The withdrawal of the Yashwantrao Chavan Literature Award 2021 to Anagha Lele (pictured) for her translation of my book Fractured Freedom: A Prison Memoir ("Award withdrawn,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, January 7-20, 2023) was at the behest of a handful of people linked to the Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh (RSS) who prevailed on the government to reverse its decision without any reference to the book’s content or quality of translation. Long before the award was retracted, a number of literary figures had telephoned to say that the translation was so good that it read like the original.
While the announcement of the......