Talk:Raja Rao Award for Literature

Evidence of notability of the Raja Rao Award

KS MANIAM, a third generation Malaysian of Tamilian origin, was recently in India. He was the first recipient of the Raja Rao Award for literature instituted by the Samvad India Foundation to honour writers of Indian origin settled abroad, mainly those in South-East Asia.

• Khushwant Singh, Khushwant Singh, "The Indo-Malaysian connection," The Tribune, Saturday, October 28, 2000

In 2000, Maniam received the first Raja Rao Award for outstanding contributions to South Asian diaspora literature. (The award was instituted by the Samvad India Foundation, which was co-founded by Vijay Mishra.)

• David C. L. Lim, The Infinite Longing for Home: Desire and the Nation in Selected Writings of Ben Okri and K.S. Maniam, Rodopi, 2005, page xxiii.

When Saraswati did come into Yasmine’s life, however, she took the form of the goddess Tara. When The Samvad India Foundation singled out Yasmine for the Raja Rao award in 2002, they made her a gift of the beautiful little figurine. This international prize celebrates writers and scholars who have made an outstanding contribution to the literature of the South Asian diaspora, and the honour delighted Yasmine even as it took her by surprise. “I never expected that the Indian writing establishment would regard me in that light,” she says.

• Smriti Daniel, "Writing under the gaze of her Saraswati," The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka), 12 August 2012

Among the awards he’s received are the National Book Development Council of Singapore’s Book Awards for Poetry (three times); the inaugural S.E.A. Write Award; Singapore’s first Cultural Medallion for Literature, and the Meritorious Services Medal. The Raja Rao Award he received in 2002 is very special to him, says Thumboo, who launched his country’s first National Poetry Festival in 2015.

• Vinutha Mallya, "Country poet," Pune Mirror, Dec 23, 2018

Mr Dehejia is also the recipient of the Raja Rao Award (2003) for the most significant contribution to South Asian Literature from the diaspora.

• "Krishnabhakti from Carleton," The Financial Express (India), January 30 2005

Although he is a leading allergist in Ottowa, Dr. Dehejia has found time to write books about he poetry and painting and gods of India, host a radio program, An Indian Morning, and teach a course at Carleton University on Hinduism and classical Indian intellectual traditions.

For these efforts and his contributions to the literature of the South Asian diaspora, he was awarded the Raja Rao Award this week, a prestigious honour from the Samvad India Foundation.

The New Delhi-based foundation is a nonprofit charitable trust that promotes education and cultural contributions to India and the South Asian diaspora, among other things. There is no cash prize attached to the award.

• Bob Harvey, "Preserving a culture under attack," The Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, Canada, 4 Oct. 2003, P. C3.

He is author and editor of numerous scholarly books and articles, a well-known presenter of television and radio programs, and winner of many awards including the 2004 Raja Rao Award for Literature and the 2008 Anthony N. Sabga Award for Literature -- the largest literary prize in the Caribbean.

• L. Macedo, "Dabydeen, David", The Encyclopedia of Twentieth‐Century Fiction, Brian Shaffer, editor, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, p. 1035.

Another significant note is that Dabydeen is extremely highly decorated as a writer. The Anthony N Sabga Award was actually his second for 2008, having, a little more than two months ago, gone to India to receive the Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) Award presented by the Government of India. What is more, that was also his second recent Indian recognition, having been the winner of the 2004 Raja Rao Award, given in India for outstanding contribution to literature in the Indian diaspora.

• "Al Creighton’s Arts On Sunday," Stabroek News, April 20, 2008

Thus it is appropriate to say that today there exists a 'Raja Rao Award' to recognize writers and scholars who have made an outstanding contribution to the Literature and Culture of the 'South Asian Diaspora'.

• Shalini Dube, Indian diasporic literature: text, context and interpretation, Shree Publishers & Distributors, 2009, page 114.

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