Amitav Ghosh Awarded Erasmus Prize for Highlighting Climate Crisis

Utkarsh Classes Last Updated 09-03-2024

Amitav Ghosh Awarded Erasmus Prize for Highlighting Climate Crisis

Award and Honour 3 min read

On 7 March 2024, Indian writer Amitav Ghosh was awarded with the 'Erasmus Prize' 2024 for highlighting the climate change crisis. 67-year-old Ghosh has been honored with the award by the Premium Erasmianum Foundation of the Netherlands.

Amitav Ghosh will receive the award in person in the Netherlands in November.

Honoring passionate contributions on 'Imagining the Unimaginable':

Ghosh has received this award for his passionate contribution to highlighting the global crisis of climate change through writing and on the theme of 'imagining the unimaginable'.
The foundation said during the award that Ghosh used his pen to show that the climate crisis is a cultural crisis that is the result of a lack of imagination.

About the Erasmus Prize:

Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands founded the Premium Erasmianum in 1958.
This award established the Premium Erasmianum, a cultural institution active in the fields of humanities, social sciences and arts.
It is a distinguished award for individuals or institutions who have made an extraordinary contribution to culture or scholarship in Europe and beyond.
The prize carries an incentive amount of 150,000 Euros. It is also accompanied by decorations designed by Bruno Nienaber van Eyben.
Patrons of the Foundation present the awards during a ceremony. Which usually takes place in the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.
In 2023, this award was received by South African comedian 'Trevor Noah'. Previous recipients include American journalist and author Barbara Ehrenreich (2018), author A.S. Byatt (2016), and Charles Chaplin and Ingmar Bergman in 1965.

About Amitav Ghosh:

Born in Kolkata in 1956, Ghosh pursued social anthropology at Oxford. Ghosh divided his time between India and the United States. He received many awards in his life so far, including the 2018 Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary award.
In 2019, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Maastricht University.
Foreign Policy magazine recognized him as one of the most significant global thinkers of modern times.

Major Books of Amitav Ghosh:

Amitav Ghosh is the author of bestsellers like The Nutmeg's Curse, The Hungry Tide, The Great Derangement. Also among Ghosh's main works are Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire.