ACADEMIES AND INSTITUTIONS IN THE PROMOTION OF ART AND CULTURE( sahitya akademy)

ACADEMIES AND INSTITUTIONS IN THE PROMOTION OF ART AND CULTURE

Under the inspirations of shri Jawaharlal Nehru, attempts warmed by the Government of India to revive and develop traditional arts and culture. With that end in view, three academies were established in 1945 – (I) sahitya academy or national academy of letters; (2) sangeet Natak academy or academy of Music, dance and drama: and (3) lalit kala academic or academy of fine arts.

 (I) sahitya akademy

Inaugurated on 12^th March, 1954h, it functions as an autonomous organization. It is a national organization to work actively for the development of Indian literature, to see high lite5rary standards, to foster and co-ordinate literary activities in all the Indian languages and to promote through them all he cultural unity of the country . the supreme authority of the academy vest in the General council consisting of 67 members. There are nominees of the central as well as state Governments in the Central council. The activities of the Academy are to publish a national biography of contemporary works of literary merit in Indian languages, to sponsor publication of standard works on the history and development of modern Indian literature, to translate Indian books of real merits and wide appeal in different languages , to enquire into the difficulties experienced by Indian writers, to give awards to outstanding books published in India languages, to publish a six – monthly Bulletin giving an account of the Academy’s activities as well as works of l literary merits in Indian languages, etc.

Some of the other functions of the Akademy are publication of works on literary history and criticism, books of reference like bibliographies and biographies and works in Devanagari and other Indian script and popularization of the study of literature among the people. The academy has regional offices at Bombay, Calcutta and Madras.

An important publication of the Academy is the National bibliography of Indian Literature (1901 – 1953) in four volumes, covering books of literary merit in all the major Indian language sand in English, published in India or written by Indian authors. These cover English and all major Indian languages except Dogrib, Konkani, Maithili, Manipuri, Nepali and Rajasthan, for which fifth vol7uma is under preparation. The Academy has been preparing an encyclopedia of Indian literature.

It publishes a bi-monthly journal in English, ‘Indian literature’, a quarterly in Hindi “Samakaleena Bharitiya Sahitya’ and a half – yearly in Sanskrit ‘Sanskrit Pratibha’.

The Academy has also sponsored two series of publications, first histories of literature of various languages in India, and the second, a series of monographs entitled’ markers of Indian literature, with a brief biography and literary assessment of writers, from all over the country from the earliest times to the present day. The academy has complied at detailed Encyclopedia of Indian literature, with the help of over 1000 writers belonging to the 22 recognized languages.

The academy honors eminent men and women of letters by making them fellows. It awards prizes to works of outstanding merit in English and in other Indian languages.