Authors want birth anniv celebrations of Sanskrityayan, Sahay

Around 80 writers, intellectuals and parliamentarians have written a letter to the government demanding a national-level celebration to commemorate the 125th birth anniversaries of renowned Hindi authors Rahul Sanskrityayan and Shivpujan Sahay.
In a letter to Mahesh Sharma, Minister of Culture, the authors said Sanskrityayan and Sahay, who actively participated in the country's independence struggle, played an important role in popularising Hindi literature and journalism.
The signatories demanded the establishment of memorials for Sanskrityayan and Sahay in their respective villages to celebrate the two writers for their unparallelled contribution to Hindi literature.
The letter bears signatures of noted Hindi critic Namwar Singh, Jnanpith-awardee Kedarnath Singh, critic Vishwanath Tripathi, Matreyi Pushpa, Uday Prakash, Leeladhar Mandloi, Chitra Mudgal and Narendra Mohan among other contemporary Hindi writers.

Some 15 parliamentarians including Janardan Dwivedi (Congress), Naresh Agarwal (Samajwadi Party), Ali Anwar (JDU), Tapan Sen of (CPI-M), D Raja (Communist Party of India), K Keshava Rao (TRS), have also written a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the same.
Sanskrityayan, known as the father of Hindi travel writings, was born on April 9, 1893 in Azamgarh's Pandaha village.

In his prolific career, he has several novels, stories, life stories and travelogues to his credit including "Tibbat Mein Sava Varsha", "Meri Europe Yatra", "Athato Ghumakkad Jigyasa", "Volga se Ganga", "Asia ke Durgam Bhukhando Mein", "Yatra Ke Panne" and "Kinnar Desh Mein".

Sahay, also born in the same year on August 9 in Unwans village of Bhojpur district (Bihar), was a renowned writer of his time, who worked with Munshi Premchand in editing his magazine 'Rangbhumi'.
He also penned several novels and stories such as "Smritishesh", "Dehati Duniya" and "Mata Ka Anchal", besides compiling and editing volumes of works by other literary giants of his era.
Both Sanskrityayan and Sahay died in 1963.