Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, on Sunday, January 18, announced that the state government would institute a national-level award for literature in Indian languages even as the Sahitya Akademi awards were not declared this year.
In its first phase, the award, titled Semmozhi Literary Award, would be given to literary works in seven languages, namely Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali. The award will also have a cash component of five lakh rupees.
The announcement came at the valedictory session of the fourth Chennai International Book Fair, attended by Booker-winning Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq and delegates from over 100 countries.
“Sad news came from Delhi some time ago. Even as it had been decided and was awaiting announcements, the Sahitya Akademi awards were stopped by the intervention of the Union Ministry of Culture. We do not know if it will be reinstated. Political interference in art is a dangerous trend. In this situation, many artists and writers demanded that the Tamil Nadu government should intervene. We too felt that this is a historic necessity,” Stalin said, announcing the award.
The announcement of the Sahitya Akademi awards was stopped in December, just minutes before a press conference convened to announce this year's winners. The Union Ministry of Culture had said that the awards could not be announced until after restructuring as per a Memorandum of Understanding signed with autonomous institutions under the Ministry.
Stalin highlighted the importance of translations and copyright exchanges, noting that even Banu Mushtaq’s work received international fame only after her book was translated into English.
The theme for this year’s book fair was “A conversation between civilisations”. The book fair saw the signing of 1,830 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) including 1274 MoUs for the translation of Tamil language works into other languages and 260 for the translation of foreign works into Tamil.