History

On 22 May, 1961, the fiftieth birthday of Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, the founder of Bharatiya Jnanpith, members of his family thought that some unique scheme, commanding national prestige and of international standard, should be started in literary and cultural field. Consequently, when on 16 September, 1961, the Board of Trustees was considering matters relating to the ‘Rashtrabharati Granthamala’, which brings out Hindi translations of outstanding works of other Indian languages, Smt. Rama Jain, the Founder President of the Jnanpith, queried whether it was possible to select the best book out of the publications in Indian languages for a big award. A discussion on the question was initiated by Smt. Rama Jain herself when she invited some of the leading litterateurs at her residence in Kolkata on 22 November, 1961. Kaka Kalelkar, Harivansh Rai ‘Bachchan’, Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’, Jainendra Kumar, Jagdish Chandra Mathur, Prabhakar Machwe, Akshaya Kumar Jain and Lakshmi Chandra Jain discussed various aspects of the idea. Two days later, a primary plan was presented by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain to Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the President of India, who liked the idea greatly and promised to help in its implementation.

The idea was then discussed with writers of different languages. Eminent Bangla writers and critics of Calcutta discussed it on 6 December, 1961. On 1 January, 1962 discussions took place amongst the 72 writers who had assembled at Kolkata for the annual sessions of the All India Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad. In the meantime, four thousand copies of the plan were sent for favour of comments to various literary institutions and writers of the country. To give a final shape to the plan a big symposium with nearly 300 outstanding writers of various languages of the country was convened on 2 April, 1962 in Delhi under the joint auspices of the Bharatiya Jnanpith and The Times of India. Presided over by Dr. V. Raghavan and Bhagwati Charan Verma respectively, the two sessions of the symposium were conducted by Dr. Dharmavir Bharati. Kaka Kalelkar, Hare Krishna Mehtab, Nissim Ezekiel, Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, Dr. Mulk Raj Anand, Surendra Mohanti, Debesh Das, Siyaram Sharan Gupta, Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar’, Udai Shankar Bhatt, Jagdish chandra Mathur, Dr. Nagendra, Dr. D.R. Bendre, Jainendra Kumar, Manmath Nath Gupta and Lakshmi chandra Jain, were some of the prominent participants. The plan was placed before Dr. Rajendra Prasad, with a request to head the Selection Board (Pravara Parishad) of the Jnanpith Award. He fixed 16 March, 1963 for the first meeting of the Pravara Parishad over which he would have presided, but, due to his unfortunate demise in the meantime, the meeting was chaired by Kaka Kalelkar and the Pravara Parishad was thereafter headed byDr. Sampurnanand.

Selecting the most outstanding work (as was the rule for the first seventeen awards) or the writer (according to the revised rule since the eighteenth award) from so many languages for such an award is a difficult and stupendous task. Such a selection within one language itself presents problems and very often raises controversies and criticism. What then would be the case when languages are as many as fifteen, eighteen or more. Was it not almost impossible to get a team of versatile scholars who would be masters of many languages? The experience over the years has, however, shown that, given the goodwill and an objective approach, remarkable results are possible even in such a challenging task. The process of selection begins with the submission of proposals by a large number of litterateurs, teachers, critics and discriminating readers, also from various universities, literary and language associations and other similar organisations. (As per the rules of the award, once a language gets the award, it is not eligible for consideration during the next three years. Thus three languages are out of reckoning for the award every year). There is an Advisory Committee for each language, consisting of three eminent literary critics and scholars. These committees are reconstituted every three years. The proposals received are scrutinised by the concerned Language Advisory Committee. A Committee is not obliged to make its recommendations out of these proposals only. It is free to consider other writers before making its recommendation for the award. In fact, a Language Advisory Committee is expected to ensure that no deserving writer of the language concerned is left out of its consideration. A committee is expected to take into account the entire literary creativity of the author and evaluate it in the background of contemporary writing. The rule has been slightly revised since the 18th Award. The entire contributions of an author for Indian Literarture are taken into account for the award.  From 49^th Award, English has been included along with other Indian languages for consideration of the awerd. The recommendations of various Language Advisory Committees are placed before the Selection Board. The Board consists of not less than seven and not more than eleven members, who are all of high repute and integrity.

The Board to begin with, was constituted by the Bharatiya Jnanpith Trust but, subsequently, vacancies continue to be filled in on the recommendations of the Selection Board itself. Each member has a term of three years but is eligible to continue for a further period of two more terms. Other eminent scholars and writers who have been chairmen or members of the Selection Board include Kaka Kalelkar, Dr. Sampurnanand, Dr. B. Gopala Reddy, Dr. Karan Singh, Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao, Acharya Hajari Prasad Dwivedi, Dr. R.K. Dasgupta, Dr. V.K. Gokak, Dr. Uma Shankar Joshi, Dr. Masud Hussain, Prof. M.V. Rajadhyaksha, Dr. Aditya Nath Jha and Shri Jagdish Chandra Mathur, Dr. L.M. Singhvi, Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra The Selection Board makes a comparative evaluation of the recommendations of the Language Advisory Committees. The final selection is the result of comprehensive and indepth deliberations of the Selection Board. The entire responsibility for selection is that of the Selection Board and Bharatiya Jnanpith Trust has no hand in it whatsoever. It is a matter of gratification that the objectivity of this painstaking process is well recognised and the selections have been widely endorsed. That is how the Jnanpith Award has acquired an unparalleled prestige in Indian literature. The Award has, in fact, come to symbolise the comprehensive vision of Indian literature and national integrity. On the occasion of the award presentation a citation, a bronze replica of ‘Vagdevi’ and an amount of Rs. 11 Lacs are presented to the Jnanpith Laureate. Since 1965 to 2018, 59 eminent writers have received the award in 53 years.

Rules & Regulations

Selecting the most outstanding work (as was the rule for the first seventeen awards) or the writer (according to the revised rule since the eighteenth award) from so many languages for such an award is a difficult and stupendous task. Such a selection within one language itself presents problems and very often raises controversies and criticism. What then would be the case when languages are as many as fifteen or more? Was it not almost impossible to get a team of versatile scholars who would be masters of many languages?

The experience over the years has, however, shown that, given the goodwill and an objective approach, remarkable results are possible even in such a challenging task. The process of selection begins with the submission of proposals by a large number of litterateurs, teachers, critics and discriminating readers, also from various universities, literary and language associations and other similar organisations. (As per the rules of the award, once a language gets the award, it is not eligible for consideration during the next two years. Thus two languages are out of reckoning for the award every year).

There is an Advisory Committee for each language, consisting of three eminent literary critics and scholars. These committees are reconstituted every three years. The proposals received are scrutinised by the concerned Language Advisory Committee. A Language Advisory Committee is not obliged to make its recommendations out of these proposals only. It is free to consider other writers before making its recommendation for the award. In fact, a Language Advisory Committee is expected to ensure that no deserving writer of the language concerned is left out of its consideration. A committee is expected to take into account the entire literary creativity of the author and evaluate it in the background of contemporary writing.

The rule has been slightly revised since the 18th Award. The entire contributions of an author for Indian Literature are taken into account for the award. From 49^th Jnanpith Award, English has been included in the language list along with other Indian languages for consideration of Jnanpith Award, However, the award is open for only Indian citizens.

The recommendations of various Language Advisory Committees are placed before the Selection Board. The Board consists of not less than seven and not more than eleven members, who are all of high repute and integrity.

The Board, to begin with, was constituted by the Bharatiya Jnanpith Trust but, subsequently, vacancies continue to be filled in on the recommendations of the Selection Board itself. Each member has a term of three years but is eligible to continue for a further period of two more terms. Eminent scholars and writers of the country have become chairman or members of the Selection Board.

The Selection Board makes a comparative evaluation of the recommendations of the Language Advisory Committees. The final selection is the result of comprehensive and in depth deliberations of the Selection Board. The entire responsibility for selection is that of the Selection Board and Bharatiya Jnanpith Trust has no hand in it whatsoever. 

Achievements 

It is a matter of gratification that the objectivity of this painstaking process is well recognised and the selections have been widely endorsed. That is how the Jnanpith Award has acquired an unparalleled prestige in Indian literature. The Award has, in fact, come to symbolise the comprehensive vision of Indian literature and national integrity.

Present Jnanpith Selection Board

1 Smt. Pratibha Ray, Chairperson

2. Snri Madhav Kaushik

3. Prof. Shamim Hanfi

4. Prof. Suranjan Das

5. Prof. Purushothama Billimale

6.  Dr. S. Mani Valan

7. Shri Chandrakant Patil

8.  Dr. Harish Trivedi

9.  Shri Prabha Varma

10. Dr. Syed Asghar Wajahat

11. Shri Madhusudan Anand (Ex Officio)