New Delhi: Want to write a memoir, a work of reportage or a thickly-footnoted academic study? A fellowship provides support to such writing of non-fiction books on topics related to economics, politics or culture in post-Independence India.
The New India Foundation fellowships are awarded biennially to Indian citizens for a period of one year and carry a stipend of Rs 1.5 lakh a month in addition to editorial and publishing support.
In a statement, the foundation has announced August 31 as the deadline for applications for the tenth edition of its fellowship programme. The selected fellows will join a community of 21 published authors.
The proposals for the fellowship need to be oriented towards publication and outline a road map towards that destination, it said.
Spearheaded by Ramachandra Guha, Nandan Nilekani, Srinath Raghavan, Manish Sabharwal and Niraja Gopal Jayal, the foundation strives to foster interest in documenting the dynamic and rich landscape of post-Independence India and to encourage high-quality research.
Some of the works of non-fiction supported by the foundation and published in recent years include Rahul Pandita's "Our Moon Has Blood Clots", Akshaya Mukul's "Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India", Amrita Shah's "Ahmedabad: A City in the World", and Saba Dewan's "Tawaifnama" to name a few.
According to founding trustee Guha, the foundation has published "more than 20 outstanding works of history and non-fiction, many by younger writers that have won a sheaf of prestigious awards".
"Our ongoing fellowship programme aims to catalyse and produce many more such books that will illuminate in different ways the history and politics of India since Independence," he said.
Based in Bengaluru, the New India Foundation encourages breakthrough research on contemporary Indian history by awarding fellowships to gifted, energetic, scholars and writers.