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Sahitya Akademi Award (English), 2025 winner

Crimson Spring

by Navtej Sarna

Crimson Spring returns to Amritsar in April 1919, when British troops opened fire on an unarmed crowd gathered in the walled garden of Jallianwala Bagh. Sarna, a former diplomat, tells the story through nine people — Indian and British, officials and ordinary citizens — whose lives the massacre alters, mixing invented characters with historical ones. The result is a careful, many-sided account of how one afternoon of violence changed the course of a country’s struggle for freedom.

Book detailsAbout Navtej Sarna

About the prize

The Sahitya Akademi, India’s National Academy of Letters in New Delhi, gives its main award each year to an outstanding book in every one of the twenty-four languages it recognises, English among them. Each language has its own jury and books from the preceding few years are eligible, so the winner may be a novel, poems, essays, a biography or a history. The English award was first given in 1960; in years with no award the Akademi made none, and the list below follows the Akademi’s own record of years. There is no public shortlist.

First given
1960
Based in
India
We list
English

Winners, year by year

54 winning books since 1960 (English), newest first.

2020s

  1. 2025Crimson Spring by Navtej SarnaNovel
  2. 2024Spirit Nights by Easterine KireNovel
  3. 2023Requiem in Raga Janki by Neelum Saran GourNovel
  4. 2022All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha RoyNovel
  5. 2021Things to Leave Behind by Namita GokhaleNovel
  6. 2020When God Is a Traveller by Arundhathi SubramaniamPoetry

2010s

  1. 2019An Era of Darkness by Shashi TharoorNon-fiction
  2. 2018The Blind Lady’s Descendants by Anees SalimNovel
  3. 2017The Black Hill by Mamang DaiNovel
  4. 2016Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry PintoNovel
  5. 2015Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer by Cyrus MistryNovel
  6. 2014Trying to Say Goodbye by Adil JussawallaPoetry
  7. 2013Laburnum for My Head by Temsula AoShort stories
  8. 2012These Errors Are Correct by Jeet ThayilPoetry
  9. 2011India After Gandhi by Ramachandra GuhaHistory
  10. 2010The Book of Rachel by Esther DavidNovel

2000s

  1. 2009The Mahabharata: An Inquiry into the Human Condition by Chaturvedi BadrinathCriticism; awarded posthumously
  2. 2008Not awarded
  3. 2007Disorderly Women by Malathi RaoNovel
  4. 2006The Sari Shop by Rupa BajwaNovel
  5. 2005The Algebra of Infinite Justice by Arundhati RoyEssays
  6. 2004The Mammaries of the Welfare State by Upamanyu ChatterjeeNovel
  7. 2003The Perishable Empire by Meenakshi MukherjeeEssays
  8. 2002A New World by Amit ChaudhuriNovel
  9. 2001Rajaji: A Life by Rajmohan GandhiBiography
  10. 2000Cuckold by Kiran NagarkarNovel

1990s

  1. 1999The Collected Poems of A. K. Ramanujan by A. K. RamanujanPoetry; awarded posthumously
  2. 1998Final Solutions and Other Plays by Mahesh DattaniPlays
  3. 1997Not awarded
  4. 1996Memories of Rain by Sunetra GuptaNovel
  5. 1995Not awarded
  6. 1994Serendip by Dom MoraesPoetry
  7. 1993After Amnesia by G. N. DevyCriticism
  8. 1992Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra by Ruskin BondShort stories
  9. 1991The Trotter-Nama by I. Allan SealyNovel
  10. 1990That Long Silence by Shashi DeshpandeNovel

1980s

  1. 1989The Shadow Lines by Amitav GhoshNovel
  2. 1988The Golden Gate by Vikram SethNovel in verse
  3. 1987Trapfalls in the Sky by Shiv K. KumarPoetry
  4. 1986Rich Like Us by Nayantara SahgalNovel
  5. 1985Collected Poems by Kamala DasPoetry
  6. 1984The Keeper of the Dead by Keki N. DaruwallaPoetry
  7. 1983Latter-Day Psalms by Nissim EzekielPoetry
  8. 1982The Last Labyrinth by Arun JoshiNovel
  9. 1981Relationship by Jayanta MahapatraPoetry
  10. 1980On the Mother by K. R. Srinivasa IyengarBiography

1970s

  1. 1979Inside the Haveli by Rama MehtaNovel; awarded posthumously
  2. 1978Fire on the Mountain by Anita DesaiNovel
  3. 1977Azadi by Chaman NahalNovel
  4. 1976Jawaharlal Nehru by Sarvepalli GopalBiography
  5. 1975Scholar Extraordinary by Nirad C. ChaudhuriBiography
  6. 1974Not awarded
  7. 1973Not awarded
  8. 1972Not awarded
  9. 1971Morning Face by Mulk Raj AnandNovel
  10. 1970Not awarded

1960s

  1. 1969An Artist in Life by Niharranjan RayA study of Tagore
  2. 1968Not awarded
  3. 1967Shadow from Ladakh by Bhabani BhattacharyaNovel
  4. 1966Not awarded
  5. 1965The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin by Verrier ElwinAutobiography; awarded posthumously
  6. 1964Not awarded
  7. 1963The Serpent and the Rope by Raja RaoNovel
  8. 1962Not awarded
  9. 1961Not awarded
  10. 1960The Guide by R. K. NarayanNovel

Facts checked on 12 October 2026 against sahitya-akademi.gov.in, en.wikipedia.org, newindianexpress.com, en.wikipedia.org, bibliaimpex.com. The words on this page are Read2Reason’s own.