Five Books Shortlisted for Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize

The New India Foundation (NIF) has nominated five shortlisted books for the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2026, which recognizes brilliant non-fiction about contemporary and modern India. The shortlisted books focus on aspects such as the Indian Constitution, the developments after independence, the history of the partition in South Asia, diplomat and statesman K. M. Panikkar, and classical singer Arun Kashalkar. All the five shortlisted books were published in 2025. The cash award is of ₹15 lakh, and the award ceremony will be held on 12 December 2026 at Bangalore Literature Festival.

What is the NIF Book Prize by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay?

NIF Book Prize by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay is an annual literary award established by NIF in the year 2018. It has been given for notable research and writing based on various aspects of India, with a focus on its history, society, culture, politics and economy at a modern and contemporary level.

The award considers a wide genre of non-fiction books. The books could be either composed directly in English or translated into English from other languages so as to allow academic works from all languages to be accessible to readers.

The prize has been named after Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay who was an Indian freedom fighter, social worker, and a промоутер of handicrafts and art forms.

Five Books Nominated for the NIF Book Prize 2026

There are five non-fiction books nominated for the prize in the year 2026 and all the five have been published in 2025.

Title	Author(s)	Subject
A Man for All Seasons: The Life of K. M. Panikkar	Narayani Basu	Life and career of the statesman-diplomat K. M. Panikkar
Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia	Sam Dalrymple	Partitions in South Asia and the formation of modern Asia
Assembling India’s Constitution: A New Democratic History	Rohit De and Ornit Shani	Constitution and democratic history of India
A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India’s Development Odyssey	Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian	The developmental odyssey of India since independence
The Secret Master: Arun Kashalkar and a Journey to the Edge of Music	Sumana Ramanan	Classical singer Arun Kashalkar and classical music in India

This shortlist is inclusive of a number of dimensions of India’s experience ranging from constitutional democracy to economic development and classical music.

Jury and Selection Procedure

The list was prepared by a jury of seven people, headed by Niraja Gopal Jayal, who is a political scientist. Other members were,

N. Chandrasekaran, who is the Chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group.
Rahul Matthan, a partner of Trilegal.
Jahnavi Phalkey, who is an historian.
Srinath Raghavan, who is an historian.
Nirupama Rao, a former diplomat.
Manish Sabharwal, an entrepreneur.

According to Jayal, the shortlisted books reveal the importance of thorough and innovative non-fiction in making one understand India.

Award Money and Awards

An announcement on the winning candidate of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize will take place in December 2026. The ceremony is set to take place on December 12, 2026 in the context of the Bangalore Literature Festival.

The winning writer will receive ₹15 lakh as the award money.

The award looks to promote proficient quality in research, historic probing and writing concerning India. Besides recognizing diverse forms of non-fiction, it underlines the need for scholarly thinking so as to achieve comprehensive understanding of Indian politics, society, economy and culture.

Previous Winners of NIF Book Prize