PIO professor wins prize for book that challenges Eurocentric telling of British Empire’s origins

Nandini Das, an Indian-origin author and Oxford academic, has won the 11th British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding for her debut novel, "Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire". The book challenges existing notions about India's pre-colonial period and the origins of the British Empire. Through the story of the first English ambassador in India, the book offers an entertaining and unbiased encounter between the two cultures, highlighting their ambitions, misunderstandings, and prejudices.