Singer T M Krishna wins Indira Gandhi National Integration
AwardNew Delhi, Oct 14 (PTI) Carnatic vocalist T M Krishna haswon the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration for 2015-16.
The singer, who won the Ramon Magsaysay award forbringing "social inclusiveness in culture" in 2016, will bepresented with the honour by Congress president Sonia Gandhion October 31, Indira Gandhi's death anniversary.
"The 30th Indira Gandhi Award for National Integrationfor the year 2015 and 2016 has been awarded to T M Krishna,for his services in promoting and preserving nationalintegration in the country," Motilal Vora, member secretaryof the advisory committee of the Indira Gandhi Award forNational Integration of AICC, said in a statement.
Krishna is not only one of the pre-eminent vocalists inthe rigorous Carnatic tradition of Indian classical music, butalso an activist who has worked on creating egalitarian spacesfor music and breaking down caste-barriers in the form.
He was also part of a movement to help the Tamil-dominated and war-ravaged northern province of Sri Lankarebuild its classical music traditions.
An outspoken columnist, Krishna, has written and talkedon a wide range of socio-political issues, including women'srights, children's needs, issues that make a society civil orun-civil, and the dangers of the mentality of war and narrownationalism.
The award consists of a citation and a cash prize of Rs10 lakh.
The Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration wasinstituted in 1985 by the Congress in its centenary year.
The award is conferred on October 31 for promotingnational integration, understanding and fellowship amongdifferent communities and cultures of India.
The earlier recipients include spiritual leader SwamiRanganathananda, freedom fighter Aruna Asaf Ali, the BharatScounts and Guides, bureaucrat P N Haksar, singer M SSubbulakshmi, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi(posthumously) and former presidents Dr A P J Abdul Kalam andShankar Dayal Sharma (posthumously).
Others winners include the Kasturba Gandhi NationalMemorial Trust (Indore, Madhya Pradesh), musician A R Rehmanand Ramakrishna Mission Ashram, Narainpur, Chhattisgarh(jointly), poet Gulzar, scientist Dr M S Swaminathan andactivist P V Rajagopal, besides filmmaker Shyam Benegal andlyricist Javed Akhtar. PTI SKCBSA.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.