April 12, 2026 10:06 am (IST)
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Punjabi author Dalip Kaur Tiwana returns Pardma Shri award
New Delhi, Oct 13 (IBNS): Renowned Punjabi novelist Dalip Kaur Tiwana on Tuesday announced that she will return her Padma Shri award as a mark of protest against "attacks of freedom of speech in the country" and also against communal violence.
She told media persons that by returning the award she will protest against the rising communal violence in the country.
Tiwana was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India, in 2004 for literature and education. She is also a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi award.
Earlier in the day, Kannada writer and professor Rahamat Tarikeri returned his Sahitya Akademi award in protest against the killing of scholar MM Kalburgi and rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, reports said.
Hindi poets Mangalesh Darbal and Rajesh Joshi, eminent author G N Devy, short story writer Gurbachan Singh Bhullar, Konkani writer N Shivdas, Kannada writer Kum Veerabhadrappa and Punjabi playwrights Atamjit Singh and Ajmer Singh Aulakh and Punjabi short story writer Waryam Singh Sandhu returned their Sahitya Akademy Awards on Sunday.
All these writers had protested against Sahitya Akademy's silence on the recent lynching in Uttar Pradesh Dadri over rumours of cow slaughter and the murder of author M M Kalburgi, allegedly for his rationalist views.
Earlier, six other Sahitya Akademy winners, including Nayantara Sahgal and Shashi Deshpande returned their awards.
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