Raju Korti
To refuse or return awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal. This seems to have been the guiding philosophy of those who returned their Sahitya Akademi Awards protesting the "silence" of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Dadri lynching incident.
For most liberals or conservatives, wake up calls come at the politically opportune times. So you can't really fault the likes of Nayantara Sehgal or Ashok Vajpeyi whose otherwise nagging conscience was in deep slumber when the country's political landscape was smeared with black ink right from the days of partition scripted with bloodshed. Thereafter, riots became just another reason in the long list of sharp divides in the country's polity.
I didn't get into writing to win Akademi Awards. Nor is there even a remote possibility of me winning one in future. Award winners are made of different mettle (or metal?). However, as someone who never won any award, I must make it known that an award would be welcome enough never to be returned. In any case, the main purpose of my writing is to seek a conversation with the audience.
If I ever win a Sahitya Akademi Award the thought of returning it will not be entertained whatever the provocation. It is stupid and disgraceful to return an award that was once supposed to have been accepted with all "humility". If you had a conscience in place, you would actually never accept it in the first place because sooner or later -- to your skewed political thinking -- the award would prick you enough to recompense it. That makes for poor reflection and introspection for those who loudly proclaim their political credentials. To my credit, as I have bore time and again, I do not subscribe to a set agenda or any particular theory. When you embrace a particular line of thought without any consideration for the other, you become a slave to it. They are slaves who dare not be in the right with two or three, least of all liberals.
I believe that those who have returned their awards must not only return the mementoes, they should also return the cash amount with interest. At least that will show some righteousness if not a thinker's conscience. The chest beating media seems to have forgotten to ask this question to Sehgal and Vajpeyi. On their part, they too have cleverly kept mum. That is selective conscience.
I have recently authored a magnum opus which I hope is considered for the Sahitya Akademi Award. There are more in the pipeline. Even before the committee considers me worthy of it, I am prepared to give an undertaking to them that "award once accepted will not be returned under any circumstances".
The Sahitya Akademi is an apolitical organization devoted to the cause of Literature. Both Sehgal, Vajpeyi and their ilk forget that they are not given because someone is pro or anti-establishment. But publicity is far better than an award when the time is convenient. More so when the award had already gathered dust in your drawing rooms for years. Awards don't pay a mortgage.
Having said that I earnestly believe that awards are not the only markers of success. My judgments are not based on them. As a writer, I have my own mental trophies.
For me, it’s not about winning an award. It’s also about not even being nominated. But if and when an award comes, it will be a keepsake and not a weapon.
To refuse or return awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal. This seems to have been the guiding philosophy of those who returned their Sahitya Akademi Awards protesting the "silence" of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Dadri lynching incident.
For most liberals or conservatives, wake up calls come at the politically opportune times. So you can't really fault the likes of Nayantara Sehgal or Ashok Vajpeyi whose otherwise nagging conscience was in deep slumber when the country's political landscape was smeared with black ink right from the days of partition scripted with bloodshed. Thereafter, riots became just another reason in the long list of sharp divides in the country's polity.
I didn't get into writing to win Akademi Awards. Nor is there even a remote possibility of me winning one in future. Award winners are made of different mettle (or metal?). However, as someone who never won any award, I must make it known that an award would be welcome enough never to be returned. In any case, the main purpose of my writing is to seek a conversation with the audience.
If I ever win a Sahitya Akademi Award the thought of returning it will not be entertained whatever the provocation. It is stupid and disgraceful to return an award that was once supposed to have been accepted with all "humility". If you had a conscience in place, you would actually never accept it in the first place because sooner or later -- to your skewed political thinking -- the award would prick you enough to recompense it. That makes for poor reflection and introspection for those who loudly proclaim their political credentials. To my credit, as I have bore time and again, I do not subscribe to a set agenda or any particular theory. When you embrace a particular line of thought without any consideration for the other, you become a slave to it. They are slaves who dare not be in the right with two or three, least of all liberals.
I believe that those who have returned their awards must not only return the mementoes, they should also return the cash amount with interest. At least that will show some righteousness if not a thinker's conscience. The chest beating media seems to have forgotten to ask this question to Sehgal and Vajpeyi. On their part, they too have cleverly kept mum. That is selective conscience.
I have recently authored a magnum opus which I hope is considered for the Sahitya Akademi Award. There are more in the pipeline. Even before the committee considers me worthy of it, I am prepared to give an undertaking to them that "award once accepted will not be returned under any circumstances".
The Sahitya Akademi is an apolitical organization devoted to the cause of Literature. Both Sehgal, Vajpeyi and their ilk forget that they are not given because someone is pro or anti-establishment. But publicity is far better than an award when the time is convenient. More so when the award had already gathered dust in your drawing rooms for years. Awards don't pay a mortgage.
Having said that I earnestly believe that awards are not the only markers of success. My judgments are not based on them. As a writer, I have my own mental trophies.
For me, it’s not about winning an award. It’s also about not even being nominated. But if and when an award comes, it will be a keepsake and not a weapon.
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