Writer Ranendra honoured with Shrilal Shukla Smriti IFFCO Sahitya Samman-2020

Dec 05, 2020

New Delhi [India], December 5 : Writer and critic in Hindi Ranendra has been honoured with the Shrilal Shukla Smriti IFFCO Sahitya Samman for the year 2020 by Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), a leading cooperative in the fertilizer sector on Saturday.
The award is given annually to a person who has made an important contribution in the field of literature. Those in the selection committee included renowned critic Nityanand Tiwari, senior narrator Chandrakanta, poet-journalist Vishnu Nagar, writer Prof Ravi Bhushan, senior critic Murali Manohar Prasad Singh, and senior poet Dr Dinesh Kumar Shukla.
Announcing the same on Twitter, IFFCO's Managing Director Uday Shankar Awasthi said, "It is a pleasure to share with all of you that writer and storyteller Ranendra has been selected for the Sri Lal Shukla Smriti IFCO Sahitya Samman of the year 2020. Ranendra's writing is dedicated to tribal life. Warm greetings to him In IFFCO we also encourage literature and art."
Born on February 10, 1960 in Nalanda district of Bihar into a lower-middle-class family, Ranendra made tribal life the main subject of his writing. In his works, Ranendra closely examines the social, economic, and cultural changes taking place within tribal communities during the period of globalization and development.
Ranendra first came into the limelight through his debut novel 'Global Gaon ke Devta'. In this, the author has introduced a new perspective of looking at the tribal society. His second novel 'Gayab hota Desh' depicted the struggle of the 'Munda' tribals. Through his works, Ranendra has raised questions related to illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, displacement, infiltration, female exploitation, religious-linguistic identity.
Apart from stories and novels, he has also written poems. His compositions have been published continuously in prestigious newspapers and magazines. A compilation of his poems has been published under the name 'A little woman. He has also edited a quarterly literary magazine 'Kanchi' from 1999 to 2005. His novel 'Gungi Rulai Ka Chorus', based on the houses of classical music, is going to be published soon.
This award was started in the year 2011 in the memory of the storyteller Shrilal Shukla. It is given every year to a Hindi writer whose works mainly depicted the problems, aspirations and struggles related to rural and agricultural life and marginalized people, displacement etc.
So far this award has been conferred on Vidyasagar Nautiyal, Shekhar Joshi, Sanjeev, Mithileshwar, Ashtabhuja Shukla, Kamalakant Tripathi, Ramdev Dhurandhar, Ramdhari Singh 'Diwakar' and Mahesh Katare.