The core activity of the New India Foundation are the New
India Fellowships, awarded to scholars and writers working on
different aspects of the history of independent India. The
duration of the fellowships is twelve months. Fellows are paid
Rs. 70, 000 a month. Each year, a mix of young and experienced
candidates are selected.
The New India Fellowships are open only to Indian nationals,
including those currently living abroad. Fellowship holders are
expected to write original books. Their proposals should be
oriented towards final publication, and outline a road map
towards that destination. The Foundation is ecumenical as
regards genre, theme, and ideology: the only requirement is that
the proposed works contribute to the fuller understanding of
independent India. Thus Fellowship holders may choose to write a
memoir, or a work of reportage, or a thickly footnoted academic
study. Their books could be oriented towards economics, or
politics, or culture. They could be highly specific-an account
of a single decade or a single region-or wide-ranging, such as a
countrywide overview.
The books that result from the New India Fellowship will convey
original research in an accessible manner to different
constituencies. To that end, each book will be published by a
prestigious publishing house. The Trustees have wide experience
of publishing with leading firms (Oxford University Press,
University of Chicago Press, Blackwell, Penguin) in India and
abroad.
Candidates for the New India Fellowship are Candidates for the
New India Fellowship are sought through select advertising in
leading journals. The Trustees shall assess the proposals and
make a short list from the submissions. The shortlisted
candidates will be called for an interview, before a jury
consisting of eminent people from the worlds of scholarship,
business, and social service.
In December 2004, the first New India Fellows were chosen. They are:1. Harish Damodaran (journalist, New Delhi), to write a book on the sociology of business communities in independent India.
2. Shashank Kela (social activist, Nagpur), to write a book on adivasi-state relations in central India.
3. Dr Deepak K. Singh (political scientist, Chandigarh), to write a book on the conflicts between Chakma refugees and indigenous tribals in north-east India.
4. Dr Chitra Sinha (historian, Mumbai), to write a book on the Hindu Code Bill debate and the shaping of modern India.
In December 2005, the second New India Fellows were chosen. They are:
1. Dr Venu Govindu (scientist, Goa) and Dr Deepak Malghan (scientist, Bangalore) to write an intellectual biography of J. C. Kumarappa.
2. Dinesh C. Sharma (journalist, Delhi) to write a history of the IT industry in India
3. Dr Indira Chowdhury (historian, Bangalore) to write an institutional history of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
4. Dr S. V. Srinivas (film scholar, Bangalore) to write a social history of the Telugu film industry.
5. Dr Vasanthi Srinivasan (political scientist, Hyderabad) to write a book on the political philosophy of C. Rajagopalachari.
In June 2007, the third round of New India Fellows were chosen. They are:
1. Ayesha Kidwai (scholar of literature and lingustics, Delhi) to prepare an annotated translation of Begum Anees Kidwai's classic memoir Azaadi ki Chayon Mein.
2. Professor Varun Sahni (political scientist, Delhi) to write a history of India's strategic and foreign policy since Independence.
3. Dr Ghazala Shahabuddin (ecologist, Delhi) to write a book on the science and politics of biodiversity conservation in India.
4. Bikramjeet Batra (legal scholar, Delhi) to write a book on debates on the death penalty in India.
5. Ashok Chandran (writer, Palakkad) to write a biography of the politician and social reformer P. T. Bhaskar Panicker.
In August 2008, the fourth round of New India Fellows were chosen. They are:
1. Savithri Preetha Nair (historian, Kottayam), to write a biography of E. K. Janaki Ammal, the distiguished biologist and the first Indian woman to be awarded a Ph D in science.
2. Mani Shekhar Singh (sociologist, New Delhi) to write a book on the social and economic context of Maithil painting.
3. Amrita Shah (journalist, Mumbai) to write a contemporary history of Ahmedabad.
In November 2009, the fifth round of New India Fellows were
chosen. They are:
1. Saba Dewan (film-maker, New Delhi) to write a book on the
social history of the singer-courtesan in north India.
2. Ajai Shukla (journalist, New Delhi) to write a book on the
history of Arunachal Pradesh in the context of the India-China
border conflict.
3. Manjima Bhattacharjya (sociologist, Mumbai) to write a book
on the glamour economy of modern India.
4. Lawrence Liang (legal scholar, Bangalore) to write a book on
the intersection of law and cinema.
5. Kartik Shanker (ecologist, Bangalore) to write a book on
culture and conservation, with specific reference to the Olive
Ridley turtle.
6. Richa Kumar (social scientist, New Delhi), to write a book on
the political economy of agriculture in central India.
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