India-born author Nandini Das, who is a Professor in the English faculty at the University of Oxford, has been awarded the 2023 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding for her book Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire.
Her work was described as the “true origin story of Britain and India told through England’s first diplomatic mission to the Mughal courts.” “By using contemporary sources by Indian and British political figures, officials and merchants she has given the story an unparalleled immediacy that brings to life these early encounters and the misunderstandings that sometimes threatened to wreck the whole endeavour,” said Professor Charles Tripp, Chair of the prize jury.
The British Academy Book Prize, formerly known as the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize, was established in 2013 to reward and celebrate the best works of non-fiction that demonstrate rigour and originality and have contributed to public understanding of other world cultures and their interaction. A prize worth GBP 25,000 is rewarded to Ms. Das while each of the shortlisted works will receive GBP 1,000 each.
