By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi : Two Muslim writers have been selected among others representing 23 Indian languages for this year’s Sahitya Akademi award. Bashir Bhaderwahi for his Kashmiri critique of “Jamis ta Kasheeri Manz Kashir Natia Adabuk Tawareekh” and Shamim Tariq for his Urdu critique of “Tasawwuf Aur Bhakti (Tanqeedi aur Taqabuli Mutalea)” are among those honoured with Sahitya Akademi award 2015.
Shamim Tariq is a noted Urdu poet, critic and columnist from Mumbai who has significant contributions and achievements to his credit, while Bashir Bhaderwahi is a renowned Kashmiri poet and writer.
On Thursday, December 17, Sahitya Akademi had announced its annual awards in 23 languages, with the winner in Bangla to be announced later. Six books of short stories, six poetry books, four novels and two books each of essays, criticism and plays and one of memoirs have won the award.
Others who have been selected for the award include Brajendra Kumar Brahma (Bodo), Dhian Singh (Dogri), Ramdarash Mishra (Hindi), K.V. Tirumalesh (Kannada), Kshetri Rajan (Manipuri) and Ram Shankar Awasthi (Sanskrit) for poetry.
Six writers were awarded for their short stories: Kula Saikia (Assamese), Man Mohan Jha (Maithili), Gupta Pradhan (Nepali), Bibhuti Pattanaik (Odia), Maya Rahi (Sindhi) and Volga (Telugu). The award winning novelists are Cyrus Mistry (English), Jaswinder Singh (Punjabi) and Madhu Acharya ‘Ashawadi’ (Rajasthani), Rasik Shah (Gujrati), A. Madhavan (Tamil) have been awarded for essays, Uday Bhembre (Konkani), Rabilal Tudu (Santali) for their plays, and Arun Khopkar (Marathi) for his book on memoirs.