NIF to offer fellowships on post-Independence India books

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The New India Foundation (NIF) has announced the 11th edition of its fellowships that support books documenting various aspects of the dynamic and rich landscape of India post-Independence era.

 The last date of submission of applications is December 31. About 20-25 proposals will be shortlisted to meet with a jury consisting of eminent people from the world of scholarship, business, and social service and 5-10 fellowships will be awarded.

With an annual stipend of Rs 18 lakh to each recipient, the New India Foundation Book Fellowships will also offer editorial and administrative guidance through its course, from proposal to publication. The fellowships are open to Indian nationals, including those currently living abroad, and will be awarded for a period of one year.

The jury this year includes social scientist and author Niraja Gopal Jayal, historian Srinath Raghavan, and entrepreneurs Nandan Nilekani and Manish Sabharwal. Over the course of two decades, the NIF Book Fellowships have resulted in the publication of more than 29 critically acclaimed books that have recorded a wide range of contemporary Indian history.

Recently published titles include Savithri Preetha Nair’s “Chromosome Woman, Nomad Scientist: E.K. Janaki Ammmal, A Life 1897 -1984”, Swati Ganguly’s “Tagore’s University: A History of Visva-Bharati (1921-1961)”; Nazia Akhtar’s “Bibi’s Room: Hyderabadi Women and Twentieth-Century Urdu Prose”; and Rahul Ramagundam’s “The Life and Times of George Fernandes”.

Pradeep Magazine’s “Not Just Cricket: A Reporter’s Journey Through Modern India”; Rajshree Chandra’s “Competing Nationalisms: The Sacred and Political Life of Jagat Narain Lal”; and G Kanoto Chophy’s “Christianity and Politics in Tribal India: Baptist Missionaries and Naga Nationalism” are also products of this fellowship.

Fellowship holders may choose to write a memoir, or a work of reportage, or a thickly footnoted academic study. Their books could be oriented towards economics, or politics, or culture. They could be highly specific - an account of a single decade or a single region - or wide-ranging, such as a countrywide overview.