Shankha Ghosh conferred with 52nd Jnanpith Award

The Jnanpith Selection Board on 23 December 2016 conferred the 52nd Jnanpith Award on eminent modern Bengali poet Shankha Ghosh.

An announcement in this regard was made at a meeting of the board chaired by noted scholar, writer and critic Prof. Namwar Singh.

With this announcement, the award returned to Bengal after a gap of 20 years. Before Ghosh, noted Bengali fiction writer and social activist Mahasweta Devi won the award in 1996.

About Shankha Ghosh

• Born in 1932, Shankha Ghosh is a prolific poet, critic and academician.

• He is an authority on Tagore, whose poetic idiom and experiments with various poetic forms mark his greatness as a creative talent.

• His poems convey messages but free of polemics.

• Ghosh is a poet with an eye to the social milieu and his poems record both his time and space in a rare poetic style.

• Murkho Baro, Samajik Noy and Baborer Prarthana are some of his classic creations.

• Dinguli Raatguli and Nihita Patalchaya are among those creations which have inspired a whole generation of modern poetry due to their unique form and feeling.

• His poems have been translated into many Indian languages that include Hindi, Assamese, Punjabi and Malayalam.

• His works have been translated into many foreign languages as well.

• He is a recipient of many coveted awards that include Narsingh Das Puraskar, Sahitya Akademi Award and Saraswati Samman

About Jnanpith Award

• It is India’s one of the prestigious awards in the field of literature.

• The name of the award is derived from two Sanskrit words – Jnana and Pitha – which mean knowledge-seat.

• The award was instituted by the Bharatiya Jnanpith trust in 1961.

• The award is given to any Indian citizen who writes in any of the 22 languages mentioned in the VIII Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

• The award includes a cash prize of 11 lakh rupees, a citation plaque and a bronze replica of Saraswati.

• The 51st Jnanpith Award was conferred on renowned Gujarati writer Dr Raghuveer Chaudhari.