Only the deserving should get Jnanpith: Ananthamurthy

Jnanpith award recipient U.R. Ananthamurthy on Saturday said that “the undeserving should not be given the Jnanpith award”.

Participating in a programme organised by the Karnataka Sahitya Academy, the Kannada Postgraduation Centre and the Kannada Department of Sheshadripuram College to release a volume on Mr. Ananthamurthy, the writer himself said that when he got the Jnanpith, Pu. Ti. Narasimhachar, one of the trios of Kannada Navodaya literature, was still alive. He had all the qualifications to get the coveted highest literary award.

“All the great writers, who were influential in their time, failed to win the Jnanpith. This includes the pioneers of the Modernist movement, Gopalakrishna Adiga, P. Lankesh and Poornachandra Tejaswi. They deserved to get this highest literary prize.” He later added: “Only the deserving should be conferred the Jnanpith.”

‘Indebted'

On a confessional mode, Mr. Ananthamurthy admitted that rereading one of the greatest short story writers of Karnataka, Masti Venkatesh Iyengar, he felt that he was a novice and had to learn the skills of writing from scratch.

“It was friends such as G.S. Siddalingaiah and K.V. Subbanna who introduced me to the cream of Kannada literature. I cannot wish away the days that I spent with Gopalakrishna Adiga. I am deeply indebted to my friends who groomed me through their critical appreciation of my works,” he said.

Study in contrasts

Kuvempu and Kambar, he said, who came from the poorer sections of society, fashioned their writings with perceptions entirely different from each other.

While Kuvempu rested his faith in development, Kambar was highly sceptical about modernity. This is very clear as it comes through in their writings, he said.

Plaudits

Describing Mr. Ananthamurthy as a “symbol of contemporary conscience”, chairman, Karnataka Sahitya Academy, M.H. Krishnaiah, said: “It is a privilege to have a person of his calibre in our midst.”

Shudra Srinivas, author of the book, said, “Nobody can write in Malnad diction like Ananthamurthy and he might be the last writer in this line. Both Ananthamurthy and Lankesh shaped my sensibilities,” he admitted.

In his lecture on Mr. Ananthamurthy's works, Prof. Siddalingaiah said that after Gopalakrishna Adiga, it was Mr. Ananthamurthy who expanded the horizon of modern Kannada literature. “Ananthamurthy's love for literature is akin to Da.Ra. Bendre, another Jnanpith recipient.”