New India Foundation announces long-list for Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize
HYDERABAD: The New India Foundation on Friday announced the longlist for the fifth edition of the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize, recognising and celebrating excellence in non-fiction writings on modern and contemporary India.
Named after one of India’s foremost nation-builders, the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize celebrates the finest non-fiction literature on modern and contemporary India published in the previous calendar year by writers of all nationalities. Instituted in 2018, the Book Prize carries an award of Rs 15 lakhs and a citation.
This year’s longlist of ten extraordinary books covers a variety of themes in combining keen research with scholarly writing. Each offers valuable insight into different aspects of the country’s history. Ranging from biography and art history to analysis of environmental, industrial, and governmental shifts, the books selected this year represent the ways in which India has come to be shaped in this 75th year of independence.
This year’s eminent jury includes political scientist and author Niraja Gopal Jayal (Chair); entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal; historian and author Srinath Raghavan; historian and author Nayanjot Lahiri; former diplomat and author Navtej Sarna; and attorney and author Rahul Matthan.
The ten books longlisted for the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2022 are:
Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility Among India’s Professional Elite by Swethaa S. Ballakrishnen (Princeton University Press)
The Truths and Lies of Nationalism as Narrated by Charvak by Partha Chatterjee (Permanent Black)
Syed Haider Raza: The Journey of an Iconic Artist by Yashodhara Dalmia (HarperCollins)
Governance by Stealth: The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Making of the Indian State by Subrata Mitra (Oxford University Press)
The Chipko Movement: A People’s History by Shekhar Pathak (Permanent Black)
Tata: The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism by Mircea Raianu (Harvard University Press)
Whole Numbers and Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India by Rukmini S. (Context/Westland)
Congress Radio: Usha Mehta and the Underground Radio Station of 1942 by Usha Thakkar (Penguin)
Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India by Suchitra Vijayan (Context/Westland)
Born a Muslim: Some Truths about Islam in India by Ghazala Wahab (Aleph)
