The British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding unveiled their shortlist for the year 2023 and two authors of Indian heritage have been named among the six worldwide writers.
The first Indian-born writer is Nandini Das, for her book Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire. Her shortlisted work has been praised by the judges as a “ground-breaking” debut. “This beautifully written book tells the story of England’s first diplomatic mission to India in the early 1600s, through a combination of biography and historical narrative, alternating microscopic details with broader panoramas,” the judges note.
The second writer of Indian descent is Caribbean-born Kris Manjapra, of mixed African and Indian parentage. He has been shortlisted for Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation. His shortlisted work examines the slow, drawn-out death of slavery and the failure of emancipation. “Written with restrained passion, this is a detailed and disturbing account of the false dawn of emancipation that accompanied the formal abolition of slavery in the 19th century,” read the judges’ comments.
The British Academy is the UK’s national academy for humanities and social sciences, and eligible books come from the subjects that fall within those disciplines, from archaeology, history and psychology to philosophy, languages and cultural studies. The British Academy Book Prize, worth £25,000, is awarded annually for a non-fiction book that promotes global cultural understanding.
The winner of the prize will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on October 31, when each of the shortlisted writers will receive £1,000.
