On Ambedkar, Hindutva and more: 10 non-fiction works in contention for NIF Book Prize 2025
Instituted in 2018, the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize (KCBP) is regarded as India's leading award for nonfiction. It is open to writers of all nationalities for works on any aspect of Indian history since Independence, in English or in translation. The winner will receive a cash award of Rs 15 lakh.
The 2025 longlist was selected by a jury comprising N Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons; entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal; political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal; historian Srinath Raghavan; lawyer Rahul Matthan; Ambassador Jawed Ashraf; and policy scholar Yamini Aiyar.
📌Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva by Janaki Bakhle
📌 India's Forgotten Country: A View from the Margins by Bela Bhatia
📌 Iru: The Remarkable Life of Irawati Karve by Urmilla Deshpande and Thiago Pinto Barbosa
📌 India's Near East: A New History by Avinash Paliwal
📌Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity by Manu Pillai
📌 Engineering a Nation: The Life and Career of M Visvesvaraya by Aparajith Ramnath
📌 The Backstage of Democracy: India's Election Campaigns and the People Who Manage Them by Amogh Dhar Sharma
📌 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay: The Art of Freedom by Nico Slate
📌 Iconoclast: A Reflective Biography of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar by Anand Teltumbde
📌 The Gujaratis: A Portrait of a Community by Salil Tripathi
'The 8th edition longlist … features works distinguished by their research and craft, and their ability to weave the threads of the past into the challenges and debates of the present,' Jayal said in a statement on behalf of the jury.
Named after Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, a freedom fighter and institution-builder, the prize is intended to encourage rigorous and accessible nonfiction writing on India.
Past winners include Ashok Gopal (2024) for A Part Apart: The Life and Thought of B R Ambedkar, Akshaya Mukul (2023) for Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya, and Shekhar Pathak (2022) for The Chipko Movement: A People's History.
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