The Banaras Lit Fest continues to consolidate its position as a serious literary institution with the announcement of the 2nd Banaras Lit Fest Book Awards 2026, declared during an Outreach event at the Hi-Tech Institute of Engineering & Technology. Alongside these, the festival also unveiled the Gomati Devi Eminence Awards 2026, extending its cultural vision beyond literature into the wider domains of public service, institution-building and national life.
The most significant recognition this year is the Bhartendu Harishchandra Lifetime Achievement Award, conferred on Namita Gokhale. A writer of long-standing influence and co-founder of the Jaipur Literature Festival, Gokhale’s honour reflects both her literary contribution and her role in shaping India’s contemporary literary ecosystem across languages and generations.
Literary Authority Across Languages
The Banaras Lit Fest Book Awards are structured to recognise fiction, poetry, non-fiction and translation in English, Hindi and Indian languages, with each category carrying a cash prize of ₹51,000, a citation and a trophy. The Lifetime Achievement Award carries ₹1,00,000 and will be presented at the forthcoming Banaras Lit Fest, scheduled from January 30 to February 1, 2026, at Hotel Taj, Banaras.
The 2026 winners reflect the range and seriousness of contemporary Indian writing. In English, Shinie Antony received the Ruskin Bond Award for Fiction for Eden Abandoned: The Story of Lilith, while Abhay K was awarded the Sarojini Naidu Award for Poetry for The Hanuman Chalisa. The Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Award for Non-Fiction went to Peggy Mohan for Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Language in South Asia. Translation was recognised through Arunava Sinha for his English rendering of Sankar’s Limited / Unlimited.
In Hindi, the Premchand Award for Fiction went to Mamta Kalia for दूरस्थ दाम्पत्य, the Kabir Award for Poetry to Udayan Vajpeyi for पागल गणितज्ञ की कविताएँ, and the Rahul Sankrityayan Award for Non-Fiction to J. Sushil for दुःख की दुनिया भीतर है. The Mahadevi Verma Award for Translation honoured Rajgopal Singh Verma for his Hindi translation of Thomas Henry Kavanagh’s 1857 की क्रान्ति का अवध. Special honours included the Kalidas Award for Indian Languages to Mahadev Toppo and the Vivekanand Award for Youth to Parag Pawan.
Festival leadership described the awards as part of a sustained attempt to strengthen serious literary evaluation in India. Statements from Deepak Madhok, Brijesh Singh and literary curator Ashutosh Kumar Thakur stressed transparent jury processes, multilingual representation and the importance of creating credible platforms for emerging writers.
Gomati Devi Eminence Awards
The Gomati Devi Eminence Awards 2026, announced under the aegis of the Banaras Literature Festival (Kashi Sahitya Kala Utsav), recognise long-term contributions to nation-building across education, culture, science, medicine, business, public service, sports and women’s empowerment. The awards honour institutional impact rather than individual visibility.
This year’s recipients include Prof (Dr) K. K. Aggarwal, Ashwin Sanghi and Tisca Chopra in education, literature and culture; Dr. Naveen Khatri in science and medicine; Nupur Chaturvedi in business and entrepreneurship; Prof Dhananjay Singh in public service; Pullela Gopichand, Bhaichung Bhutia and Lalit Upadhyay in sports; Kalpana Ajayan in women’s empowerment; and Renu Sood Karnad, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Together, the Book Awards and the Gomati Devi Eminence Awards present a coherent cultural statement that places literature, public ethics and institutional responsibility within the same framework of value. In an environment where literary festivals often prioritise visibility over evaluation, the Banaras Lit Fest is positioning itself as a forum committed to credibility, continuity and judgment. Whether this orientation sustains itself over time will determine its long-term standing, but the 2026 honours establish a clear and disciplined cultural direction.
