Sahitya Akademi award returned
Uday Chopra, Nayantara Sahgal, Sarah Joseph and Ashok VajpeyiWiki Commons
Over the past one week, disgruntled writers and poets across the country have returned the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award to protest the increasing incidents of communal violence in .
Several elite writers and poets have also resigned their posts in the 20-member General Council of the country’s top literary body, saying that they were shocked at the level of intolerance on freedom of speech and expression.
Hindi writer Uday Prakash was the first to return the prestigious award. Writer Nayantara Sahgal and poet Ashok Vajpeyi followed Prakash in protesting the murders of rationalists like MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar. They also came out against the shocking Dadri incident, in which a mob lynched a Muslim man in Greater Noida over rumours of eating and storing beef.
At least 17 authors  have returned the prestigious Akademi award, while four have resigned elite posts of the organisation.
Here is the list of litterateurs who returned their Sahitya Akademi Awards*
NoLitterateurLanguage
1Uday PrakashHindi writer
2Nayantara SahgalIndian English writer
3Ashok VajpeyiHindi poet
4Sarah JosephMalayalam novelist
5Ghulam Nabi KhayalKashmiri writer
6Rahman AbbasUrdu novelist
7Waryam SandhuPunjabi writer
8Gurbachan Singh BhullarPunjabi writer
9Ajmer Singh AulakhPunjabi writer
10Atamjit SinghPunjabi writer
11GN Ranganatha RaoKannada translator
12Mangalesh DabralHindi writer
13Rajesh JoshiHindi writer
14Ganesh DevyGujarati writer
15Srinath DNKannada translator
16

17
Kumbar Veerabhadrappa
Aman Sethi
Kannada novelist
 Author

The list does not include six Kannada writers who returned the State literary award on 3 October.
List of litterateurs who resigned from Sahitya Akademi posts
NoLitterateurLanguage
1Shashi DeshpandeKannada author
2K SatchidanandanMalayalam poet
3PK ParakkadvuMalayalam writer
4Aravind MalagattiKannada poet