The New India Foundation, based in Bengaluru, matches public-spirited philanthropy with relevant scholarship. 

In the seven-and-a-half decades since Independence, there has been a large body of work produced by Indian historians and social scientists. Taken singly, many of these studies are impressive; viewed cumulatively, they add up to much less than what one might expect. 

The chief reason for this is the determining influence on the scholarly practice of one single date: 15th August, 1947. 

Historians do not look beyond the attainment of Independence, whereas other social scientists do not tend to look back at all.

Given India’s size, its importance, and its interest, and given that this is our country, the lack of good research on its modern history is unfortunate. 

It is this lack that the New India Foundation seeks to address, by sponsoring high-quality original scholarship on different aspects of independent India. Its activities include the granting of NIF Book Fellowships for highly researched original work, Translation Fellowships for bringing historical Indian language works to English, organising the Girish Karnad Memorial Lecture, and the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize.