Rushdie is named a Companion of Honour, an exclusive club with membership limited to just 65 people at any given time, for services to literature in a list released as the Jubilee Honours
London: Mumbai-born author of the Booker Prize-winning novel ‘Midnight’s Children’, Salman Rushdie, leads a list of over 40 professionals and community champions of Indian-origin to be honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, a report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
The list was released on Wednesday, June 1, as the Jubilee Honours to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years of service to the UK.
Rushdie has been named a Companion of Honour, an exclusive club with membership limited to just 65 people at any given time, for services to literature.
The Companion of Honour is a special award granted to those who have made a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government lasting over a long period of time.
Very few receive this high honour, which has been conferred on the likes of former British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and John Major and renowned physicist Stephen Hawking in the past.
“It’s a privilege to be included in such illustrious company, both past and present,” said the 74-year-old author, who was the subject of a fatwa by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini for his controversial novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ over 30 years ago.
“Born in Bombay, he later attended Rugby School and King’s College, Cambridge, where he read history,” reads the citation for Rusdhie, author of 14 novels.
“‘Midnight’s Children’ was twice (1993 and 2008) voted Best of the Bookers by the public. He was knighted for services to literature in 2007. He is also an author of non-fiction, an essayist, co-editor and a noted humanist,” it notes.
Rushdie has been named a Companion of Honour, an exclusive club with membership limited to just 65 people at any given time, for services to literature.
Others honoured with some of the higher royal awards coinciding with celebrations of the 96-year-old monarch’s 70-year reign, include a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for Avnish Mitter Goyal, Chair of Care England, for services to social care and philanthropy.
Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBEs) include hotelier Kishorkant (Vinu) Bhattessa for charitable and voluntary services, particularly during covid-19, and Liverpool head teacher Rohit Naik for services to education.
Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) recognise a large number of British Indians who have contributed to their local community, including councillors Pranav Bhanot and Ameet Jogia.
In the health-care sector, Professor Indranil Chakravorty of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) and orthopaedic surgeon Prof Srimathi Rajagopalan Murali are among those to be conferred with an MBE.
Dr Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Sandeep Mahal, Professor Daljit Nagra and Dr Chithra Ramakrishnan are among those honoured with MBEs in the field of arts, culture and literature.
Further down the list, Varsha Kumari Mistry – a Forensic Practitioner at Scotland Yard – has been conferred a Medallist of the Order of the British Empire (BEM) for services to diversity and inclusion in policing and to the Hindu community.
“This historic Platinum Jubilee is not only a celebration of the monarch but of the qualities she possesses,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“The honours she confers this week reflect many of those qualities that have been invaluable from all different walks of life and to communities across the UK. I pay tribute to all of this year’s winners. Their stories of courage and compassion are an inspiration to us all,” he said.
A total of 1,134 candidates have been named for honours across different fields by the UK Cabinet Office – which compiles the list, with 13.3 per cent of the successful candidates from an ethnic minority background.
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