National, Thursday; November 14th, 2024: The New India Foundation announces the Winner of the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2024 — Ashok Gopal for A Part Apart: The Life and Thought of B.R. Ambedkar, published by Navayana.

The winner of the 7th edition was selected from a shortlist of five wide-ranging books, including Neerja Choudhry’s How Prime Ministers Decide (Aleph Book Company), Radhika Iyengar’s Fire on the Ganges: Life Among the Dead in Banaras (HarperCollins), Kunal Purohit’s H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars (HarperCollins) and Chitralekha Zutshi’s Sheikh Abdullah: The Caged Lion of Kashmir (HarperCollins).

The Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize recognises excellence in non-fiction writing about modern and contemporary Indian history by writers of all nationalities. The winner receives a cash award of INR 15 lakhs, a trophy and a citation at the Bangalore Literature Festival.

The eminent Prize Jury includes political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal (Chair); entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal; historian Srinath Raghavan; former diplomat Navtej Sarna; policy analyst Yamini Aiyar, and lawyer Rahul Matthan.

The Jury Citation for the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2024:

“This remarkable book, based on prodigious research, delves into Ambedkar’s many lives — as a pioneering activist and leader of the Dalits, a tireless political organizer, a writer and publicist, constitutionalist and Cabinet Minister, as well as a peerless economic and political thinker. Ashok Gopal does full justice to each facet of this extraordinary life, and in so doing he opens a fascinating window on India’s public life in its tumultuous passage to freedom and beyond.”

A Part Apart: The Life and Thought of B.R. Ambedkar

Ashok Gopal’s meticulous biography examines the life of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, a central figure in India's struggle for social equality and justice. Through Ambedkar's transformative ideas and actions, the biography provides a vivid portrayal of his immense influence on the Indian constitution and his dedication to securing fundamental rights for all citizens, particularly marginalized communities. 

Drawing from extensive archival research and a broad array of sources, Gopal traces Ambedkar’s journey from his formative years facing systemic oppression to his role as an architect of the Indian constitution and an icon of Dalit empowerment. The book delves into Ambedkar’s pioneering work in fighting caste discrimination, his legal and political battles, and his radical shift towards Buddhism in search of social and spiritual liberation. A Part Apart captures the enduring relevance of a towering figure’s lasting contributions to India's democratic fabric.

About the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 

The Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize builds on the New India Foundation’s mission of sponsoring research and writing on all aspects of the world’s largest democracy. Works written originally in English or translated into English are eligible across a range of genres. The Prize was named to honour the legacy of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay: the great patriot and institution-builder who contributed significantly to the freedom struggle, to the women’s movement, to refugee rehabilitation and to the renewal of Indian theatre and handicrafts. Akshaya Mukul won last year’s NIF Book Prize for his wide-ranging biography of writer Agyeya (Penguin) and Shekhar Pathak was the 2021 winner of the KCBP for his environmental history The Chipko Movement: A People’s History, translated to English from Hindi by Manisha Chaudhry (Permanent Black). Dinyar Patel won the 4th edition of the Prize for his definitive biography Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism (Harvard University Press). In 2020, the KCBP was jointly awarded to Amit Ahuja for his debut Mobilizing the Marginalized: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic Movements (Oxford University Press) and Jairam Ramesh for his biography A Chequered Brilliance: The Many Lives of V.K. Krishna Menon (Penguin Random House). Ornit Shani was recognised for her scholarly work, How India Became Democratic: Citizenship and the Making of the Universal Franchise (Penguin Random House) in 2019 and Milan Vaishnav for his remarkable debut When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics (HarperCollins Publishers) in 2018.

About the New India Foundation

Based in Bengaluru, the core activity of the New India Foundation is the NIF Book Fellowships which have been awarded to scholars and writers for two decades to enable the highest standard of research and writing about India after Independence, resulting in the publication of 33 books covering an extraordinary range of topics. The NIF Translation Fellowships were instituted in 2021 and expand upon the core idea of fostering non-fiction by translating knowledge texts from 10 Indian languages to English. The NIF Book and Translation Fellowships are awarded in alternate years. 

Round 12 of the NIF Book Fellowships is open for applications — please visit the website for further details.

Ramachandra Guha, Nandan Nilekani, Niraja Gopal Jayal, Manish Sabharwal and Srinath Raghavan are the Trustees of the New India Foundation.

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Ashok Gopal will be presented with a Citation at the Bangalore Literature Festival on Saturday, December 14th 2024
For more information, please contact yauvanika@newindiafoundation.org www.newindiafoundation.org