Kannada writer honoured in city

hyderabad: eminent kannada writer and jnanpith awardee u r ananthamurthy was presented the bapureddy jathiya sahithi puraskaram at the sundarayya vigyana kendram here on friday. the award was instituted by the dr j bapureddy literary and cultural foundation trust. ananthamurthy was presented a shawl and a cash award of rs 25,000 by rajya sabha member and poet, c narayana reddy.speaking on the occasion, ananthamurthy said globalisation was a serious threat to the regional languages in the country as english had become the mandatory medium of communication for official purposes. "the greatness of india and the survival of democracy here is, however, due to the plurality of language, religion and race in this country," he said. "as more people in the nation speak in english, the plurality is threatened and regional languages lose their cultural value," said the writer. ananthamurthy said a 1,000-century caste oppression had been fought through language. describing ananthamurthy as a champion of regional writing in the country, c narayana reddy said ananthamurthy had pointed out the decline of regional languages in recent years. quoting ananthamurthy, he said, "in order to be an indian, we must first belong to one of her regional languages." narayana reddy lamented the fact that only indo-anglian writers were promoted by cultural organisations. he said in the last six years, the sahithya akademi had nominated only r k narayanan to the nobel prize committee. "the fact that not one regional writer's name was suggested by the akademi to the committee shows the attitude of our cultural agencies towards our languages," said narayana reddy. eminent telugu writer bhargavi p rao, introducing anathamurthy, said the highlight of his writing was the rhythm in his style. she read passages from his book samskara to impress this on the audience. chairman of g v s kalapeetam dr g v subrahmaniam and poet j bapu reddy lauded anathamurthy for his writing skills.