Sahitya Akademi Awards

About

Sahitya Akademi Award, established in 1954, is conferred on 24 writers in 24 languages annually for the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the major Indian languages recognised by the Akademi.
The Sahitya Akademi award is the second-highest literary honour by the Government of India, after the Jnanpith award.
Each Award carries a plaque, shawl, citation and a Cheque for Rs. One Lakh [₹ 1,00,000].
Sahitya Akademi Award was first presented in 1955 and has been presented uninterrupted in all the languages recognized by Sahitya Akademi at a given time.
So far 1239 books have been awarded Sahitya Akademi Award in all the 24 languages.
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.

Procedure for Selection

For each language the ground list is prepared by two experts.
Then the concerned language advisory board members forward their own lists based on the ground list provided by the experts.
The same is sent to the Preliminary Panel comprising 10 scholars in that language.
The recommendations of the Preliminary Panel are placed before a 3-member jury and the jury selects one from those recommendations.

Eligibility for the Award

The book must be a remarkable contribution to the language and literature to which it belongs.
The book must be first published in any of the languages recognised by the Sahitya Akademi during the five years prior to the year, immediately receding the year of the award.
The literary work should be written by an Indian and published in India.
The book or literary work should not be a work of translation or an anthology of multiple authors
When two or more books are equally good, the total literary contribution and standing of the authors of the books will be considered to decide the award.

Sahitya Akademi

The Sahitya Akademi, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India.
It is India’s National Academy of Letters, founded on 12 March 1954.
It is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government.
It is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Culture
Its office is located in Rabindra Bhavan near Mandi House in Delhi.
It publishes two bimonthly literary journals: Indian Literature in English and Samkaleen Bharatiya Sahitya in Hindi.

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