New Delhi: For the year 2022, the New India Foundation (NIF) has announced the longlist of the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize. This prestigious list includes 10 books on subjects ranging from biography and art history to environment and industry, and even includes books that represent the ways in which India has come to be shaped in the 75th year of independence.
“In theorising the past and present, the longlisted titles offer a new way of interpreting paths towards an aspirational future,” the NIF said in a statement released on Thursday, September 29.
The New India Foundation is delighted to announce the
LONGLIST for the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2022
Details here: https://t.co/WMsiXp8FHo #BookAward #NonFiction @NavtejSarna @matthan @srinathraghava3— New India Foundation (@newindiafndtion) September 29, 2022
This year’s jury, headed by political scientist and author Niraja Gopal Jayal, included entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal, historians and authors Srinath Raghavan and Nayanjot Lahiri, former diplomat and author Navtej Sarna, and attorney and author Rahul Matthan.
Commenting on the longlist, the jury said, “The many themes in modern Indian history that it covers have great relevance today: if the histories of nationalism, business, the environment and state institutions offer a sobering historical lens on the present, the more contemporary works on feminism and data give reasons for optimism about the future. Deeply researched and engagingly written, these works of history reflect on the contemporary Indian condition.”
Among the books selected are Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility Among India’s Professional Elite (Swethaa S. Ballakrishnen), The Truths and Lies of Nationalism as Narrated by Charvak (Partha Chatterjee), Syed Haider Raza: The Journey of an Iconic Artist (Yashodhara Dalmia), Governance by Stealth: The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Making of the Indian State (Subrata Mitra), and The Chipko Movement: A People’s History (Shekhar Pathak).
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Tata: The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism (Mircea Raianu), Whole Numbers and Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India (Rukmini S.), Congress Radio: Usha Mehta and the Underground Radio Station of 1942 (Usha Thakkar), Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India (Suchitra Vijayan) and Ghazala Wahab’s Born a Muslim: Some Truths about Islam in India complete the list.
The prize, instituted in 2018, which carries a cash award of Rs 15 lakh as well as a citation, celebrates non-fiction literature published in the previous calendar year by emerging writers of all nationalities in modern and contemporary India.
The shortlist will be announced on November 8 and the winner on December 1.
The prize is named after Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, who contributed significantly to the freedom struggle, the women’s movement, refugee rehabilitation and to the renewal of Indian theatre and handicrafts.
Last year, the prize was awarded to Dinyar Patel. In 2020, the prize was jointly awarded to Amit Ahuja and Jairam Ramesh. In 2019, it was given to Ornit Shani and in 2018 to Milan Vaishnav.