Kamaladevi Chattopadhayay NIF Book Prize 2020: Katherine Eban, Rajdeep Sardesai among writers longlisted for the literary award

The longlist for the 2020 Kamaladevi Chattopadhayay NIF Book Prize was announced on 30 September with 12 titles and 13 authors competing for the literary award.

Among the longlisted writers is Katherine Eban for her work, Bottle of Lies: Ranbaxy and the Dark Side of Indian Pharma which exposes the deceit behind generic-drug manufacturing and its attending risks to global health. The six-member jury, including entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani, historians Srinath Raghavan and Nayanjot Lahiri among others, has collated a longlist covering a wide spectrum of works from politics to regional studies to reportage and scholarly writing. Award-winning journalist Rajdeep Sardesai’s 2019: How Modi Won India and Stephen Alter’s Wild Himalaya: A Natural History of the Greatest Mountain Range on Earth are also among the books to have made the cut.

Set-up by the New India Foundation, the prize is awarded annually to the best non-fiction book on India. Named after the women’s movement advocate and freedom fighter, it is open to works written or translated into English across several genres including biography, political economy and travel with the winner taking home a purse of Rs. 15 lakhs.

Currently in its third edition, the longlist for the prize was unveiled by jury member and founding trustee of the New India Foundation, Ramchandra Guha, who said of the nominated books, “In my view, this longlist has showcased 12 first class works that illuminate the history of our remarkable, complex, exasperating country in many different ways.”

In 2019, it was historian Ornit Shani who was awarded the prize for her work, How India Became Democratic. The 2020 shortlist comprising six titles will be announced on 16 November.

Longlist for the 2020 Kamaladevi Chattopadhayay NIF Book Prize:

Amit Ahuja — Mobilizing the Marginalized: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic Movements  Stephen Alter — Wild Himalaya: A Natural History of the Greatest Mountain Range on Earth Neeladri Bhattacharya — The Great Agrarian Conquest: The Colonial Reshaping of a Rural World Katherine Eban — Bottle of Lies: Ranbaxy and the Dark Side of Indian Pharma  Radhika Govindrajan — Animal Intimacies: Beastly Love in the Himalayas Nandita Haksar and Sebastian M. Hongray — Kuknalim, Naga Armed Resistance: Testimonies of Leaders, Pastors, Healers and Soldiers Jairam Ramesh — A Chequered Brilliance: The Many Lives of V.K. Krishna Menon Arupjyoti Saikia — The Unquiet River: A Biography of the Brahmaputra Vikram Sampath — Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883-1924 Amandeep Sandhu — Panjab: Journeys through Fault Lines Rajdeep Sardesai — 2019: How Modi Won India Arun Mohan Sukumar — Midnight’s Machines: A Political History of Technology in India