NIF award to Ornit Shani

The New India Foundation (NIF)’s Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize was awarded to Ornit Shani for her book, ‘How India Became Democratic’, at the Litfest here on Saturday.

Carrying a prize purse of Rs 15 lakh and a citation, the second annual book prize was announced by NIF trustees — Nandan Nilekani, Ramachandra Guha, Manish Sabharwal and Srinath Raghavan.

Instituted as an annual award in 2018, the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF prize recognises and celebrates outstanding non-fiction books on modern and contemporary India. This year, from the 117 entries that showcased a diverse range of topics from a Dalit memoir to tribal atrocities to how young India is changing the world, six books were shortlisted.

The winner was selected by a jury chaired by Guha, consisting of Nilekani, Niraja Gopal Jayal, Rukmini Banerjee, Sabharwal and Raghavan.

‘How India Became Democratic’ by Ornit explores the greatest experiment in democratic human history through the untold story of the creation of the electoral roll and universal adult franchise. This was during the tumultuous period following Independence and in the backdrop of the partition of India and Pakistan.

The book sheds light on the extraordinary tale of drawing up India’s first electoral rolls, even before the Constitution of India had been drafted and the definition of an Indian citizen finalised. Ornit makes the claim that Indians received adult franchise before becoming citizens.