By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: Is there any shortage of Arabic and Persian scholars in the country who can be named for ‘Maharishi Badrayan Vyas Samman’—a prestigious annual Presidential award? Not at all, claimed a group of senior Arabic and Persian scholars who are upset as no scholar from the two languages has been selected for the award for past several years.
If they are not being recommended for the award it is the result of negligence from award selection panel otherwise there are many who deserve the award, they say.
The Maharishi Badrayan Vyas Samman is a presidential award which was instituted in 2002 aiming to encourage young scholars below age of 40 who have worked to bridge the gap between the ancient and the modern especially using scientific principles. The award is given to five scholars in Sanskrit, one in Pali and one each in Arabic and Persian every year.
Since 2007 no Arabic scholar has been named for the award and almost the same happened with Persian as barring 2009 no Persian scholar received this award since 2007 while there should be one every year from the two languages. The quota for Arabic in 2003 and for Persian in 2005 also went empty.
Syed Akhtar Husain, President All India Arabic & Persian Scholars’ Association and associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University expressed his strong anguish against this apathy. Besides, SA Hasan who heads the Persian Scholars Association, Mahmood Alam, and SA Rahman, both recipients of Presidential certificate of honour also expressed the same feelings.
They wrote to the Prime Minister, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal demanding their intervention in the matter. They urged them to review the functioning of the award selection panel.
On its part HRD Ministry said that selection for the award is done by an independent award selection panel and they cannot interfere in the panel’s work.
It also informed that this year selection has been done by a panel headed by former Chief Justice of India MN Venkatachaliah and the panel concluded that most nominees in the Persian or Arabic category are undeserving of the award, because their work is unrelated to science.
Year-wise list of Arabic and Persian awardees
|
Year |
Persian |
Arabic |
|
2002 |
Dr. Md. Ejaz Ahmad, Patna |
Dr. Abdul Majid Qazi, New Delhi |
|
2003 |
Dr. Abdul Halim, New Delhi |
No one |
|
2004 |
Dr. Zohra Khatoon, New Delhi |
Dr. Wali Akhtar, New Delhi |
|
2005 |
No one |
Dr. Syed Rashid Naseem, |
|
2006 |
Dr. Syed Kaleem Asghar, Jamia |
Dr. Mohd. Sanaullah, Aligarh |
|
2007 |
No one |
No one |
|
2008 |
No one |
No one |
|
2009 |
Dr. Asad Ali Khurshid |
No one |
|
2010 |
No one |
No one |
[Photo by en.mastersinleiden.nl]