Books on Banaras, Hindutva pop stars, life in Yerawada jail, and more on NIF Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize 2024 longlist
The Hindu
Discover the diverse and thought-provoking non-fiction books on the NIF Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize 2024 longlist.
The New India Foundation has announced the longlist for the NIF Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize 2024. The ten non-fiction books, touching different aspects of contemporary history and politics, on the list include Toward a Free Economy: Swatantra and Opposition Politics in Democratic India (Princeton University Press) by Aditya Balasubramanian; From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada (Juggernaut) by Sudha Bharadwaj, the activist lawyer who was one of the 16 Bhima Koregaon accused;Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century (Penguin) by historian Joya Chatterji; and How Prime Ministers Decide (Aleph Book Company), a look at six PMs and their ways of functioning, by Neerja Chowdhury.
Also on the list is a biography of the constitutionalist,B.R. Ambedkar, A Part Apart: The Life and Thought of B.R. Ambedkar(Navayana), by Ashok Gopal; H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars (HarperCollins) by Kunal Purohit; Swadeshi Steam: V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and the Battle Against the British Maritime Empire (Penguin), a fascinating biography of an anti-colonialist, by A.R. Venkatachalapathy; Sheikh Abdullah: The Caged Lion of Kashmir (HarperCollins) by Chitralekha Zutshi; Fire on the Ganges: Life Among the Dead in Banaras(HarperCollins) by Radhika Iyengar and No Birds of Passage: A History of Gujarati Muslim Business Communities 1800-1975 (Harvard University Press) by Michael O’Sullivan.
The NIF Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize (KCBP) is open to writers of all nationalities who have worked on any aspect of Indian history after Independence, and carries a cash award of ₹15 lakh as well as an annual citation at the Bangalore Literature Festival.
The 2024 KCBP Longlist was selected by an eminent jury, including political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal (Chair of the Book Prize), historian Srinath Raghavan, entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal, former diplomat and author Navtej Sarna, lawyer Rahul Matthan, and public policy researcher Yamini Aiyar. Talking about the longlist, the jury said: “The landscape of Indian non-fiction today is prolific, exciting and constantly pushing boundaries, and we congratulate all the nominated authors and their publishers.” Last year, the prize was won by Akshaya Mukul for his biography of Hindi poet Agyeya.
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