Sahitya Akademi Award Winners

The Guide by R K Narayan

1960

The Serpent and the Rope by Raja Rao

1964

The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin (Autobiography)

1965

Shadow From Ladakh by Bhabhani Bhattacharya

1967

An Artist in Life (Niharranjan Ray) (Biography)

1969

Morning Face by Mulk Raj Anand

1971

Scholar Extraordinary by Nirad C Chaudhuri

1975

Jawaharlal Nehru by Sarvepalli Gopal

1976

Azadi by Chaman Nahal

1977

Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai

1978

Inside the Haveli by Rama Mehta

1979

On the Mother by Srinivasa Iyengar

1980

Relationship by Jayanta Mahapatra (poetry)

1981

The Last Labyrinth by Arun Joshi

1982

Latter Day Psalms by Nissim Ezekiel

1983

The Keeper of the Dead by Keki N Daruwalla

1984

Collected Poems by Kamala Das

1985

Rich Like Us by Nayantara Sahgal

1986

Trapfalls in the sky by Shiv K Kumar

1987

The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth

1988

The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh

1989

That Long Silence by Shashi Deshpande

1990

The Trotter Nama by I Allan Sealy

1991

Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra by Ruskin Bond

1992

After Amnesia by G N Devy (Essays)

1993

Serendip by Dom Moraes

1994

Memories of Rain by Sunetra Gupta

1996

Final Solutions by Mahesh Dattani (play)

1998

The Collected Poems by A K Ramanuja

1999

Cuckold by Kiran Nagarkar

2000

Rajaji: A Life by Rajmohan Gandhi

2001

A New World by Amit Chaudhuri

2002

The Perishable Empire by Meenakshi Mukherjee

2003

The Mammaries of the Welfare State by Upamanyu Chatterjee

2004

The Algebra of Infinite Justice by Arundhati Roy

2005

The Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa

2006

The Disorderly Women by Malathi Rao

2007

Mahabharata: An Inquiry into the human condition by Chaturvedi Badrinath (criticism)

2009

The Book of Rachel by Esther David

2010

India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha (historical narrative)

2011

These Errors are Correct by Jeet Thayil

2012

Laburnum for my head by Temsula Ao (short story)

2013

Trying to say goodbye by Adil Jussawalla

2014

Chronicles of a corpse bearer by Cyrus Mistry

2015

Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto

2016

The Black Hill by Mamang Dai

2017

The Blind Lady’s Descendants by Anees Salim

2018

An Era of Darkness by Shashi Tharoor (non-fiction)

2019

When God is a Traveller by Arundhati Subramaniam

2020

Things to Leave Behind by Namita Gokhale

2021

All the lives we never lived by Anuradha Roy

2022

Requiem in Raga Janaki by Neelam Gaur

2023

First Autobiography

The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin

First poetry

Relationship by Mahapatra

First Essay Collection

After Amnesia by GN Devy

First Play

Final Solutions by Mahesh Dattani

First Criticism

Mahabharata: An Enquiry into the Human Condition by Chaturvedi Badrinath

First Historical Narrative

India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha

First Short Story collection

Laburnum for My Head by Temsula Ao

First Non-Fiction

An Era of Darkness by Shashi Tharoor