First Tagore Lit Awards in 8 regional languages

Eight Indian language writers have won the first Tagore literature awards.

New Delhi: Eight Indian language writers were on Monday awarded the first Tagore literature awards 2009 for best literary works as part of a joint initiative between India and South Korea.

Instituted by Sahitya Akademi and Samsung Electronics, the awards given away by South Korea`s First lady Kim Yoon-ok carries a prize money of Rs 91,000, a trophy and a citation. Alok Sarkar (Bengali), Brajendra Kumar Brahma (Bodo) Bhagwandas Patel (Gujarati), Rajee Seth (Hindi), Naseem Shafai (Kashmiri), Chandrasekhar Kambar (Kannada), Jaswant Singh Kanwal (Punjabi) and Kovela Suprasannacharya (Telugu). "The legendary poet, philosopher, composer and artist Rabindranath Tagore is as revered in Korea as he is in India. The awards are celebrating the power of literature to unify peolple across religions, regions and cultures," said YW Lee Vice Chairman, CEO, Samsung Electronics. Tagore had in 1929 in his poem called Korea the lamp which illuminates the East and effected a resurgence of Korean nationalism. The annual award from this year onwards will recognise the literary contribution of writers in eight Indian languages - thus covering all the 24 official languages of the country at the end of the third year. Sunil Gangopadhyaya, President, Sahitya Akademi, said "the selection process is completely democratic with three jury members each for eight languages along with a total of 84 members on the advisory board which includes 10 members for each language except Hindi which has 14 advisory members." Welcoming the idea of the South Korean government and Samsung for insituting the award, Gangopadhyaya said "if any other coutnry or other business house agrees to give more awards to more writers, we are happy to welcome them." The award ceremony hosted by actress Nandana Sen, daughter of Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen, was followed by a recitation of Tagore`s poetry by an Indian and a South Korean child and also sarod rendition of a collection of Rabindra Sangeet by Aman and Ayan Ali Khan. PTI