Hindi writer Krishna Sobti to get Jnanpith Award
CHANDIGARH: Renowned Hindi littérateur Krishna Sobti has been chosen for this year’s Jnanpith Award, the Jnanpith Selection Board announced on Friday.
“The Jnanpith Selection Board has announced the recipient of the 53rd Jnanpith Award for the year 2017 today in a meeting. It went to eminent Hindi Litterateur Krishna Sobti,” the board said in a statement.
Born in 1925 in Gujarat, now in Pakistan, Sobti, 92, is known for experimenting with new writing styles and creating “bold” and “daring” characters in her stories who were ready to accept all challenges.
Her language is highly influenced by the intermingling of Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi cultures.
“Sobti is a path-breaking novelist. She has immensely enriched Hindi literature,” a statement by the board chaired by noted scholar and critic Namwar Singh, said.
CHANDIGARH: Finally bestowed with the Jnanpith Award, Hindi writer Krishna Sobti’s works have for long reflected her deep roots in Punjab. Sobti, 92, was born in Gujrat region of pre-Partition Punjab and has liberally used Punjabi dialect and terminologies while writing in Hindi.
Even the announcement made by Bharatiya Jnanpith on Friday said, “The language used by Sobti in her creations is influenced by intermingling of Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi culture.”
“Not only the places but the language she uses in her writing is telling of her Punjabi inheritance. Even titles such as Mitro Marjani are words taken from Punjabi,” said poet Surjit Patar, who is chairman of Punjab Art Council, adding, “It’s an honour for us Punjabis that Sobti has been awarded with Jnanpith Award. She should have been awarded long time ago.”
Known for her works ‘Zindaginama’, ‘Dil-o-Danish’, ‘E Ladki’, among others, she had her first short story published in 1944. The same year, she wrote one of her most famous stories, ‘Sikka Badal Gaya’, on Partition.
Her new book, released this year, is named ‘Gujrat Pakistan se Gujarat Hindustan’. It tells the story of her life journey, and the journey of those who became homeless in their own country.
She had once refused to compromise even when a publisher sought to alter the language of one of her works to chaste Hindi.
ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT
Chaman Lal, a retired professor from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and now a fellow of Panjab University, too said the award has been given belatedly. “Sobti is one of the most upright writers. She has written widely on Partition and Punjab. She has always stood up to communal forces and reflected the liberal atmosphere of Punjab.”
Sobti had returned the Sahitya Akademi Award and even the fellowship in 2015, protesting the Dadri lynching and the killing of Kannada writer MM Kalburgi. She declined Padma Bhushan — the country’s third highest civilian honour — in 2010, keeping her distance from the establishment.
FEUD WITH AMRITA
Her novel ‘Zindaginama’, for which Sobti was given Sahitya Akademi Award in 1980, too focuses on life in the Gujrat region of undivided Punjab in the 1900s. It was translated into Punjabi by novelist Gurdial Singh.
For this particular novel, she had filed a suit in 1984 against Punjabi poet Amrita Pritam who had published a book entitled, ‘Hardatt Ka Zindaginama’, accusing her of stealing the title. The case was decided in favour of Pritam after 26 years, in 2011, six years after Pritam’s death.