Chennai, Jan 18 (PTI) Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday announced annual literary awards in 7 languages including Tamil, Bengali and Marathi and slammed the Centre for alleged political intervention in Sahitya Akademi awards.
The award, under the auspices of the Tamil Nadu government, will carry Rs 5 lakh cash prize, he said, adding it is named as “Semmozhi Illakiya Virudhu (Classical Language Literary Award).” In the first phase, awards will be for the best works in the languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odiya, Bengali and Marathi.
In his address at the valedictory event of the Chennai International Book Fair (CIBF-2026), the chief minister said the Sahitya Akademi awards announcement had been cancelled recently and it was discomfiting.
It was due to the intervention of the Union Culture Ministry, he alleged.
Underlining what he called the uncertainty over the awards, he said “political interventions, even in art and literary awards is dangerous.” Under such circumstances, the CM said several writers and representatives of art/literary bodies had appealed to him for an appropriate, constructive, counter-action plan.
He said: “We also have a realisation that this is the need of the hour and I would like to make an announcement that will make you all happy.” Accordingly, he said every year on behalf of the Tamil Nadu government, “national-level” awards would be given for best literary works in selected Indian languages.
The CM said: “I am very happy to announce this. In the first phase, award in the name of ‘Semmozhi Illakiya Virudhu’ will be given for the best works in the languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odiya, Bengali and Marathi. The award for each language carries Rs 5 lakh cash prize.” The Tamil Nadu government will happily perform the role of the patron and will hand over the task of the selection process to independent experts.
“In order to ensure the quality of literary works and transparency, a committee (to select the awardees) will be set up for each language, comprising reputed writers.” Further, he said the Dravidian model government led by him had taken several initiatives to take knowledge to every household and the book fair was an important step.
In this book fair, great importance had been placed on translations and copyright exchanges, he said.
Further Stalin said: “The victory of International Booker Prize winner, Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq, who is present here, shows its (translations and copyright transfers) importance.” Only because Mushtaq’s work was translated into English (Heart Lamp), it drew world-wide attention, he added. “Our book festival has been greatly enriched today by the arrival of the woman writer from our Dravidian language family, who belongs to a minority community, opposes regressive attitudes, and she has the perspective of social justice,” he said.
The chief minister released as many as 84 books, including Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation’s 44 books and the Public Library’s 40 books.
The Chennai International Book Fair is organised by the Tamil Nadu government with the vision of “Taking Tamil to the world, bringing the world to Tamil,” through global literature and cultural exchanges.
The fourth edition of the CIBF this year, 2026, had the theme of ‘A conversation between civilisations.’ According to the government, this year, over 100 countries took part in the book fair which served as a B2B platform for the publishers and over 1,800 MoUs were inked involving 102 countries.
The MoUs cover 1,273 pacts involving translation of content in Tamil to other languages and 260 agreements on bringing content to Tamil from other languages.
The CIBF was held from January 16 to 18 at Kalaivanar Arangam here.
The CM said the next government to be formed in the state –following the Assembly election in March-April this year — would be the Dravidian model regime’s “2.0” version.
Following a win in polls, when the DMK regime retains power, the international book fair would be held on a much bigger scale.
Ministers including PK Sekar Babu (Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments), and Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi (School Education) and Chennai Mayor R Priya and elected representatives took part. PTI VGN VGN ADB
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