Kerala novelist Sarah Joseph decides to return Sahitya Akademi award

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After eminent writers Nayantara Sahgal and Ashok Vajpeyi, Malayalam novelist and AAP leader Sarah Joseph today said she would return the Sahitya Akademi award in protest against what she called the "growing communalism" and "life threat faced by writers" in the country after Narendra Modi government assumed office.

Joseph, who won the prestigious honour for her novel 'Aalahayude Penmakkal' (Daughters of God the Father), said she would soon send the cash prize and plaque to the Akademi via courier.

This is the first time that a Malayalam writer has decided to return the Akademi honours to protest against the "communal policies" of the BJP-led NDA government.

"An alarming situation is being created in the country in all spheres of life after Modi government came into power. The religious harmony and secularism of the country is unprecedentedly under threat," she told PTI from Thrissur.

She said three writers had already been killed and K S Bhagwan was facing life threat from communal forces. But, the Centre had done nothing to alleviate the growing fear among writers and activists and people in other sections of the society, she said.

Sixty-eight-year-old Joseph, who spearheaded feminist writing in Malayalam, also felt what Jnanpith laureate U R Ananthamurthy had said years ago about the life of writers under the Modi government was "absolutely true".

"The visionary writer had actually predicted about the suppressed life which writers would have to live under Modi's rule. His words have become a reality now," she said.