Urdu novelist Rahman Abbas has decided to return the Sahitya Academy award as a mark of protest against the Dadri lynching incident. Abbas had won the Maharashtra State Urdu Sahitya Academy Award in 2011 for his third novel 'Khuda Ke Saaye Mein Aankh Micholi. He said the Urdu writing community has been quite unhappy after the Dadri incident and it is high time to stand up against injustice.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, award-winning author Shashi Deshpande resigned from the Sahitya Akademi General Council Friday expressing disappointment over the literary body's silence on the issue of Kannada writer M M Kalburgi.<br/><br/>In her letter to Akademi Chairperson Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari, the 77-year-old author said she hoped that the Akademi would get involved with important issues that affect Indian writers' freedom to speak and write. Deshpande was awarded by the Sahitya Akademi for her novel "That Long Silence" in 1990.