadheyam (a parceled meal offered to a traveller). When I was a young writer, it was an inspiration, an impetus. Now, I consider it as a recognition to Malayalam poetry. What is more important is that we are getting a Jnanpith award for Malayalam poetry after a long time, after G Sankara Kurup.

You have been a very popular lyricist, as well. What gives you more self-satisfaction — poems or songs?
Poetry is poetry, while film songs are poetry applied to film. The architect of the film is its director. Here, I’m the architect and I have supreme powers. In poetry, I can change words as I like. But, in films, I write for another person. Whether it is a poem or a song, when it serves its purpose, you get satisfaction. However, I get more satisfaction in writing poems since poetry is much deeper and is a response to life.

Do you think poetry is dying in this age of commercialisation?
To a certain extent, yes. It is true that the visual media or the spoken word in it is now dominating and poetry, or the written word, is losing its readers gradually. However, poetry always has a fixed audience. Nothing can replace the aesthetic aspect of the written poetic word. But, there are people who want to develop this notion that poetry is dying down. Languages are nowadays shrinking. Ruining our language for the sake of computer usage is not right.

Full interview here Khaleej Times

Warm welcome for Jnanpith award winner

Malayalam poet and film lyricist ONV Kurup, who won India's prestigious literary prize Jnanpith, was given a rousing reception.

Malayalam poet and film lyricist ONV Kurup, who won India's prestigious literary prize Jnanpith, was given a rousing reception in Thiruvananthapuram, on Saturday, Sep 25 when he flew down to Thiruvananthapuram after a visit abroad. He was in the Gulf when the award was announced on Friday.

ONV Kurup was awarded the 43rd Jnanpith award. ONV, as he is better known in literary and social circles, is the fifth writer from Kerala to win the award.

A large crowd including political leaders and well-wishers from social and literary circles gathered at the airport  when ONV arrived.

Kerala Minister for Culture M.A. Baby was also at hand to congratulate the poet. Baby said the government would seek to have the award bestowed in Kerala, instead of in Delhi as usual.

Full report here Gulfnews

Urdu poet Shaharyar to receive Jnanpith Award-2008

Noted Urdu poet Akhlaq Mohammed Khan, generally known,' Shahryar' has been selected for Jnanpith Award-2008 which is the highest literary award in India. This prestigious award will be given to him in the recognition of his contribution for Urdu language.

The Award was instituted in 1961 and is presented by Bharatiya Jnanpith, every year to different personalities for their outstanding literary works in different languages. The award carries Rs. 700,000, cash a citation plaque and a trophy.

His name was approved by selection committee comprising Professor Gopi Chand Narang, former president of Sahitya Akademy, Gurdiyal Singh, Keshu Bhai Desai, Dinesh Mishra and others.

Mr. Shahryar is also famous as a lyricist in Hindi films and has written lyrics in several famous films including Gaman (1978), Umrao Jaan (1981) and Anjuman (1986),

In 1987 he was awarded with Sahitya Akademy Award in Urdu for his poetry collection, Khwab Ka Dar Band Hai. Besides, he wrote a number of poetry collections which brought glory to him in literary world.

Full report here TwoCircles

Jnanpith for Malayalam poet-lyricist Kurup

Veteran Malayalam poet and film lyricist O N V Kurup has bagged the Jnanpith award for 2007. He is the fifth Jnanpith laureate from Kerala and the second poet from the state to win the prestigious award. During his seven-decade-long career, the winner of the country’s highest literary honour bagged several state and national awards, including the Padmashree in 1998.

Kurup, 79, began his illustrious poetic career during his school days. His first work, Poruthunna Soundaryam, was published in 1949. He became a college lecturer in 1957 and continued as an academician for the next 30 years. He started writing lyrics for films in 1955 and over the years has bagged state awards for the best lyricist 12 times.

Reacting to his winning the Jnanpith, Kurup said, “I am writing for better days for humankind. I am still drawing inspiration for writing from the life of my coastal village. The award is recognition of the Malayalam language.”

Full report here Indian Express

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'Whore' comment on Indian writers can't be ignored

Disparaging remarks by a prominent academic about Hindi female writers highlight the barriers faced by women

Writing about sex has often been problematic for women writers in India. Our literary world is currently stirred-up over the remarks of Vibhuti Narain Rai, the vice-chancellor of a prestigious university. In a recent interview, Rai stated that over the past few years Hindi women writers have vied to prove that each is a bigger "chinaal" than the other. chinaal is an Urdu word that may be translated to mean "adulterous woman" or "whore". Referring to a well-known woman writer's autobiography, Rai said the work should have been titled Kitne Bistaron Mein Kitni Baar ("How many times in how many beds"). In casual conversation, such comments might have been ignored but they were part of an interview in Naya Gyanoday, a literary monthly published by Bharatiya Jnanpith, an organisation that awards some of India's most important literary prizes.

Women writers in India have not had it easy. Freedom of expression has come, in dribbles, after long struggles. In many quarters, it still requires a great deal of gumption to write about the body, sex and sexuality. More than 200 writers have demanded the expulsion of both Rai and the editor of Naya Gyanoday. About 100 have boycotted Bharatiya Jnanpith and its awards. Both Rai and Bharatiya Jnanpith's director have been sent a criminal notice by a district court for intentionally defaming women writers. What this will lead to is uncertain but the incident throws up vital questions about women's freedom, education and power.

Full report here Guardian

Adeus Ravindrabab

Literary giant and Goa's only Jnanpith award winner Ravindra Kelekar passed away on Friday. 

The end for the Konkani stalwart came at 11.30am and his mortal remains will be consigned to the flames at noon on Saturday. The police will reverse their arms and bugles will be sounded to the last post as the pyre is lit at his village of Priol in Ponda taluka.

A Gandhian activist and freedom fighter who participated in the Indian freedom movement and Goa's struggle for liberation, Kelekar also led from the front in the anti-merger campaign of the newly-formed Union territory with Maharashtra and in the battle for recognition of the official language.

Paying rich tributes to Kelekar's immense contribution to Konkani literature and Goan culture in general, chief minister Digambar Kamat declared a public holiday on Saturday and all government offices closed after lunch on Friday as a mark of respect to mourn Kelekar's death. Sources said the holiday is applicable only to government offices and educational institutions like schools and colleges.

Full report here Times of India 

Konkani litterateur Ravindra Kelekar presented Jnanpith Award

“Literature is not only the mirror of the society, but it also has to do the ‘hand-holding,' and lead and show the way to society,” Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar told a gathering in Panaji on Saturday.

Ms. Kumar was presenting the prestigious Jnanpith Award to octogenarian Konkani litterateur Ravindra Kelekar in the presence of Chief Minister Digambar Kamat at a glittering function held in the city on Saturday, July 31.

Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker Pratapsingh Rane, Jnanpith selection board chairman Sitakant Mahapatra and Hindi writer Namwar Singh were among those present.

The 42nd Jnanpith Award for 2006 carried a citation, shawl, srifal, a bronze idol of Vagdevi Saraswati and a cash prize of Rs. 7 lakh.

Ms. Kumar congratulated Mr. Kelekar and said that his literature reflected culture, principles of non-violence and Buddha's teachings.

Referring to caste and social discrimination prevalent in the country, the Speaker recalled and echoed the views of her late father Babu Jagjivan Ram as to why a renaissance could not take place in India.

Full report here Hindu

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Humane visionary

For Vinda Karandikar, poetry was a serious game. He played it earnestly and fought his battles, resulting in a rich tapestry of colours, sounds, feelings and ideas. A tribute to the poet who passed away last month at the age of 92…

It is a supreme irony that Govind Vinayak (Vinda) Karandikar, prolific poet, eminent critic, sophisticated thinker and creative translator, won the Jnanpeeth Award for Ashtadarshane (Eight Philosophies), a collection that came 20 years after he had announced his retirement.

He had intended Virupika (Distortions) to be his last collection. “I believe I have done what little I could in the field of poetry”, he wrote in the preface. His admirers grieved but hailed it as a rare and brave decision for an artist to take. Yet, to their joy (mixed with some dismay), he came right back with Ashtadarshane. He called these eight poems explicating the philosophies of Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Bergson and Charvak, an old man's game. The outcome of the game won him the country's most prestigious award.

Word games
In a sense, the entire body of Vinda Karandikar's work may be seen as a grand and serious game. He played with metres, words, forms, ideas. The result was a poetry rich in colour, sound, smell, feel, thought and emotion. In one of his poems, he pleads ardently for words to express the myriad shades of human life he sees around him — grey words, black words, happy, tasty, pregnant words. Words alone can marry abstract thought to concrete utterance to bring forth a sacred union.

Full report here Hindu

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Bhau lived every moment to the full, says Vinda's granddaughter

Marathi poet Govind Karandikar dies

Marathi poet Govind Vinayak Karandikar passed away in Mumbai on Sunday following a brief illness.He was 92.

The famous Marathi poet, born on August 23, 1918, breathed his last at the Bhabha hospital here. Karandikar, who was also known as Vinda, was the winner of the 39th Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary recognition. He was the most experimental and comprehensive among all the modern Marathi poets. He was also an essayist, critic and translator.

He translated Aristotle's poetry into Marathi. He also translated his own poems into English and wrote poetry in English (Vinda's Poems, 1975). Karandikar was the third Marathi writer to have won the Jnanpith award after Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar (1974) and Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar (1987).

Full report here PTI


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Three win Navlekhan awards

Bhartiya Jnanpith's 2008 Navlekhan awards were presented on March 14. The awards, given to first-time young litterateurs, were presented by the Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit.

The winners were poets Ravikant and Umashanker Chaudhary and novelist Vimal Chandra Pandey.

At the awards, poet Ashok Bajpai spoke about the rising popularity of Hindi literature in the past few years, significant in the face of the state of vernacular literature. Jnanpith director Ravinder Kalia spoke of the response to the books published by Jnanpith last year by first time poets and novelists.

The Navlekhan awards were earlier called Yuva awards. While Ravikant's Yatra and Chaudhary's Kehte Hai Tab Shahenshah So Rahe The got a cash prize of Rs 21,000 each, Pandey's novel Darr got him Rs 25,000.

10 other first-time authors were published by Jnanpith this year. Thwey too were felicitated at the ceremony.