Akshaya Mukul’s biography of the influential Hindi poet Agyeya, Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya, (Penguin) has won the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize for 2023, in its sixth edition. It was picked from a shortlist comprising Achyut Chetan’s Founding Mothers of the Indian Republic (Cambridge University Press), Rotem Geva’s Delhi Reborn: Partition and Nation Building in India’s Capital (Stanford University Press), Gita Ramaswamy’s Land, Guns, Caste, Woman: Memoirs of a Lapsed Revolutionary (Navayana) and Taylor C. Sherman’s Nehru’s India: A History in Seven Myths (Princeton University Press)

The book sees the Hindi poet’s life as a microcosm of 20^thcentury cultural history, with a formidable cast of characters from writers like Premchand – who gave him his moniker; Agyeya was born Sachchidananda — Phanishwarnath Renu, Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and Josephine Miles to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, revolutionary Chandra Shekhar Azad and actor Balraj Sahni.

In his review for The Hindu, Purushottam Agrawal wrote that Agyeya (1911-1987) was a towering figure in modern Hindi literature and a multi-faceted personality. “His life was characterised by a nomadic, but deeply reflective exploration of physical spaces, abstract ideas, emotions and creative themes. He rightly wondered ‘how many boats he had boarded and how many times’ (Kitni Navon Mein Kitni Baar — the title of his Jnanpith-awarded poetry collection). He lived many lives and experienced many loves…. Due to his innovations and provocations, Agyeya left an inedible mark on Hindi poetry, fiction, criticism and travelogue, earning a host of bouquets and brickbats en route.”

A release from NIF said that “the book offers a panoramic view of the landscape of Hindi literature in possibly its most fertile period, and of the exceptional writers and poets who populated it.” Mukul is the author of Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India.

The ₹15 lakh Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize awards non-fiction writings about modern and contemporary Indian history by writers of all nationalities. The winner was picked by a Jury led by political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal, and which included entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal, historian Srinath Raghavan, former diplomat Navtej Sarna, policy analyst Yamini Aiyar and lawyer Rahul Matthan.