Ramdev Dhurandhar a versatile Hindi novelist from Mauritius has been named as the winner of IFFCO’s ‘Shri Lal Shukla Memorial Sahitya Samman’ for the year 2017. This is the first time that the IFFCO award is crossing national boundaries to honour a writer who depicts the struggles of Indians abroad.
A distinguished Hindi writer Dhurandhar is known for his famous work “Pathrila sona” which was published in six volumes and captures the struggles of Indians who began migrating to Mauritius way back in 1838.
The selection committee headed by D P Tripathy and consisting of critics like Nityanand Tiwary, Murlimanohar Prasad Singh and Dinesh Kumar Shukla zeroed in on Dhurandhar after going through his writings, according to the IFFCO press release.
Happy with the selection of Dhurandhar for one of the top literary awards in the country IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi said” IFFCO Shukla Award has gone international by choosing Shri Dhurandhar a Hindi novelist from Mauritius. Recognizing Dhurandhar is same as paying respect to the pristine Indian culture and traditions as his works portray the struggle of generations of Indian immigrants to Mauritius, said Awasthi.
Pathrila Sona depicts the struggle of those Indians who came to Mauritius years ago. The style of narration in the novel touches a chord in one’s heart as the plot weaves into it the miseries, the fight and the final victory ultimately.
Ramdev Dhurandhar’s works include “chotti machali badi machali”, “chehron ka aadmi”, “banate bigarate rishtey” and “pucho is matti se.” “vish manthan” and “janam ki ek bhool” are two anthologies of stories to Dhurandhar’s credit. He has also written satire and short stories.
The IFFCO Literary award was started in 2011 in the name of famous litterateur Sri Lal Shukla and is given every year for outstanding writing on the life in the countryside. Srilal Shukla was a versatile writer who portrayed the life of rural as well as semi-urban areas in its totality and made a scathing attack on the exploitative system prevailing in the countryside. His book Rag Darbari remains a sensation till date.
IFFCO’s Award offers by far the highest amount of Rs 11 lakh in the field of literature. Vidya Sagar Nautial, Shekhar Joshi, Sanjeev, Mithileshwar and Ashtabhuja Shukla and Kamla Kant Tripathy had been the recipients of the award in the past.
The award function is scheduled to take place in a function in Delhi on 31st January.
It is great that a Mauritian writer is recognised in this way. Will his work ever be available in the other languages spoken in his Island? The sooner the translators get to work the better.