In a significant recognition of historical scholarship, historian Aparajith Ramnath has been awarded the prestigious Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2025 for his exceptional work, Engineering a Nation: The Life and Career of M. Visvesvaraya. The announcement marks a celebration of both contemporary historical writing and the enduring legacy of one of India's most visionary engineers.
A Triumph for Historical Biography
The New India Foundation (NIF) revealed Ramnath as the winner of its sixth book prize, selecting his biography from a competitive shortlist of five remarkable works. The prize committee, comprising distinguished historian Srinath Raghavan, writer and editor Nandini Nair, and last year's winner J Devika, unanimously chose Ramnath's work for its outstanding contribution to understanding modern Indian history.
Aparajith Ramnath, an associate professor at Ahmedabad University, received the award during a ceremony in Bengaluru. The prize includes a substantial cash award of ₹15 lakh, making it one of the most generous literary awards in the country. His winning book provides a comprehensive examination of Sir M. Visvesvaraya's extraordinary career and his profound impact on nation-building during a critical period in India's development.
Celebrating an Engineering Visionary
Ramnath's biography delves deep into the life of Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, the legendary engineer whose contributions shaped modern infrastructure in India. Born in 1861, Visvesvaraya's remarkable career spanned crucial projects including the Krishna Raja Sagara dam in Mandya and sophisticated irrigation systems that transformed agricultural landscapes.
The book meticulously explores how Visvesvaraya's engineering philosophy extended beyond technical solutions to encompass broader visions of national development. His tenure as Diwan of Mysore from 1912 to 1918 allowed him to implement groundbreaking policies and projects that established new standards for public works and industrial development across India.
Engineering a Nation stands out for its nuanced portrayal of Visvesvaraya not just as an engineer, but as a complex public intellectual whose ideas about planning, efficiency, and economic development continue to influence contemporary discourse about India's growth trajectory.
The Legacy of the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize
Established to honor exceptional non-fiction writing about modern India, the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize continues its mission of promoting rigorous historical research accessible to general readers. The prize commemorates Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, the renowned freedom fighter, social reformer, and cultural icon whose multifaceted contributions to Indian society mirror the interdisciplinary approach valued in prize selections.
Previous winners include notable works that have reshaped understanding of India's recent past, creating a distinguished lineage that Ramnath's book now joins. The foundation's commitment to supporting scholarship that illuminates the building of contemporary India finds perfect expression in this year's choice—a biography of one of the principal architects of the nation's infrastructure.
The selection of Engineering a Nation underscores the growing recognition of how technological history and biography can provide crucial insights into the formation of modern states. Ramnath's work demonstrates how individual vision, when combined with technical expertise and administrative opportunity, can leave enduring marks on a nation's landscape and development philosophy.
As India continues to invest in massive infrastructure projects and technological advancement, Ramnath's timely biography offers valuable historical perspective on the relationship between engineering excellence and nation-building—a conversation that remains as relevant today as it was during Visvesvaraya's lifetime.
