The Hindu : Karnataka News : National-level award for Urdu literature announced

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

National-level award for Urdu literature announced

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELGAUM, SEPT. 13. The All-India Urdu Manch has announced the institution of a national-level `Lifetime Award' for excellence in Urdu literature. The `Al-Kallaam Award' will comprise a purse of Rs. 5,59,000 and a citation.

The award will be presented in January every year.

A function in this regard will be held in Bangalore in January next year.

Disclosing this to presspersons here, the manch president, Syed Raug Quadri, said that two more national awards — one for poetry and another for fiction — comprising a purse of Rs. 50,000 each and citations would also be given.

To encourage Urdu writers and poets in the State, the `Mahmood Ayaaz Award' would be instituted, with a purse of Rs. 50,000.

Two more awards with a purse of Rs. 25,000 each would be presented for an anthology in poetry and fiction. These would be State-level awards, he said.

Mr. Quadri regretted the lack of encouragement for Urdu language in the State, especially in north Karnataka, and said that the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, was a "Shayar" (poet), something which many did not know.

He said he would urge the Chief Minister to appoint a special officer for Urdu in the State Secretariat.

Mr. Quadri requested for the appointment of people who knew Urdu at the district information offices.

He also called for appointment of Kannada teachers in Urdu medium schools as students in many such schools were facing difficulty because of the absence of Kannada teachers.

Academy

The manch, which has been registered as a trust, had plans to establish an academy of culture in Bangalore. The academy also planned to sponsor research works by scholars in various subjects, he said.

An `Urdu Ghar' had been planned in Bangalore and in other cities of the country.

The manch had taken initiatives for promoting Urdu literature and poetry by organising `mushairas' (poets' meets), ghazal programmes, dramas, etc.

Mr. Quadri said the manch would organise a workshop in Bangalore in the last week of December with the objective of translating 100 selected poems of Kuvempu into Urdu and as many poems of Mirza Ghalib into Kannada. Eminent writers and poets in Kannada and Urdu would participate in the workshop, he said.

Another workshop would be organised in Srinagar from October 10 to 16 for translating literary works of eminent Kashmiri writers into Urdu and vice-versa.

Scholarship

To encourage young writers and poets, the manch announced a scholarship of Rs. 5,000 to meritorious students in postgraduate (Urdu) course from the next academic year.

A scholarship of Rs. 10,000 would be given for those doing Ph.D. in Bangalore and Gulbarga universities from the next academic year.

Mr. Quadri said the manch was organising 100 ghazal programmes in different parts of the country.

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