NIF fellowships to 11 scholars, writers

The New India Foundation (NIF) will award fellowships to 11 scholars and writers this year for a set of non-fiction book proposals chronicling post-Independence India, it was announced Thursday.

The NIF fellowships are awarded for a period of one year with an annual stipend of ₹18 lakh to each recipient; and include editorial and publishing support for each project. The fellowship enables scholars and writers to write and publish works of non-fiction.

"So far, 22 books written by fellowship winners have been published under the NIF aegis; many of these have become seminal and award-winning works on contemporary Indian history," NIF said in a statement.

Currently in its 10th cycle, the NIF fellowship awardees this year comprise an eclectic mix of journalists, academics and researchers, both young and experienced, with a compelling and wide range of proposals, it said. 

The list of awardees was decided by a panel of jury members that included political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal, historians Ramachandra Guha and Srinath Raghavan, CEO of Pratham Education Foundation Rukmini Banerji, entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani and chairman of Teamlease Services Manish Sabharwal.

The awardees and their tentative book titles include Anjum Hasan ("Shillong: First City of India's Northeast"); Chitrangada Choudhury ("Power, Profit and Protests: Forest Communities on the Frontlines of Environmental Justice"); Jaideep Hardikar ("The Rise and Fall of The Empress"); Jayaseelan Raj ("The Egalitarian Paradox: Dalits and the State in Kerala"); Maya Ratnam ("Dwelling in the Forest: The Government of Nature in Tribal Central India); and M Mohsin Alam Bhat ("Constitutional Culture: Muslims and Popular Constitutionalism in India").

Raza Kazmi ("The First of Nine: The Story of Palamau Tiger Reserve"); Simin Patel ("Irani Restaurants of Bombay"); Sohini C ("The Losers: A History of Women Runners, and Running in India"); Srikar Raghavan ("From Malnad to Mysore: Following the trail of Literature and Activism in Karnataka"); and Suryakant Waghmore ("Is a Post Caste City Possible?: Examining Caste Erasure in contemporary Ahmedabad and Mumbai") complete the list.

Speaking on behalf of the jury, Raghavan said this was an exceptional year for the NIF fellowships as not only over 900 applications were received, but more fellowships are being awarded than ever before.

"The 11 NIF fellows will write books on a remarkable set of topics encompassing cities and forests, law and politics, sports and literature, business and culture - books that promise to transform our understanding of contemporary India," he said.