NIF invites application for fellowship and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize

The New India Foundation (NIF), working to promote, research on the culture and history of post-Independence India, is inviting applications for its fellowship as well as the annual Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize for non-fiction, the foundation announced on Tuesday.

While the fellowship provides each recipient with a monthly stipend of ₹1.5 lakh for a duration of one year to aid and foster interest to document the changing landscape of post-independent India, the book award, which includes a cash prize of ₹15 lakhs and a citation, recognises literary works on post-independent India.

The fellowship, according to NIF, is open to Indian residents living within and outside the country.

“Its application must include a 5,000 word writing sample, and applicants are asked to provide a book proposal of original work, with no theme or genre restrictions, that will contribute to a better understanding of modern India,” the foundation said.

Also, the NIF 2020 fellows will be announced in August 2020. So far, a total of 21 books have been published through the fellowship.

For the third annual Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize, entries have to be original works of the authors written in “English or translated into English”.

“The books can be across genres on any and all aspects of modern/contemporary India. It should be published in the calendar year 2019. Publishers cannot nominate more than four books published in the year 2019. The prize is open to all authors independent of their nationality, but NIF Fellows will not be eligible to be nominated for this prize,” they added.

The deadline to apply for the prize is May 31. It will be given during the Bangalore Literature Festival in the latter half of this year.

Last year, the prize was won by Dr. Ornit Shani, the author of How India Became Democratic, published by Penguin Random House India.