Nandini Das’ book, “Courting India: England, Mughal India, and the Origins of Empire,” has been recognized with the prestigious 11th British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding. This distinguished award, presented during a ceremony hosted by the British Academy, celebrates the book’s remarkable contribution to our understanding of cultural dynamics worldwide.
In her debut work, Das offers a unique perspective on the genesis of the British Empire by exploring the arrival of Sir Thomas Roe, the inaugural English ambassador to India in the early 17th century. As the recipient of this honor, Das will receive a prize of £25,000 (equivalent to US$30,286).
Professor Charles Tripp, speaking on behalf of the judging panel, commends Das for crafting a narrative that reveals the true origin story of the relationship between Britain and India. Das achieves this by drawing from contemporary sources from Indian and British political figures, officials, and merchants, providing a vivid immediacy to the early encounters and the potential conflicts that arose.
Moreover, Professor Tripp notes that Das offers readers a privileged vantage point from which to understand how a degree of mutual understanding slowly emerged, despite being subject to the fluctuations of Mughal politics and the restless ambitions of the British.
In her academic role, Nandini Das serves as a professor of Early Modern English Literature and Culture at the University of Oxford. Her expertise extends to various publications on Renaissance travel, such as “The Cambridge History of Travel Writing” (2019), which she co-edited with Tim Youngs, as well as works like “Keywords of Identity, Race, and Human Mobility in Early Modern England” (2021) and “Lives in Transit” (2022).
Nandini Das is also actively engaged in several research projects, including ‘Travel, Transculturality and Identity in Early Modern England’ and ‘Teaching Race, Belonging, Empire and Migration’ (TRACTION), both of which have received funding from the European Research Council.
