Representational image.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The omission of Bengali literature in the 2024 Sahitya Akademi Award has stirred up a controversy in West Bengal’s literary circles. This is the first time the prestigious award has excluded Bengali literary works and writers in the last 52 years.
On Saturday, March 8, 2025, 23 recipients across regional language categories were awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for 2024 in a ceremony at the “Sahityostav: Festival of Letters” event in New Delhi. Winners were given prize money worth Rs 1 lakh, a shawl, and a plaque.
However, questions have been raised on why Bengali — conferred the status of classical language by the Government of India in 2024 — was omitted from the list for 2024.
The Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi has cited “technical issues” as the reason behind the omission of Bengali writers in the list of awardees for 2024.
However, according to sources, one of the three voting members of the jury committee tasked to decide the Bengali language awardee for 2024 had stepped down at the penultimate moment, leading to an indefinite postponement of the decision surrounding the Bengali language winner. The reason behind the jury member’s controversial withdrawal is unknown and has led to widespread speculation in literary circles.
On March 15, the State Committee of the West Bengal Democratic Writers Artists Association wrote to the Secretary of the Sahitya Akademi in New Delhi K. Srininvasa Rao demanding clarification on the omission of Bengali literature.
“The exclusion of Bengali literature and writers from the 2024 Sahitya Akademi Award has led to disappointment, shock and worry across the country. According to an official statement, Bengali had to be omitted due to a technical or procedural issue… however, since these institutions are funded by the country’s taxpayers, the common people have a right to know about the issues surrounding decisions of the Akademi,” president of the writers’ body Pabitra Sarkar and general secretary Rajat Bandopadhyay said in the letter, penned in Bengali.
They also raised questions on whether any Bengali literary work was nominated at all, and why no opportunity was granted to correct and resolve the alleged “technical issue” cited by the Akademi.
In the letter, Mr. Sarkar and Mr. Bandopadhyay also asked whether the Akademi has the power to object to an “undeserving and politically biased nomination” for any language category, leading to further speculation around the nominations being considered by the Bengali jury committee.
Additionally, journalist and former member of the general council of the Sahitya Akademi, Anadiranjan Biswas, has filed an application to the Akademi under the Right to Information Act, posing multiple questions on the omission of Bengali and demanding clarification on whether any Bengali literary work was nominated for the 2024 awards at all.
In the past, Bengali literature was omitted from the list of Sahitya Akademi Awards in three instances, in 1960, 1968 and 1973.
Published – March 20, 2025 09:37 am IST