Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), a leading cooperative organization in the fertilizer sector, has announced the name of story writer Shri Shivmurthy for the ‘Shri Lal Shukla Smriti IFFCO Sahitya Samman’ for the year 2021.
The selection committee was headed by eminent litterateur Mrs. Chitra Mudgal and included Mrs. Madhusudan Anand, Vishnu Nagar, Jayaprakash Kardam, Murli Manohar Prasad Singh and Dr. Dinesh Kumar Shukla.
IFFCO Managing Director Dr. Uday Shankar Awasthi congratulated Shivamurthy through a tweet. He expressed his gratitude to the Samman Selection Committee for choosing Shree Shivmurti for the Srilal Shukla Smriti IFFCO Sahitya Samman for the year 2021.
Shri Shivamurthy is a story writer who has written extensively on rural and village life. He has depicted contradictions, distortion and inner struggle of rural life in his fictions very touchingly. The ugliness of the feudal system and the harsh reality of rural life come to the fore in his works.
In Shivamurthy stories like ‘Kasaibada’, ‘Akaldand’, ‘Tiriya Charittar’ etc., there has been a strong expression of the compulsions and struggles of women, downtrodden and weaker sections. Through his compositions, Shivamurti has shown how women in a patriarchal society are not safe in the village, countryside, in our society and even at home. He laments the cruellest distortions and calls them bane of a patriarchal society.
Among the works of Shivamurti, Trishul, Tarpan, Aakhri Chhalaang (novel) and Keshar Kasturi (story collection) are some of the prominent ones. A film has also been made on his story ‘Kasaibara’ and ‘Tiriya Charittar’, while many stories have been translated into regional and foreign languages.
This award, started in the year 2011 in the memory of illustrious story writer Shrilal Shukla, is given every year to such a Hindi writer whose works mainly depict the problems, aspirations and struggles related to rural and agricultural life.
This honour has been given to Vidyasagar Nautiyal, Shekhar Joshi, Sanjeev, Mithileshwar, Ashtabhuja Shukla, Kamalakant Tripathi, Ramdev Dhurandhar, Ramdhari Singh ‘Divakar’, Mahesh Katare and Ranendra so far.
The winning litterateur is presented with a memento, a citation and a cheque for an amount of Rs 11 lakh. This award will be conferred on Shri Shivamurthy on January 31, 2022.