Mukherjee confers 51st Jnanpith Award on Raghuveer Chaudhari

President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday conferred the 51st Jnanpith Award on renowned writer from Gujarat, Raghuveer Chaudhari, saying he represents the fluid brilliance that characterizes India's pluralistic literary genius.

"It is indeed an example of his brilliant fluidity that an author, who strove to master Hindi academically, expressed himself in Gujarati in his literary pursuit. His literary work has explored varied genre of poetry, prose, novels, and fictions as also commentary on contemporary issues," Mukherjee said at the award function.

He said that mortal beings do not remain but their creations remain for a long time and therein lies the success of a master creator.

"There is need to propagate the literature in India and take the creative genius of Indian languages to the world audience," he said.

On the occasion, Mukherjee also recalled the contributions of Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain and Rama Jain, whose efforts in promoting Indian languages and literature and establishing the Bhartiya Jnanpith remain a shining example.

Chaudhari's most significant contributions have been in Gujarati language but he has also written Hindi articles. He had also received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1977, for his novel trilogy "Uparvas".

--IANS

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