NEW DELHI/DEHRADUN: Some writers and cultural figures, including author Nayantara Sahgal , who took part in the “award wapsi” protest against alleged growing intolerance are learnt to have retraced their steps and have agreed to accept the Sahitya Akademi awards that they had given up.When contacted, Sahgal said she had yet to decide on the matter. Her protest and essay “Unmaking of India” had set off the award wapsi movement that was taken up by several writers, film personalities and artistes.Sahgal who had stressed her “right to dissent” and protest against growing intolerance, said on Friday that "she had not yet decided on the matter." She added that "I really can't speak about this but what I can say is that I haven't yet decided on the matter."Agency reports quoted Sahitya Akademi president Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari as saying, “Sahitya Akademi has started sending back awards to the writers...It has already been sent to Nayantara Sahgal. Another writer Nand Bhardwaj has also agreed to take back the award. It would be sent to other writers as well.”Bhardwaj confirmed to TOI on Friday that he has agreed to take back the award, which he had returned last year to protest incidents like Dadri lynching and killing of rationalists and writers Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar.He said that the situation had changed since he returned his award. “The writers’ lobby was shocked and saddened by the fact that the akademi had not as much as issued a statement against the killing of noted writer MM Kalburgi. We returned our awards — that was the only way we could register our protest. However, in October, the akademi held a meeting and assured us that it stands by and supports the writers,” said Bhardwaj, a former director of Doodarshan.He said he had sent a letter to the akademi confirming his decision to take back the award on January 16. “The akademi had requested us to reconsider our decision. On a personal level, I respect the akademi’s decisions and hence decided to take back the award,” he said.The Akademi has also started sending a copy of its resolution passed in October mentioning that there is no provision to return honours.Sources told TOI that the culture ministry is in touch with several awardees who are ready to take back their awards and that some have also recieved the cheques — relating to award money — that they had sent to the akademi.The award wapsi participants had protested over the lynching of Muslim man Mohammad Akhlaq and the murders of rationalists like MM Kalburgi in Karnataka.On October 23, Sahitya Akademi passed a unanimous resolution appealing to state and central governments to take steps to prevent such incidents and asked authors to take back the awards they had returned to protest against “rising intolerance”.The 88-yead-old Sahgal, while returning her award in October, had penned an open letter titled “The Unmaking of India”, in which she had referred to the lynching of Dadri resident Mohammed Akhtaq who was killed on the supposed suspicion that beef was cooked in his home.Asserting that the right to dissent, an integral part of the constitutional guarantee was being threatened, Sahgal wrote that “distinguished Kannada writer and Sahitya Akademi Award winner, MM Kalburgi, and two Maharashtrians, Narendra Dhabolkar and Govind Pansare, both anti-superstition activists, had all been killed by gun-toting motor-cyclists ... In memory of the Indians who have been murdered, in support of all Indians who uphold the right to dissent, and of all dissenters who now live in fear and uncertainty, I am returning my Sahitya Akademi Award.”