Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize Shortlist Announced

The New India Foundation announced the shortlist for the third edition of the 바카라�Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize바카라�, recognising and celebrating excellence in non-fiction writings on modern/ contemporary India. The 6 shortlisted books are a testimony to the quality and diversity of non-fiction writing in and about India.

The Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize celebrates high-quality, non-fiction literature by emerging writers from all nationalities, published in the previous calendar year. Established in 2018, the Book Prize carries a cash award of INR 15 lacs and a citation.

According to a release, this year바카라�s longlist of 12 titles exhibited the incredible breadth and quality of narratives in and about India, and the jury has shortlisted 6 compelling books. The shortlist covers a century of modern Indian history and encompasses several genres바카라�biography and investigative reportage, environment histories, anthropology and history바카라�as well as a variety of themes that blend the country바카라�s complex past to aspirations for the future.

This year바카라�s eminent jury includes political scientist and author Niraja Gopal Jayal (Chair), historian and critically acclaimed author Ramachandra Guha; entrepreneur and author Nandan Nilekani; historian and author Srinath Raghavan; historian and author Nayanjot Lahiri; and Manish Sabharwal, Chairman, Teamlease Services.

According to the Jury, 바카라�The Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay prize short-list demonstrates the range and quality of non-fiction writing about modern India, from political biography to the sociology of politics, from investigative journalism to the history of ecology and of technology바카라�.

The six books shortlisted for the Prize are:

• Mobilizing the Marginalized: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic Movements by Amit Ahuja (Oxford University Press)

• Midnight's Machines: A Political History of Technology in India by Arun Mohan Sukumar (Penguin Random House)

• The Unquiet River: A Biography of the Brahmaputra by Arupjyoti Saikia (Oxford University Press)

• A Chequered Brilliance: The Many Lives of V.K. Krishna Menon by Jairam Ramesh (Penguin Random House)

• Bottle of Lies: Ranbaxy and the Dark Side of Indian Pharma by Katherine Eban (Juggernaut)

• Wild Himalaya: A Natural History of the Greatest Mountain Range on Earth by Stephen Alter (Aleph)

The Kamaladevi NIF Book Prize builds on the New India Foundation바카라�s mission of sponsoring high-quality research and writing on all aspects of Independent India. The prize was named after Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, the great patriot, and institution-builder who had contributed significantly to the freedom struggle, to the women바카라�s movement, to refugee rehabilitation and to the renewal of handicrafts. Previous winners include Milan Vaishnav for his remarkable debut -When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics (HarperCollins Publishers) in 2018; and Ornit Shani for her scholarly work- How India Became Democratic (Penguin Random House) in 2019. The final winner will be announced in early December 2020.