Uday Prakash | |
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Born | Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh, India | 1 January 1952
Education | M.A., BSc |
Genre | Novels, poetry, translation articles, TV and films |
Uday Prakash (born 1 January 1952) is a Hindi poet, scholar,[1] journalist, translator and short story writer from India. He has worked as administrator, editor, researcher, and TV director.[2] He writes for major dailies and periodicals as a freelancer. He has also received several awards for his collection of short stories and poems. With Mohan Das he received Sahitya Academi Awards in 2011.[3][4] He is the first author to return his Sahitya Akademi award on Sep 3, 2015 against the killing of M. M. Kalburgi that initiated a storm of national protests by writers, artists,scholars and intellectuals. .[5]
Prakash was born on 1 January 1952,[6] in the backward village of Sitapur, Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh, India.[2] He was raised by and given primary education there by a teacher.[7][8] He graduated in Science and obtained his master's degree in Hindi Literature, receiving a Gold Medal from Saugar University in 1974.[2] From 1975 to 1976, he was a research student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU);[9] He was imprisoned as a passionate communist party member.[10] He later lost interest in political ideology.[8][11]
In 1978 Prakash taught as an assistant professor at JNU,[12] and its Imphal Center for Post Graduate Studies. In 1980 he left academia, to become Officer-on-Special-Duty with the Madhya Pradesh Department of Culture. At the same time, he was Controlling Officer of the Bhopal Rabindra Bhawan, and assistant editor of Poorvagraha, a journal of Hindi literary criticism. (He was later critical of the Hindi literary establishment including Ashok Vajpeyi, who he worked for at Poorvagraha.)[13]
From 1982 to 1990, Prakash worked in New Delhi newspapers; first as a subeditor of the Hindi news weekly Dinmaan,[14] and later as Assistant Editor of the Sunday Mail.[2] In 1987 becoming assistant professor at the School of Social Journalism (on deputation). In 1990 he joined ITV, (Independent Television), and became head of the PTI TV Concept and Script Department. Since 1993, he has been a full-time freelance writer.[2]
Prakash was the editor of the monthly English language magazine "Eminence" (published in Bangalore) until April 2000.
He also participated in the international poetry festivals and seminars.[15] [16][17]
He has also made documentary films with Sahitya Akademi, like on Dharamvir Bharti.[18] Prakash returned his Sahitya Akademi award in 2015, to protest the murder of rationalist academic M. M. Kalburgi.[19]