Announcing the nominations for a newly established literary award for Hindi translation of books written in Indian languages, the Bank of Baroda Rashtrabhasha Samman Puraskar 2023 becomes the latest member of the club, which has grown exponentially over the past 15 years. A total of 12 titles in Odia, Urdu, Punjabi, Nepali, Bengali, Marathi and Tamil have been longlisted, the winner of which will be announced on 11 June.
Teesta Guha Sarkar, editorial director of Pan Macmillan India, says that when she started her publishing career in 2009, there were only three or four major Indian literary awards. “Today that number has more than doubled.”
The list of these awards ranges from state-granted awards such as the Sahitya Akademi Award, started in 1954, to privately managed awards such as the Jnanpith Award (1965) and the JCB Award for Literature (2018), among others. The Rainbow Awards for Literature and Journalism, an award to recognize work by LGBTQIA+ writers, was also announced last month.
Meeta Kapoor, Literary Director, JCB Prize for Literature, says the focus of the prize is to recognize excellence in contemporary fiction, giving equal importance to translation. “We need more awards. Authors should be seen as changemakers and given the recognition they deserve. Awards need to impact book sales,” she says. JCB gives ₹25 lakh to the award winning writer and ₹10 lakh to the translator.
recognize translations
Bank of Baroda Rashtrabhasha Samman Award will be given to both the author of the original work and its Hindi translator. Writer and translator will get ₹21 lakh and ₹15 lakh respectively. The authors and translators of the next best five books will get ₹3 lakh and ₹2 lakh respectively.
Sanjeev Chadha, MD & CEO, Bank of Baroda, says that the award provides a national platform to talented Indian writers from different parts of the country, thereby promoting Indian language literature and promoting literary translation. “We believe that promotion of literature in Indian languages helps in strengthening our multiculturalism.”
amarjot.kaur@thehindu.co.in