The Sahitya Akademi instituted the Bhasha Samman in 1996 to be given to writers, scholars, editors, collectors, performers or translators who have made considerable contribution to the propagation, modernization or enrichment of the languages concerned.

Thakur for Pahari (Himachali), K. Jathappa Rai and Mandara Keshava Bhat for Tulu and Chandra Kanta Mura Singh for Kokborok, for their contribution to the development of their respective languages.

[7] Consequently, the Board decided to dispense with its original requirement for additional expert committees to evaluate the translations and also ruled that it was not obligated to grant prizes in languages where suitable books were not nominated.

[7] In 1985, the Akademi also held that joint translations would be eligible, and in 1997, it dispensed with the process of advertising for nominations and replaced it with invitations for recommendations from advisory boards and Committee members.

[7] On the occasion of its Golden Jubilee, Sahitya Akademi awarded the following prizes for outstanding works of poetry in translation from Indian languages.

Notable awardees include Intizar Hussain, Selina Hossain, Yasmine Gooneratne, Jean Arasanayagam and Kishwar Naheed.

[10] In 1969, Swami Anand declined the Award for contributions to Gujarati literature on the grounds that his religious beliefs precluded him from accepting any pecuniary benefits for public services.

[11] This provoked a response from the then-President of the Akademi, Vinayaka Krishna Gokak, who said, concerning the awards that, "It is not possible to generalise on the basis of age.

38 recipients had announced their returning of the award in protest of the "rising intolerance in India" under the Modi government as also the murder of author M M Kalburgi and the Dadri lynching incident.

[13][14] Among others, Ajmer Aulakh, Aman Sethi, Ganesh Devy, Kum Veerabhadrappa and Shashi Deshpande have publicly announced their return of the award.

[15] To show their condemnation Deshpande, K Satchidanandan, PK Parakkadvu and Aravind Malagatti have also resigned their posts at the Sahitya Akademi institution.