The Bengaluru-based New India Foundation (NIF) has just announced today its call for applications for the 11th edition of their NIF Book Fellowships. This flagship programme supports research and scholarship in a range of topics about post-Independence India. The application window is open until 31 December, 2022.
The NIF Book Fellowships are awarded to only 5 to 10 applicants every two years. The applications need to essentially be detailed book proposals, along with a writing sample of at least 5000 words, submitted through the NIF website. This is open only to Indian nationals, including those currently living abroad.
This year, the jury includes social scientist and author Niraja Jayal, historian Srinath Raghavan, and entrepreneurs Nandan Nilekani and Manish Sabharwal.
"…India today is such a fascinating yet complex phenomenon that in order to be able to get a grip on where we are—and where we might be going—we need to approach through many windows and vantage points,’ said Srinath Raghavan, trustee, New India Foundation.
Each recipient of the Book Fellowship receives an annual stipend of Rs.18 lakhs as well as editorial and administrative guidance through the course of the Fellowship, especially since each Fellow is expected to write original books in English. The “proposal to publication” support extends through the one year period that the Fellowships are awarded.
The NIF says that they are “agnostic as regards genre, theme, and ideology: the only requirement is that the proposed works contribute to a fuller understanding of independent India."
Recently published titles include Swati Ganguly’s Tagore’s University: A History of Visva-Bharati (1921-1961); Nazia Akhtar’s Bibi’s Room: Hyderabadi Women and Twentieth-Century Urdu Prose; Rahul Ramagundam’s The Life and Times of George Fernandes; Pradeep Magazine’s Not Just Cricket: A Reporter's Journey Through Modern India; Rajshree Chandra’s Competing Nationalisms: The Sacred and Political Life of Jagat Narain Lal; and G. Kanoto Chophy’s Christianity and Politics in Tribal India: Baptist Missionaries and Naga Nationalism.
So far, a total of 28 books by previous New India Foundation Fellows have been published by various publising houses.
the NIF Book Fellowships have resulted in the publication of an eclectic and vibrant collection of twenty-eight books published by prestigious publishing houses.