NIF announces ten-book longlist for the 2025 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize for nonfiction

The New India Foundation has announced its longlist for the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize 2025 for the finest nonfiction on modern and contemporary Indian history published in the previous year.

The NIF Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize is India’s richest book prize for nonfiction. Open to writers of all nationalities for works on any aspect of Indian history after Independence, the Prize was instituted in 2018 and the winner will receive a cash prize of Rs 15 lakhs.

The 2025 jury comprises the chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group N Chandrasekaran, entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal, political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal, historian Srinath Raghavan, partner trilegal Rahul Matthan, Ambassador Jawed Ashraf and Yamini Aiyar. Jayal said about the longlist, “[The longlist] features works that are not only distinguished by their research and craft, but also by their ability to weave the threads of the past into the challenges and debates of the present. Together, these books remind us that understanding India is an ongoing, layered journey, one enriched by the rigour, empathy, and imagination of our finest nonfiction writers.”

The shortlist will be announced in October and the winner on December 6 at the Bangalore Literature Festival.

Here are the titles on this year’s longlist: