The New India Foundation announces the shortlist for 2026 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize

The New India Foundation has announced the shortlist for the 2026 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize.

The winner will be announced in December, and the prize will be presented on December 12 at the Bangalore Literature Festival. The winning author will receive a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh.

The shortlist comprises five works of non-fiction on modern and contemporary India, all published in 2025. These five books span the making of India’s Constitution, the arc of its development since independence, and the partitions that shaped modern Asia. They also follow the lives that moved through these histories, from a statesman and diplomat to a Hindustani musician, showing how a nation is built and sustained.

The shortlist was selected by a Jury comprising Chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group N Chandrasekaran, political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal, partner at Trilegal Rahul Matthan, historian of science Jahnavi Phalkey, historian Srinath Raghavan, former Foreign Secretary of India Nirupama Rao, and entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal.

Chair of the Jury, Niraja Gopal Jayal said, “[…] The five books demonstrate the value of rigorous, imaginative non-fiction in deepening our understanding of India and are exceptional in their ability to bring important aspects of the country’s experience into focus…”

Here are the shortlisted titles:

• A Man...

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