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"Words
are the only jewels I possess, words are the only clothes I wear,
words are the only food that sustains my life, words are the
only wealth I distribute among people."
These lines of Sant
Tukaram could well apply to Sahitya
Akademi that is one of the biggest and most unique publishers
of books and journals in India. Sahitya Akademi, the National
Academy of Letters in India established in 1954 is dedicated
to the popularisation of the most excellent works of Indian literature,
to the setting of the highest standards of literary awareness
and sensibility and to the  building
of deep cultural and emotional bonds among the different linguistic
communities of India.
We believe that multilingualism has been the
very stuff of our nationalism and that the diversity of creative
genius in the country is the very foundation of the rich and
complex unity of our literary culture. The collective myths,
legends, literary forms and traditions, common trends like the
Bhakti Movement of the medieval times and the anti-colonial,
Progressive, Modernist, Feminist, Nativist and Dalit
movements of more recent times and
shared themes, hopes, frustrations, perceptions, states and experiences
have given a strong appearance of unity to India's literatures.
At the same time the traditions of each region, the
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rhythms of popular speech, the landscapes,
ethnic communities, folklore and forms of art,the general state
of awareness, disseminationion of different ideas and systems
of thought, different combinations of external influences and
native elements and the particular genius of each language have
given them specific tones, flavours, directions, cultural registers
and individual histories that hold a specific relation to the
history of Indian society and literature in general.
Our publications which include books, journals, seminar papers, monographs, encyclopedias, etc. are designed to reflect both the
variety and the underlying unity of India's rich literature.
We consider our task
to be no less than nation-building
through literary exchange and creative
communication. We are dedicated to keeping alive the great cultural
dialogue in India and widening the horizons of literature in
every Indian language. We dream of a day when every home in India
will have a shelf of literary works published by the Sahitya
Akademi. We seek inspiration from these words of Lal
Ded, the great woman saint from Kashmir:
"Give breath to the bellows as the blacksmith does. Then
your iron will turn into gold. It is dawn. Seek your new friend."
We are ever in search of new friends, like you, to take our message
and distribute our wealth - our books are our message and our
wealth - to the people, the rightful heirs of our unique literature.
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