Akshaya Mukul wins Shakti Bhatt prize

In its ninth year, the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2016 has been won by Akshaya Mukul for his book “Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India”.

Judges and authors Samanth Subramanian, Mahesh Rao and Janice Pariat chose Mukul’s work for its “eye-opening and captivating exploration into a parallel literary culture that can often feel at a great remove from English-speaking metropolitan India.”

They added, “Mukul’s painstaking research tells the story of a publishing house in the Hindi heartland, which, through its output of religious texts and magazines, achieved enormous influence to become the vehicle of an intensely focused political project. The current overseers of that regrettable project – of Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism -- have only become bolder and more powerful, which makes "Gita Press" challenging, timely and provocative.

“Mukul's book was a highly original and commendable work

involving a dogged determination to set out the many particularities of the Gita Press and the colourful personalities that drove its agenda. It is also a book that is relevant to cultural homogenization across the ages, since at its heart it reveals what it takes to be a cultural mythmaker, and how a specific nexus of religious, caste and linguistic considerations have reaped extraordinary rewards.”

As shortlist judge, author Arshia Sattar said: “This year’s shortlist for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize reminds us that the diaspora is writing hard and writing well. Four of our selected writers live and work outside the sub-continent. But their exceptional work is counter-balanced by equally noteworthy books written within India. All the books this year should make us reconsider what we think we know but have either forgotten or not acknowledged: the long (and often sinister) shadows of particular events and people, the individual lives nestled inside large histories, lives that shimmer on the margins of our vision and as always, the darkness hidden inside families.”

Shortlist

Manu S Pillai The Ivory Throne

Madhu Gurung The Keeper of Memories

Sophia Khan Yasmeen

Nisid Hajari Midnight’s Furies

Akshay Mukul Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India

Kanishk Tharoor Swimmer Among the Stars

The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize is a cash award of 2 lakh rupees, and a trophy.

It is funded by the Shakti Bhatt Foundation and Priti Paul through the Apeejay Trust.