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Nine more scholars return Sahitya Akademi award

by IBNS 11 Oct 2015, 08:51 pm

New Delhi, Oct 12 (IBNS) Nine more scholars have returned Sahitya Akademy award over rising intolerance and communal disharmony taking the number of protesting writers who have disowned the coveted prize to 15.

In the latest development, Hindi poets Mangalesh Darbal and Rajesh Joshi,  eminent author G N Devy, short story writer  Gurbachan Singh Bhullar, Konkani writer N Shivdas, Kannada writer Kum Veerabhadrappa and Punjabi playwrights Atamjit Singh and Ajmer Singh Aulakh and Punjabi short story writer Waryam Singh Sandhu returned the awards on Sunday.

"I am returning the award as a protest against growing intoleracne," Devy, A 1993 winner of Sahitya Akademy, told CNN-IBN.

All the writers have protested against Sahitya Akademy's silence on the recent lynching in Uttar Pradesh Dadri over rumours of cow slaughter and the murder of author M M Kalburgi, allegedly for his rationalist views.

Earlier, six other Sahitya Akademy winners, including Nayantara Sahgal and Shashi Deshpande returned their awards.