Announcing nominations for a newly instituted literary prize for Hindi translations of books written in Indian languages, the Bank of Baroda Rashtrabhasha Samman Award 2023 has become the latest entrant to the club that has grown rapidly over the past 15 years. A total of 12 titles in Odia, Urdu, Punjabi, Nepali, Bengali, Marathi and Tamil have been longlisted, with the winner set to be announced on June 11.
Pan Macmillan India editorial director Teesta Guha Sarkar says when she began her publishing career in 2009, there were just three or four major Indian literary awards. “Today that number has more than doubled.”
The list of these awards ranges from those given away by the state, such as the Sahitya Akademi Award, started in 1954, to privately-managed ones like the Jnanpith Award (1965) and the JCB Prize for Literature (2018), among others. An award to recognise the work done by LGBTQIA+ writers, The Rainbow Awards for Literature & Journalism, was also announced last month.
Mita Kapur, literary director of the JCB Prize for Literature, says the focus of the award is to recognise excellence in contemporary fiction, giving equal weight to translations. “We need more awards. Authors need to be viewed as changemakers and be given the recognition they deserve. The awards need to impact book sales,” she says. The JCB Prize gives ₹25 lakh to the winning author and ₹10 lakh to the translator.
Recognising translations
The Bank of Baroda Rashtrabhasha Samman Award will be presented to both the author of the original work and its Hindi translator. The author and translator will receive ₹21 lakh and ₹15 lakh respectively. The authors and translators of the next best five books will receive ₹3 lakh and ₹2 lakh each, respectively.
Bank of Baroda MD and CEO Sanjiv Chadha says the award offers a national platform to talented Indian writers from different parts of the country, giving a boost to Indian language literature, and encouraging literary translations. “We believe that the promotion of literature across Indian languages helps strengthen our multiculturalism.”
amarjot.kaur@thehindu.co.in
