Congress leader and writer Shashi Tharoor received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his book An Era of Darkness, on Tuesday. He took to social media to share a few pictures and said he was greatly honoured.
Greatly honoured to receive the @sahityaakademi Award today for #AnEraOfDarkness. Such a joy that my mother & sister Shobha could be there, as also aunt AnjolieElaMenon & uncle Admiral Raja Menon. pic.twitter.com/hKL8jXUIsX
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) February 25, 2020
In another tweet, he shared pictures of himself with eminent poet and lyricist Gulzar. “A rare pleasure that the @sahityaakademi ceremony’s Chief Guest this year is the much-admired poet, lyricist & creative film-maker Gulzar ji. Adds special meaning to the occasion to have his blessings, both as an eminent man of letters & as a wonderful human being!,” he wrote.
Greatly honoured to receive the @sahityaakademi Award today for #AnEraOfDarkness. Such a joy that my mother & sister Shobha could be there, as also aunt AnjolieElaMenon & uncle Admiral Raja Menon. pic.twitter.com/hKL8jXUIsX
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) February 25, 2020
Tharoor's An Era of Darkness won the award in the creative non-fiction category in English literature. The book talks about the effect of British rule in India and how the colonisers exploited the country. "An Era of Darkness offers a radical re-evaluation of the British rule in India, making readers look at the entire historical and cultural legacy of the colonial era in a new light, blasting the conventional myths of the Empire as a civilizing force," the Akademi said in a statement. Tharoor is also the author of many bestsellers like Why I Am A Hindu, The Paradoxical Prime Minister and Inglorious Empire: What the British Did in India.
The award includes an engraved copper plaque, shawl and Rs 1 lakh. The award, instituted by the National Academy of Letters, is one of the highest literary awards in the country.
As many as 23 works from different languages were chosen for the award this time. This included seven books of poetry, four novels, six short stories, three essays and three works of non-fiction. The awards were announced in December last year.
The works of poetry that were honoured were by Dr Phukan Ch. Basumatry (Bodo), Dr Nand Kishore Acharya (Hindi), Nilba A. Khandekar (Konkani), Kumar Manish Arvind (Maithili), V. Madhusoodanan Nair (Malayalam), Anuradha Patil (Marathi) and Prof Penna Madhusudan (Sanskrit).
Novels were by Dr Joysree Goswami Mahanta (Assamese), L. Birmangol Singh (Manipuri), Cho. Dharman (Tamil) and Bandi Narayana Swamy (Telugu). Books of short stories by Abdul Ahad Hajini (Kashmiri), Tarun Kanti Mishra (Odia), Kirpal Kazak (Punjabi), Ramsawroop Kisan (Rajasthani), Kali Charan Hembram (Santali) and Ishwar Moorjani (Sindhi) were selected as well. An autobiography by Dr Vijaya (Kannada) and a biography by Prof Shafey Kidwai (Urdu) were also among the winners.
