Five titles named for 2026 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize

Five titles have been named for the 2026 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay New India Foundation Book Prize, the foundation announced on Wednesday. The prize carries a cash award of ₹15 lakh, with the winner to be revealed in December and the ceremony set for 12 December at the Bangalore Literature Festival. Jury chair and political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal said the shortlist showcases rigorous, imaginative non‑fiction that deepens understanding of India. The shortlisted works are: “A Man for All Seasons: The Life of K.M. Panikkar” by Narayani Basu; “Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia” by Sam Dalrymple; “Assembling India’s Constitution: A New Democratic History” by Rohit De and Ornit Shani; “A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India’s Development Odyssey” by Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian; and “The Secret Master: Arun Kashalkar and a Journey to the Edge of Music” by Sumana Ramanan. The books cover the making of the Constitution, post‑independence development and the partitions that shaped modern Asia. The seven‑member jury that chose the list includes Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran, former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal. The Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize, created in 2018, honors original non‑fiction written in or translated into English. NIF, based in Bengaluru, funds research and scholarships on post‑Independence India. ## Context The prize aims to encourage high‑quality scholarship on India’s history and development, reflecting NIF’s broader mission to support independent research.