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{{short description|Literary award for persons in the South Asian Diaspora}}
{{Infobox award
| name = Raja Rao Award
| image =
| caption =
| awarded_for = Outstanding contribution to the Literature and Culture of the South Asian Diaspora
| presenter = [[Samvad India Foundation]] and [[Jawaharlal Nehru University]]
| country = India
| year = 2000
| year2 = 2009
| holder =
| reward = None.
| website = [http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-rra.htm Raja Rao Award page]
}}
The '''Raja Rao Award''', in some sources the '''Raja Rao Award for Literature''',<ref name="Twentieth">L. Macedo, "Dabydeen, David", ''The Encyclopedia of Twentieth‐Century Fiction'', Brian Shaffer, editor, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, p. 1035.</ref><ref>Mohit K. Ray, editor, ''The Atlantic Companion to Literature in English'', Atlantic Books, 2007, p. 117.</ref><ref name="Blacks">Eric Martone, ''Encyclopedia of Blacks in European History and Culture'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008, p. 172.</ref><ref name="Mature">{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/mature-beyond-his-age/cid/886446|title=Mature Beyond His Age|author=KHUSHWANT SINGH|date= 30 October 2000|website=www.telegraphindia.com}}</ref> is a former [[literary award]] named in honour of expatriate Indian writer [[Raja Rao]], and bestowed "to recognize writers and scholars who have made an outstanding contribution to the Literature and Culture of the South Asian Diaspora."<ref name="Sunday Times">{{cite web|url=http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120812/magazine/writing-under-the-gaze-of-her-saraswati-8259.html|first=Smriti|last=Daniel|title=Writing under the gaze of her Saraswati|publisher=[[The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)]]|date=12 August 2012}}</ref><ref name="Weagel">Deborah Weagel, "Language, Diaspora, and Identity: An Interview with Yasmine Gooneratne", ''South Asian Review'', 2008, 29. 269-279. 10.1080/02759527.2008.11932589.</ref><ref>Shalini Dube, ''Indian Diasporic Literature: Text, Context and Interpretation'', Shree Publishers & Distributors, 2009 p. 114: “Thus it is appropriate to say that today there exists a 'Raja Rao Award' to recognize writers and scholars who have made an outstanding contribution to the Literature and Culture of the 'South Asian Diaspora'“.</ref><ref name="Paranjape">[[Makarand Paranjape]], ''Science and Spirituality in Modern India'', Centre for Indic Studies, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, 2006, page xiii.</ref> It has been described as "prestigious",<ref name="Ottawa">"Preserving a culture under attack," ''[[The Ottawa Citizen]]'', [[Ottawa, Canada]], 4 Oct. 2003, P. C3.</ref><ref name="Memoriam">Pamela McCallum, "In Memoriam: Victor J. Ramraj", ''Ariel''; Calgary Vol. 45, Iss. 3, (July 2014): 1-2. DOI:10.1353/ari.2014.0020.</ref> and "an important Indian literary prize".<ref name="Blacks"/> It was bestowed by a [[Juried (competition)|jury]] upon seven recipients between its establishment in 2000 and its cessation in 2009. The award was given annually from 2000 to 2004, after which it was given biennially, with one award being given for 2005-2006, and one being given for 2007-2008.

==Establishment and course==
The award was instituted by the Samvad India Foundation,<ref name="Mature"/><ref name="Paranjape"/><ref name="WE">[https://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/bpl_images/Journal_Samples/WENG0883-2919~20~1~196/203.PDF "Professional Notes: The Raja Rao Award"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127191353/https://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/bpl_images/Journal_Samples/WENG0883-2919~20~1~196/203.PDF |date=2019-11-27 }}, ''World Englishes'', [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1467971x/2001/20/1 Vol. 20, No. 1] ([[Wiley-Blackwell]] 2001), pp. 117-118.</ref> a nonprofit charitable trust named for the Sanskrit word for dialogue, which was co-founded by [[Makarand Paranjape]], a professor of English at [[Jawaharlal Nehru University]] in [[New Delhi]] and [[Vijay Mishra]], a professor of English and Comparative Literature at [[Murdoch University]] in [[Perth]]. Its purpose was to honour writers of Indian origin settled abroad, mainly those in South-East Asia, and to promote education and cultural contributions to India and the South Asian diaspora.<ref name="Singh">{{cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20001028/windows/above.htm|title=The Indo-Malaysian connection|first=Khushwant|last=Singh|work=[[The Tribune (Chandigarh)|The Tribune]]|date=October 28, 2000}}</ref><ref name="Lim">David C. L. Lim, ''The Infinite Longing for Home: Desire and the Nation in Selected Writings of Ben Okri and K.S. Maniam'', [[Rodopi (publisher)|Rodopi]], 2005, page xxiii.</ref><ref name="Ottawa"/> It was named for Raja Rao, with his permission; Rao having been born in [[Mysore]], [[Karnataka]], [[India]], and eventually moved first to France, and then to live for many decades in the United States. There is no cash prize attached to the award.<ref name="Ottawa"/>

The inaugural recipient of the Award was [[K. S. Maniam]], who was bestowed the award in 2000.<ref name="Tribune">{{cite web|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20001028/windows/above.htm|title=The Indo-Malaysian connection|first=Khushwant|last=Singh|publisher=[[The Tribune (Chandigarh)|Tribune of India]]|date=October 28, 2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nst.com.my/education/2019/04/480271/ode-k-s-maniam|title=An Ode to K. S. Maniam|first=Rozana|last=Sani|publisher=[[New Straits Times]]|date=April 17, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Astro Awani">{{cite web|url=http://english.astroawani.com/lifestyle/ks-maniam-malaysias-soil-so-accommodative-us-why-cant-we-be-same-each-other-206275|title=KS Maniam: Malaysia's soil is so accommodative to us; why can't we be the same to each other?|first=Astro|last=Ulagam|publisher=[[Astro Awani]]|date=April 28, 2019|access-date=September 17, 2019|archive-date=February 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222165153/http://english.astroawani.com/lifestyle/ks-maniam-malaysias-soil-so-accommodative-us-why-cant-we-be-same-each-other-206275|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Star">{{cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/culture/2019/03/17/ks-maniam-literature|title=He wrote about what it meant to be Malaysian|first=Terence|last=Toh|work=[[The Star (Malaysia)|The Star]]|date=17 March 2019}}</ref> One literary journal reported that "the 2000 Raja Rao Award that Maniam received in New Delhi was a definite boost to his international acclaim as a writer."<ref>M.M. Raihanah, "Malaysia and the Author: Face-to-Face with the Challenges of Multiculturalism", ''International Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies'', 5(2), pp.43–63, 2009.</ref>

The second winner was [[Yasmine Gooneratne]], whose international scholarship was described as being recognized with "[[Macquarie University]]'s first higher doctoral degree (D.Litt.), the [[Order of Australia]], and the Samvad India Foundation's Raja Rao Award which acknowledges authors who deal with the South Asian Diaspora in their literary work."<ref name="Weagel"/> The ''[[The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)|Sunday Times]]'' of [[Sri Lanka]] wrote of Gooneratne:

{{blockquote|When [[Saraswati]] did come into Yasmine’s life... she took the form of the goddess [[Tara (Buddhism)|Tara]]. When The Samvad India Foundation singled out Yasmine for the Raja Rao award in 2002, they made her a gift of the beautiful little figurine. This international prize celebrates writers and scholars who have made an outstanding contribution to the literature of the South Asian diaspora, and the honour delighted Yasmine even as it took her by surprise. “I never expected that the Indian writing establishment would regard me in that light,” she says.<ref name="Sunday Times"/>}}

Of the third recipient, [[Edwin Thumboo]], who had previously been a juror for the award,<ref name="WE"/> the ''[[Pune Mirror]]'' wrote:

{{blockquote|Among the awards he’s received are the National Book Development Council of Singapore’s Book Awards for Poetry (three times); the inaugural S.E.A. Write Award; Singapore’s first Cultural Medallion for Literature, and the Meritorious Services Medal. The Raja Rao Award he received in 2002 is very special to him, says Thumboo, who launched his country’s first National Poetry Festival in 2015.<ref>[https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/others/sunday-read/country-poet/articleshow/67212187.cms Vinutha Mallya, "Country poet,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415173857/https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/others/sunday-read/country-poet/articleshow/67212187.cms |date=2021-04-15 }} ''[[Pune Mirror]]'', December 23, 2018.</ref>}}

Of the fifth winner, [[David Dabydeen]], ''The Encyclopedia of Twentieth‐Century Fiction'' noted that he was the “winner of many awards including the 2004 Raja Rao Award for Literature and the 2008 Anthony N. Sabga Award for Literature -- the largest literary prize in the Caribbean.”<ref name="Twentieth"/> Likewise, another source wrote:

{{blockquote|Dabydeen is extremely highly decorated as a writer. The [[Anthony N Sabga Award]] was actually his second for 2008, having, a little more than two months ago, gone to India to receive the [[Hind Rattan]] (Jewel of India) Award presented by the Government of India. What is more, that was also his second recent Indian recognition, having been the winner of the 2004 Raja Rao Award, given in India for outstanding contribution to literature in the Indian diaspora.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.stabroeknews.com/2008/04/20/features/1882/|title=Al Creighton's Arts On Sunday|publisher=[[Stabroek News]]|first=Al|last=Creighton|date=April 20, 2008}}.</ref>}}
[[File:Meenakshi Mukherjee glass in hand.jpg|thumb|[[Meenakshi Mukherjee]] was chair of the last awarding jury in 2008]]
The Memoriam of Victor Ramraj, who served as a juror for the awarding of the honor, lauded his participation in committees “too numerous to mention individually”, but noted that “some of the most prestigious were his presidency of the Canadian Association for Commonwealth Language and Literature Studies (1992-95), his membership on the Commonwealth Literature Prize committee (1999-2001) and the Raja Rao Award for Literature of the South Asian Diaspora jury (2004)”.<ref name="Memoriam"/>

[[Meenakshi Mukherjee]], chair of the last awarding jury, died in 2009, and the award was discontinued that same year.<ref name="Astro Awani"/> {{As of|2025}}, it has not since been bestowed, and has been described as "discontinued".<ref name="Astro Awani"/> The last recipient of the award, Vijay Mishra, had also previously been a member of the board of advisors for the award.<ref name="WE"/>

==Recipients==
The seven recipients were:

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Recipient!!Year(s)!!Country!!References
|-
|[[K. S. Maniam]]||2000||[[Malaysia]]||<ref name="Tribune"/><ref name="Astro Awani"/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2000.htm |title=Raja Rao Annual Award 2000 |publisher=Samvad India Foundation |access-date=9 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202162449fw_/http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2000.htm |archive-date=2 December 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Shyam Selvadurai, ''Story-Wallah! - A Celebration Of South Asian Fiction'', Thomas Allen & Son, 2004, p. 437.</ref>
|-
|[[Yasmine Gooneratne]]||2001||[[Sri Lanka]]||<ref>[[Nicholas Birns]], Rebecca McNeer, ''A Companion to Australian Literature Since 1900'', 2007, page 107.</ref><ref name="Award 2001">{{Cite web |url=http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2001.htm |title=Raja Rao Annual Award 2001 |publisher=Samvad India Foundation |access-date=9 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202162459fw_/http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2001.htm |archive-date=2 December 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
|[[Edwin Thumboo]]||2002||[[Singapore]]||<ref>Jonathan Webster, ''Understanding Verbal Art: A Functional Linguistic Approach'', Springer, 2014, page 125.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/others/sunday-read/country-poet/articleshow/67212187.cms|title=Country Poet|first=Vinutha|last=Mallya|publisher=[[Pune Mirror]]|date=December 23, 2018|access-date=September 17, 2019|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415173857/https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/others/sunday-read/country-poet/articleshow/67212187.cms|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2002.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202163527/http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2002.htm|title=Raja Rao Annual Award 2002|publisher=Samvad India Foundation|access-date=9 September 2019 |archive-date=2 December 2019}}</ref>
|-
|[[Harsha V. Dehejia]]||2003||[[Canada]]||<ref name="Ottawa"/><ref name="Financial Express">{{Cite web|url=https://www.financialexpress.com/archive/krishnabhakti-from-carleton/58903/|title=Krishnabhakti from Carleton|date=January 30, 2005|website=[[The Financial Express (India)|The Financial Express]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2003.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202163529/http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2003.htm|title=Raja Rao Annual Award 2003|publisher=Samvad India Foundation|access-date=9 September 2019|archive-date=2 December 2019}}</ref>
|-
|[[David Dabydeen]]||2004||[[Guyana]]||<ref name="Twentieth"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2004.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202163531/http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2004.htm|title=Raja Rao Annual Award 2004|publisher=Samvad India Foundation|access-date=9 September 2019|archive-date=2 December 2019}}</ref>
|-
|[[Varadaraja V. Raman]]||2005–06||[[United States]]||<ref name="Paranjape"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rit.edu/news/rit-lecture-addresses-science-and-religion-todays-world-april-17|title=RIT Lecture Addresses Science and Religion in Today's World|first=Susan|last=Gawlowicz|publisher=[[Rochester Institute of Technology]]|date=April 10, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2006.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202163531/http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2006.htm|title=Raja Rao Annual Award 2006|publisher=Samvad India Foundation|access-date=9 September 2019|archive-date=2 December 2019}}</ref>
|-
|[[Vijay Mishra]]||2007–08||[[Fiji]]||<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2008.html |title=Raja Rao Annual Award 2008 |publisher=Samvad India Foundation |access-date=9 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180217142016fw_/http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-award2008.html |archive-date=17 February 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
|}

==Jurors==
The award was bestowed by a three-member jury of "scholars of international standing".<ref name="WE"/> Those who served as jurors for selection of the recipient included:

*[[Meenakshi Mukherjee]] (Chair)<ref name="Jury">{{cite web|url=http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-jury.htm|title=Jury for the Award|publisher=Samvad India Foundation|access-date=9 September 2019}}</ref>
*[[Braj Kachru]]<ref name="Award 2001"/>
*[[Victor Ramraj]]<ref name="WE"/><ref name="Memoriam"/><ref name="Jury"/>
*[[Makarand Paranjape]]<ref name="WE"/><ref name="Jury"/>
*[[Edwin Thumboo]]<ref name="WE"/>

In addition, an International Advisory Board was assembled,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-advisory.htm|title=Advisory Board|publisher=Samvad India Foundation|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202162151/http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-advisory.htm|access-date=2 December 2019|archive-date=2019-12-02}}</ref> generally including some members of the jury as well as other scholars, with the initial board also including [[Ritu Menon]], Malashri Lal, [[Alastair Niven]], and Vijay Mishra.<ref name="WE"/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.samvadindia.net/si-web/si-rra.htm Raja Rao Award] page
*[http://www.samvadindia.net/ Samvad India Foundation]
*[http://www.beilharz.com/autores/rao/ Breathing India In America: A Tribute to Raja Rao], by Francis C. Assisi

{{Raja Rao Award}}



[[Category:Indian literary awards]]
[[Category:Awards established in 2000]]
[[Category:Awards disestablished in 2009]]

Raja Rao Award - Revision history

GiseleStead: started basic bio w/ sources