• President Droupadi Murmu presented the 58th Jnanpith Award to renowned poet-lyricist Gulzar and Sanskrit scholar Jagadguru Rambhadracharya for the year 2023.

• Gulzar was not able to attend the ceremony due to health-related issues.

• Hindi author Vinod Kumar Shukla has been named the recipient of the 59th Jnanpith Award for the year 2024.

Jnanpith Award

• Bharatiya Jnanpith is one of the premier literary organisations of India, which is nurturing literature and culture through its literary endeavors, which include awards, publication, fellowship and research for the last several decades. The organisation was established in 1944.

• Jnanpith Award is regarded as the most prestigious literary award in India, which is given every year, to an author for his/her outstanding contribution towards Indian literature through creative writing in any of the Indian languages mentioned in Schedule VIII of Indian Constitution and English.

• It was instituted in 1961.

• The first recipient of the award was Malayalam poet G. Sankara Kurup, who received the award in 1965 for his collection of poems Odakkuzhal.

• Assamese poet Nilmani Phookan Jr won the 56th Jnanpith Award and Konkani novelist Damodar Mauzo, who hails from Goa, won the 57th Jnanpith Award.

• Malayalam poet Akkitham Achuthan Nampoothiri has won the Jnanpith Award in 2019. Amitav Ghosh received the award in 2018. Ghosh is the first writer in English to win the prestigious award.

The process of selection

• Only those creative writers, who are alive and are Indian citizens, can be proposed for the Award.

• The Award is to be given to an author for outstanding contribution towards literarure.

• A language which receives the Award in a particular year is not eligible for consideration for the next two years. 

• A writer who receives the Award once will not be considered again.

• The Award may not be given in a particular year if the Jnanpith Award Selection Board feels that there is no suitable name which comes up to the expected standard of the Award.

• The process of selection is broadly as follows: There is an advisory committee for each language, consisting of three eminent scholars and/or critics, which scans the proposals received in response to this letter. The committee is free to consider any other writer eligible in accordance with the Rules of the Award.

• In fact, a Language Advisory Committee is expected to ensure that no deserving writer of the language concerned is left out of consideration. 

• Recommendations of various Language Advisory Committees are screened and evaluated by the Jnanpith Award Selection Board, consisting of eminent scholars and writers. 

• Wherever necessary, selected writings of the proposed writers are translated into Hindi or English, wholly or in part. The Selection Board takes into account the totality of an author’s creative writing and its literary merit in the context of contemporary Indian writing is not restricted to committee’s recommendations.

• The Selection Board is the final authority for the selection.

Gulzar

• Sampooran Singh Kalra, popularly known as Gulzar, is celebrated for his works in Hindi cinema and considered one of the finest Urdu poets of this era. 

• Gulzar, 90, received Sahitya Akademi Award for Urdu in 2002, Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2013, Padma Bhushan in 2004, and a number of National Film awards for his works.

• Some of his finest works include the song ‘Jai Ho’ for film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, which received an Oscar award in 2009 and Grammy Award in 2010, and songs for critically acclaimed films as ‘Maachis’ (1996), ‘Omkara’ (2006), ‘Dil Se’ (1998), and ‘Guru’ (2007), among others.

• Gulzar also directed some award-winning films, including ‘Koshish’ (1972), ‘Parichay’ (1972), ‘Mausam’ (1975), ‘Ijaazat’ (1977), and television serial ‘Mirza Ghalib’ (1988).

• Along with his long film journey, Gulzar has been setting new milestones in the field of literature. In poetry, he invented a new genre ‘Triveni’ which is a non-mukaffa poem of three lines. Gulzar has always created something new through his poetry. For some time now he has also been paying serious attention to children’s poetry. 

Jagadguru Rambhadracharya

• Rambhadracharya, 75, the founder and head of Tulsi Peeth in Chitrakoot, is a renowned Hindu spiritual leader, educator and writer of more than 240 books and texts, including four epics.

• Rambhadracharya is one of the present four Jagadguru Ramanandacharyas of the Ramananda sect and has been holding this position since 1982.

• A polyglot, who speaks 22 languages, Rambhadracharya is a poet and writer in several Indian languages including Sanskrit, Hindi, Awadhi, and Maithili.

• In 2015, he received the Padma Vibhushan award.

• He was named Giridhara Misra. He lost his eyesight at the age of two months due to trachoma and was home tutored during initial years by his grandfather.

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