Jnanpith Award

Syllabus

Prelims – Current events of national importance

Mains – GS Paper 1 – Various facets of Indian art and culture

Why in News?

A storyteller and eminent Hindi writer, Vinod Kumar Shukla won the Jnanpith award, 1st from Chhattisgarh to win the prize.

• It is India’s highest literary honour, given annually to Indian writers for their outstanding contribution to literature.
• Instituted in – 1961.
• Instituted by – Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, founder of Bharatiya Jnanpith, the oldest and most prestigious literary accolade in India.
• It honors authors for their exceptional contributions to literature in Indian languages listed in the 8^th Schedule (22 languages) of the Constitution.
  • English being included from the 49^th award (2013) onwards.
• Once a language gets the award, it is not eligible for the award for the next 2 years.
• Selection Procedure – Recommendations made by various Language Advisory Committees are placed before the Selection Board it then chooses the awardee for the year.
• The award is not given posthumously, ensuring that it recognizes living writers for their literary excellence.
• Rewards – The Jnanpith award carries with it a cash of Rs 11 lakh, a bronze statue of the Hindu Goddess Vagdevi and a citation.

The first recipient of the Jnanpith Award was Malayalam poet G. Sankara Kurup in 1965; the first woman to receive the award was Ashapurna Devi in 1976.

Contributions of Vinod Kumar Shukla

• Jnanpith Award is being conferred upon him for his outstanding contribution to Hindi literature, creativity and distinctive writing style.
• He won the Sahitya Akademi award in 1999 for his novel Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi.
• Notable works – Naukar Ki Kameez (1979), which was adapted into a film by director Mani Kaul, and the poetry collection Sab Kuch Hona Bacha Rahega (1992).
• His books have been translated to English, Italian and German languages.

Reference

Times of India | 59th Jnanpith Awar