Bank of Baroda (Bank), one of India's leading public sector bank, on Tuesday announced the winner of the first edition of the 'Bank of Baroda Rashtrabhasha Samman' 2023. Mohsin Khan, the author of the Urdu novel and Saeed Ahmad, the translator of the book in Hindi, won the award for the novel Allah Miyan Ka Karkhana.
The winning author and the translator were announced at the awards ceremony that took place in Delhi today.
Further, five novels - Abhipreta Kaala, Cheeni Kothi, Ghar Palano Chhele, Nadeesht and Nemat Khana received the runners up prize at this year's edition.
The winning author Mohsin Khan of the novel Allah Miyan Ka Karkhana in Urdu and the translator Saeed Ahmad of the Hindi novel Allah Miyan Ka Karkhana were conferred with the Bank of Baroda Rashtrabhasha Samman and a cash prize of Rs. 21.00 lakh and Rs. 15.00 lakh respectively. The other five runner-up authors and the respective Hindi translators were awarded Rs. 3.00 lakh and Rs. 2.00 lakh each respectively.
The five-member awards jury chaired by renowned author and International Booker Prize winner Ms. Geetanjali Shree along with the other four jury members Arun Kamal, an Indian poet; Pushpesh Pant, an academic and food critic; Anamika, a contemporary Indian poet and novelist; and Prabhat Ranjan, a Hindi fiction writer selected the winner.
The 'Bank of Baroda Rashtrabhasha Samman' has been established to acknowledge and celebrate acclaimed novels published in different Indian languages and their translated and published Hindi versions.
The initiative by the Bank will help enrich Indian languages further and widen the readership of these outstanding works by making them more accessible.