Shashi Tharoor, a member of the Indian National Congress (INC) and a writer, on the 18th of December, won the 2019 Sahitya Akademi Award for his creative non fiction work An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India.

On the 18th of December, the Sahitya Akademi released a press note and announced its annual Sahitya Akademi Award for works written in 23 languages.

The Sahitya Akademi Award is one of the highest literary awards in India given for literary works by Indian writers in any of the major 23 languages of India.  The Sahitya Akademi Award has been instituted by the Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters, since 1954.

The winners of the Sahitya Akademi Award get an engraved copper plaque, a shawl and Rs. 1 lakh prize.  Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray designed the copper plaque which the winners are awarded. 

Shashi Tharoor won the Award for his creative non fiction work in English.  The other 22 winners won the Award for their literary work in 22 other major languages of India.

 The Award and the prize would be given to all the winners during an event, ‘Festival of Letters,’  organised by the Sahitya Akademi on the 25th of January, 2020.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Categorized in: