Shashi Tharoor - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Bookless in Baghdad) Indian politician, diplomat, and author

Shashi Tharoor
Tharoor in 2021
Pronunciation	[ʃɐʃi t̪ɐɾuːr]
Born	(1956-03-09) 9 March 1956 (age 68) London, United Kingdom
Nationality	Indian
Alma mater	University of Delhi (BA) Tufts University (MA, MALD, PhD)
Occupations	Writer politician former diplomat
Years active	1978–present
Works	Bibliography
Political party	Indian National Congress (2008–present)
Spouses	Tilottama Mukherji (m. 1981, divorced) Christa Giles (m. 2007; div. 2010) Sunanda Pushkar (m. 2010; died 2014)
Children	2
Awards	Full list
Honours	Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (2004) Encomienda de la Orden Española de Carlos III (2012) Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (2022)


Chairman of Committee on External Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 September 2024
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Minister	S. Jaishankar
Preceded by	P. P. Chaudhary
Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development
In office 28 October 2012 – 26 May 2014
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Minister	Kapil Sibal M. M. Pallam Raju
Preceded by	Daggubati Purandeswari
Succeeded by	Upendra Kushwaha
Union Minister of State for External Affairs
In office 28 May 2009 – 18 April 2010
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Minister	S. M. Krishna
Preceded by	Anand Sharma
Succeeded by	E. Ahamed
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
Incumbent
Assumed office 31 May 2009
Preceded by	Pannyan Raveendran
Constituency	Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information
In office 1 June 2002 – 9 February 2007
Secretary General	Kofi Annan
Preceded by	position established
Succeeded by	Kiyotaka Akasaka
Chairman of Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology
In office 13 September 2019 – 12 September 2022
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Preceded by	Anurag Thakur
Succeeded by	Nishikant Dubey
Chairman of Standing Committee on Chemicals & Fertilizers
In office 13 September 2022 – 12 September 2024
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Preceded by	Kanimozhi Karunanidhi
Succeeded by	Kirti Azad
Founder-Chairman of the All India Professionals Congress
In office 1 August 2017 – 15 November 2023
Preceded by	position established
Succeeded by	Praveen Chakravarty



Writing career
Language	English
Period	Postmodern
Genre	Novel short story non-fiction
Subject	Economics history governance foreign policy geopolitics
Years active	1964–present
Notable works	The Great Indian Novel India: From Midnight to the Millennium Why I Am a Hindu Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India

Website	shashitharoor.in

Shashi Tharoor (Malayalam pronunciation: [ʃɐʃi t̪ɐɾuːr]; born 9 March 1956) is an Indian politician, writer, and former diplomat, who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He is currently the Chairman of Committee on External Affairs. He was formerly an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and unsuccessfully ran for the post of Secretary-General in 2006. Founder-Chairman of All India Professionals Congress, he formerly served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and on Informational Technology. He has about two dozen titles to his credit and was awarded by World Economic Forum as "Global Leader of Tomorrow".

Born in London and raised in Mumbai, Tharoor graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, in 1975 and culminated his studies in 1978 with a doctorate in International Relations and Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. At the age of 22, he was the youngest person at the time to receive such an honour from the Fletcher School. From 1978 to 2007, Tharoor was a career official at the United Nations, rising to the rank of Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information in 2001. He announced his retirement after finishing second in the 2006 selection for U.N. Secretary-General to Ban Ki-moon.

In 2009, Tharoor began his political career by joining the Indian National Congress and successfully represented the party from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala by winning in the Lok Sabha elections and becoming a member of parliament four times in 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024. During the Congress-led UPA government, Tharoor served as Minister of State for External Affairs. A non-loyalist of the Gandhis, Tharoor was defeated by Mallikarjun Kharge to be elected as party president in 2022. He is currently a member of the Congress Working Committee, which is highest decision making body of the Indian National Congress.

A Sahitya Akademi Award winner, Tharoor has authored many works of fiction and non-fiction since 1981. Popular for his command of the English language, Tharoor was the most followed Indian on Twitter before being overtaken by Narendra Modi.

Early life and education

Shashi Tharoor was born on 9 March 1956 in London, United Kingdom to Tharoor Chandra Sekharan Nair and Sulekha Menon, a Malayali couple from Palakkad, Kerala. Tharoor has two younger sisters, Shobha and Smitha. Shashi's paternal grandfather's name was Chippukutty Nair. Shashi's paternal uncle was Parameshwaran Tharoor, the founder of Reader's Digest in India.

Tharoor's father, originally from Kerala, worked in various positions in London, Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi, including a 25-year career (culminating as group advertising manager) for The Statesman. Tharoor's parents returned to India when he was 2-years old, where he joined the Montfort School, Yercaud, in 1962, subsequently moving to Bombay (now Mumbai) and studying at the Campion School (1963–68).

In 1975, Tharoor graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from St Stephen's College at the University of Delhi, where he had been president of the student union and also founded the St. Stephen's Quiz Club. Within the same year, Tharoor went to the United States to obtain an M.A. in International Relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford. After obtaining his M.A. in 1976, Tharoor further obtained his Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy in 1977 and his Ph.D. in International Relations and Affairs in 1978. While he was pursuing his doctorate, Tharoor was awarded the Robert B. Stewart Prize for best student and was also the first editor of the Fletcher Forum of International Affairs. At the age of 22, he was the youngest person to receive a doctorate in the history of the Fletcher School.

Diplomatic career

Beginning

Tharoor's career in the United Nations began in 1978 as a staff member of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. From 1981 until 1984 he was head of the UNHCR office in Singapore, during the boat people crisis, leading the organisation's rescue efforts at sea and succeeding in resettling a backlog of Vietnamese refugees. He also processed Polish and Acehnese refugee cases. After a further stint at the UNHCR headquarters in Geneva, during which he became the first chairman of the staff elected by UNHCR personnel worldwide, Tharoor left UNHCR. In 1989 he was appointed special assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs, the unit that later became the Peacekeeping Operations Department in New York. Until 1996, he led the team responsible for peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia, spending considerable time on the ground during the civil war there.

Assistant Secretary and Under-Secretary-General at the UN

In 1996, Tharoor was appointed Director of Communications and Special Projects and Executive Assistant to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In January 2001, Tharoor was appointed as Interim Head of the Department of Public Information (DPI) at the Assistant-Secretary-General level. He was subsequently confirmed as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information (UNDPI) with effect from 1 June 2002. In this capacity, he was responsible for the United Nations' communications strategy, enhancing the image and effectiveness of the organisation. In 2003 the Secretary-General gave him the additional responsibility of United Nations Coordinator for Multilingualism. During his tenure at the UNDPI, Tharoor reformed the department and undertook a number of initiatives, ranging from organizing and conducting the first-ever UN seminar on Antisemitism, the first-ever UN seminar on Islamophobia after the 11 September attacks, and launching an annual list of "Ten Under-Reported Stories the World Ought to Know about", which was last produced in 2008 by his successor.

On 9 February 2007, Tharoor resigned from the post of Under-Secretary-General and left the UN on 1 April 2007.

Campaign for UN Secretary-General: 2006

In 2010, the government of India nominated Tharoor for the post of UN Secretary General. Had he won, the 50-year-old Shashi Tharoor would have become the second-youngest Secretary-General, after the 46-year-old Dag Hammarskjöld. Although all previous Secretaries-General had come from small countries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan felt that Tharoor's candidacy would demonstrate India's willingness to play a larger role at the United Nations.

Tharoor finished second, behind Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, in each of the four straw polls conducted by the UN Security Council. In the final round, Ban emerged as the only candidate not to be vetoed by one of the permanent members, while Tharoor received one veto from the United States. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton later revealed his instructions from Condoleezza Rice: "We don't want a strong Secretary-General." Tharoor was a protégé of the independently minded Kofi Annan, and a senior American official told Tharoor that the US was determined to have "No more Kofis." After the vote, Tharoor withdrew his candidacy and declined Ban Ki-moon's invitation to remain in service beyond the expiry of his term as Under-Secretary-General.

Post-UN career

External videos
"Why nations should pursue soft power", TED talk, November 2009

In February 2007, amidst speculation about his post-UN future, the Indian press reported that Tharoor might be inducted into Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as Minister of State for External Affairs. In the same month, an American gossip blog reported that Tharoor was a finalist for the position of dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles, but he withdrew his name from consideration at the final stage. Instead, Tharoor became chairman of Dubai-based Afras Ventures, which established the Afras Academy for Business Communication (AABC) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, the city in which he would go on to win a record four parliamentary elections. He also spoke around the world about India and Kerala, where he spent increasing amounts of time before moving for good to India in October 2008.

Prior to embarking on his political career, Tharoor also served on the board of overseers of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the board of trustees of the Aspen Institute, and the advisory boards of the Indo-American Arts Council, the American India Foundation, the World Policy Journal, the Virtue Foundation, and the human rights organisation Breakthrough. At the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1976, he founded and was the first chair of the editorial board of The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, a journal examining issues in international relations. Tharoor was an international adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva from 2008 to 2011. He served on the advisory council of the Hague Institute for International Justice and was elected Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities during 1995–96. He also supported various educational causes, including as Patron of GEMS Modern Academy in Dubai.

Political career in India

In Government

Tharoor once said that when he began his political career he was approached by the Congress, the Communists, and the BJP. He chose Congress because he felt ideologically comfortable with it. In March 2009, Tharoor contested the Indian General elections as a candidate for the Congress Party in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. His opponents included P. Ramachandran Nair of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Neelalohitadasan Nadar of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), MP Gangadharan of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and PK Krishna Das of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Despite criticism that he was an "elite outsider", Tharoor won the elections by a margin of 99,989. He was then selected as a Minister of State in the Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. On 28 May 2009, he was sworn in as Minister of State for External Affairs, in charge of Africa, Latin America, and the Gulf, including the Haj pilgrimage, and the Consular, Passports, and Visas services of the Ministry. As Minister of State for External Affairs, he re-established long-dormant diplomatic relationships with African nations, where his fluency in French made him popular with Francophone countries and their heads of state.

Tharoor was a pioneer in using social media as an instrument of political interaction. He was India's most-followed politician on Twitter until 2013, when he was overtaken by future Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Some of his Twitter posts have proved controversial in the past and were highlighted negatively by the opposition and press.

Tharoor was also the first Indian minister to visit Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. He reformed the arrangements relating to the conduct of the Haj pilgrimage. He initiated new policy-planning activities on the Indian Ocean and represented India at various global events during his 11-month tenure as minister. In April 2010, Tharoor resigned from the position as Minister of State for External Affairs following allegations that he had misused his office to get shares in an Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket franchise. He denied the charges, and during his resignation speech in Parliament, called for a full inquiry. In a 2014 rejoinder he defended his position: "I was never involved in a scam of any sort in the IPL- I was brought down because... antagonised some powerful political cricketing interests" and added that he had "cooperated extensively with the detailed investigation conducted by the Enforcement Directorate into the entire issue", and no wrongdoing had been found.

Between 2010 and 2012, Tharoor remained active in Parliament and was member-convenor of the Parliamentary Forum on Disaster Management, a member of the Standing Committee on External Affairs, of the Consultative Committee of Defence, the Public Accounts Committee, and the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Telecoms. He participated in several important debates of the 15th Lok Sabha, including on the Lokpal Bill, the demand for grants of the Ministry of External Affairs and of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the black money debate, and so on. In the special debate on the 60th anniversary of the Indian Parliament, Tharoor was one of four members of the Congress Party, including party President Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, to be invited to address the Lok Sabha.

In 2012, Tharoor was re-inducted into the Union Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the portfolio of minister of state for Human Resource Development. In this role, he took special interest in the problems and challenges of adult education, distance education and enhancing high-quality research by academic institutions. He was responsible for the ministry's written answers to Parliament's questions and responded to oral questions on education during the Lok Sabha's Question Hour. He addressed forums and conferences on education, explained a vision of India's educational challenges in the context of the country's demographic opportunities, and stressed that education was not only a socioeconomic issue, but also a national security issue.

As Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor became the first elected representative in India to issue annual reports on his work as MP, including furnishing accounts of his MPLADS expenditure. In 2012 he published a half-term report followed in 2014 by a full-term report.

In Opposition

In May 2014, Tharoor won his re-election from Thiruvananthapuram, defeating O. Rajagopal of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a margin of around 15,700 votes, and became a member of the 16th Lok Sabha, sitting in Opposition. He was named Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs. Shashi Tharoor was dropped from the post of Congress spokesperson on 13 October 2014 after he praised statements of his party's opponent, Prime Minister Modi.

In regards to Tharoor's removal from the post of congress spokesperson, Kolkata's The Telegraph opined, "For an Opposition MP to have and to exercise the freedom to appreciate a good thing done by the government and for a ruling party MP to speak and vote against the party line is not just legitimate parliamentary practice, it is the very essence of parliamentary democracy. Shashi Tharoor, from the ranks of the Congress has tried to do that; there is not one BJP MP who has matched him. Blind conformism is not loyalty, nor independent thinking, dissent."

After the BJP victory of 2014, Tharoor was asked to help the treasury benches draft a statement condemning Pakistan for freeing Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the Lashkar-e-Toiba commander, who masterminded the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. In January 2015, Tharoor asked not to debunk genuine accomplishments of Ancient Indian Science due to exaggerations of the Hindutva brigade, amid 2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy.

In March 2017, Tharoor called for the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata to be converted into a museum on the effects of British colonial rule in India. Tharoor wrote in an Al Jazeera article that the British "conquered one of the richest countries in the world (27 per cent of global gross domestic product in 1700) and reduced it to, after over two centuries of looting and exploitation, one of the poorest, most diseased and most illiterate countries on Earth by the time they left in 1947. ...Nor is there any memorial to the massacres of the Raj, from Delhi in 1857 to Amritsar in 1919, the deaths of 35 million Indians in totally unnecessary famines caused by British ".

Although there was significant support for Tharoor to contest as the Prime Minister candidate in 2019 General Elections, he has disowned, downplayed, and distanced himself from any such online campaigns run by his large number of followers.

Tharoor has also attempted to introduce a number of Private Members Bills in the Parliament. Notably, his efforts to amend Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code were voted out by the majority of parliamentarians on two occasions. The Apex court of India later ruled in favor of amending the controversial article in 2018, thereby vindicating the position advocated by Tharoor. Tharoor got elected to the AICC Working committee on 20 August 2023. In the Lok Sabha Elections of 2024, he was re-elected to Parliament defeating Rajeev Chandrashekar of the BJP by a decent margin.

While in the Opposition, he was appointed in multiple positions by the Modi-led government. In 2019, he was appointed as the Chairman of Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology. On 26 September 2024, he was appointed as the Chairman of Committee on External Affairs.

Electoral performances

Year	Election		Constituency Name	Result	Votes gained	Vote share%	Margin
2009	15th Lok Sabha	INC	Thiruvananthapuram	Won	3,26,725	44.46%	99,998
2014	16th Lok Sabha		Thiruvananthapuram	Won	2,97,806	34.10%	15,470
2019	17th Lok Sabha		Thiruvananthapuram	Won	4,16,131	41.19%	99,989
2024	18th Lok Sabha		Thiruvananthapuram	Won	358,155	37.19%	16,077

Speeches

Tharoor is notable for his eloquence while speaking, as demonstrated by the popularity of his speeches on online platforms such as YouTube. For instance, Shashi Tharoor's Oxford Union speech, delivered at the Oxford Union in 2015, supporting the motion "Britain owes reparations to her former colonies" has amassed over 10 million views on one site alone, while simultaneously being praised as ground-breaking in various educational institutions in India. Further speeches such as those explaining the importance of "soft power" and analyzing the impacts of education in India have garnered over one million and two million views respectively.

Additionally, Tharoor is known for his views on a number of topics including economics, history, governance, and geopolitics due to both his well-regarded educational attainment and his broad experience while at the United Nations. He is an outspoken supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reformation of the United Nations, arguing that "United Nations needs to open its doors to elected representatives" Many note that it is his combination of wit, charm, wry humour, and intelligence that make him accessible and held in high esteem, both in India and abroad.

Tharoor did a one-off stand-up act as part of Amazon Prime Video series One Mic Stand.

Literary career

Tharoor has been a columnist in each of India's three best-known English-language newspapers, most recently for The Hindu (2001–2008) and in a weekly column, "Shashi on Sunday," in the Times of India (January 2007 – December 2008). Following his resignation as Minister of State for External Affairs, he began a fortnightly column on foreign policy issues in the Deccan Chronicle. Previously he was a columnist for the Gentleman magazine and the Indian Express newspaper, as well as a frequent contributor to Newsweek International and the International Herald Tribune. His op-eds and book reviews have appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, amongst other papers. His monthly column, "India Reawakening", distributed by Project Syndicate, appears in 80 newspapers around the world. As of 2021, Tharoor has written twenty-three books in English.

Tharoor began writing at the age of 6, and his first published story appeared in the Sunday edition of The Free Press Journal, in Mumbai at age 10. His World War II adventure novel Operation Bellows about a RAF pilot Reginald Bellows, inspired by the Biggles books, was serialised in the Junior Statesman starting a week before his 11th birthday. The Great Indian Novel had had 43 reprints as of October 2014, and a Silver Jubilee special edition was issued on the book's 25th anniversary in October 2014, by Viking Penguin India. The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone has also undergone several hardback re-prints. President Bill Clinton cited Shashi Tharoor's book India From Midnight to the Millennium in his speech to the Indian parliament in 2000.

Tharoor has lectured widely on India, and is often quoted for his observations, including, "India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay." He also coined a comparison of India's "thali" to the American "melting pot": "If America is a melting pot, then to me India is a thali – a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes different, and does not necessarily mix with the next, but they belong together on the same plate, and they complement each other in making the meal a satisfying repast".

Shashi Tharoor's non-fiction work An Era of Darkness, published later in the United Kingdom as Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India, arose out of a speech he made at the Oxford Union, was published in 2016. It has sold over 100,000 copies in hardback reprints and continues to be a bestseller in the country. The British edition rose to Number 1 in the London Evening Standard bestseller lists. Since then, he has published two other non-fiction books: Why I Am A Hindu (2018) and The Paradoxical Prime Minister (2018), both of which have been published in the Indian subcontinent by the Aleph Book Company. The two books, both mega-bestsellers in India, raised very important questions. Why I Am a Hindu makes the point that it is precisely because Hindus form the majority that India has survived as a plural, secular democracy, a status that come under threat in the present world. The Paradoxical Prime Minister was a critical study of the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the effect he has had on India, along with other questions about a leader who is reviled and worshipped in equal measure.

Victor Mallet in the Financial Times said Tharoor "wants us to understand the origins of the difficulties that confronted India" after Indian independence. An article by the New Statesman said it was especially important for readers in Britain in the light of post-Brexit discussions. Tharoor has called for the British government to pay "colonial reparations" to India.

In September 2019, he published a new book, The Hindu Way: An Introduction, in line with his research into Hindu culture and ways of life of late. In 2020 he published The New World Disorder And the Indian Imperative, co-authored with Samir Saran, President of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), one of Asia's most influential think tanks. The book is a crucial study on the current state of chaos in international politics and identifies India's imminent role, as a non-hegemonic global power, in scripting an equitable ethic for a new international order.

Personal life

Tharoor's first wife was Tilottama Mukherji, a half-Bengali and half-Kashmiri academic, and the granddaughter of politician Kailash Nath Katju. Tharoor and Mukherji had been college sweethearts and were married in 1981. After their marriage, Tilottama took her husband's last name and began teaching English at Ngee Ann Polytechnic and also worked as a freelance writer. Their twin sons, Kanishk and Ishaan, were born prematurely in 1984 at the KK Hospital in Singapore. Ishaan is a former senior editor at Time magazine, and now writes on foreign affairs for The Washington Post. Kanishk is a former editor at Open Democracy and is the author of the highly praised short story collection Swimmer Among The Stars. Tilottama is currently a professor of humanities at New York University.

Tharoor and Tilottama were divorced at some point. In 2007, Tharoor married Christa Giles, a Canadian diplomat working at the United Nations. This marriage was short-lived and childless. Tharoor next married Dubai-based businesswoman Sunanda Pushkar at his ancestral home in Elavanchery village in Kerala's Palakkad district on 22 August 2010. He became her third husband, and step-father to her son Shiv Menon, born of a previous marriage. On 17 January 2014, Pushkar (aged 51) died at The Leela Hotel in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, under mysterious circumstances. In May 2018, Tharoor was charged with encouraging the suicide of his wife and marital cruelty under sections 306 and 498A of the Indian Penal Code. On 18 August 2021, a court in Delhi discharged Tharoor from all the charges.

Tharoor is a vegetarian and he "abhors the idea of consuming the corpses of animals," although he claimed that he does not have a problem with those who do. He has stated that he is "very proud of being a Hindu" and that he's a "worshipping" and "believing Hindu". Tharoor also claims to have read a "fair amount" of the Upanishads.

In April 2019, Tharoor had an accident when praying during a Thulabharam ritual at a temple in Thiruvananthapuram. After being discharged, he sought a probe by the government into the incident.

His mother-tongue is Malayalam.

Service and philanthropy

Shashi Tharoor was one of the first nine celebrities nominated in 2014 by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spread awareness regarding cleanliness, hygiene and good sanitation and make Swachh Bharat Mission a people's movement. He responded by cleaning the Vizhinjam port on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram.

Advisor

Currently, he is on the Board of Advisors of India's International Movement to Unite Nations (I.I.M.U.N.).

Honours and awards

1976 – Rajika Kripalani Young Journalist Award for the Best Indian Journalist under 30.
1990 – Federation of Indian Publishers' Hindustan Times Literary Award for the Best Book of the Year for The Great Indian Novel.
1991 – Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Best Book of the Year in the Eurasian Region, for The Great Indian Novel
1998 – Excelsior Award for excellence in literature, Association of Indians in America (AIA) and the Network of Indian Professionals (NetIP).
1998 – Global Leader of Tomorrow, World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
2004 – Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India's highest honour for non-resident Indians (accepted 2007)
2009 – Zakir Hussain Memorial "Pride of India" Award.
2009 – Inspiration of the Year Award at GQ's Man of the Year Awards.
2009 – Hakim Khan Sur Award for National Integration, Maharana of Udaipur.
2010 – Sarva Deshiya Prathibha Award, Pazhassiraja Charitable Trust, Kozhikode.
2010 – "New Age Politician of the Year" Award, at NDTV's Indian of the Year awards.
2010 – Fifth IILM Distinguished Global Thinker Award, New Delhi.
2010 – Digital person of the year, Indian Digital Media Awards (IDMA), for popularising the digital medium in India.
2012 – Spain : Commander of the Order of Charles III by King of Spain
2013 – First Sree Narayan Guru Global Secular and Peace Award at Thiruvananthapuram.
2013 – PETA's "Person of the Year".
2019 – Sahitya Akademi Award for his book, An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India.
2022 – France : Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, for his writings and speeches

Honorary degrees

Honorary Doctor of Letters in International Affairs from University of Puget Sound
Doctor Honoris Causa in history from University of Bucharest.

Bibliography

Fiction

The Great Indian Novel (1989)
The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories (1990)
Show Business (1992)
Riot (2001)

Non-fiction

Reasons of State (1985)
India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997)
Nehru: The Invention of India. Arcade Publishing (2003). New York. First edition. ISBN 9781559706971
Bookless in Baghdad (2005)
The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India – The Emerging 21st-Century Power (2007)
Shadows Across the Playing Field: Sixty Years of India-Pakistan Cricket (2009) (with Shaharyar Khan)
Upworldly Mobile: Behaviour and Business Skills for the New Indian manager (2011) (foreword, with Ranjini Manian)
Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century (2012)
India: the Future is Now (Editor) (2013)
India Shastra: Reflections on the Nation in our Time (2015)
Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India (2017), first published in India as An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India (2016).
Why I Am A Hindu (2018)
The Paradoxical Prime Minister (2018)
The Hindu Way (2019)
The New World Disorder and the Indian Imperative (2020), co-authored with Samir Saran.
The Battle of Belonging (2020)
Tharoorosaurus (2020)
Pride, Prejudice and Punditry: The Essential Shashi Tharoor (2021)
The Struggle for India's Soul: Nationalism and the Fate of Democracy (2021)
Ambedkar: A Life (2022)
A Wonderland of Words: Around The World In 101 Essays (2024)

Illustrated books

Kerala: God's Own Country (2002) (along with artist M.F. Husain).
Inde (in French) or India (in English) (2008) along with photographer Ferrante Ferranti.

References

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The Hindu, 20.08.2023
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"'Am touched by your thoughtfulness': Shashi Tharoor thanks PM Modi for birthday wishes in Malayalam". www.freepressjournal.in. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
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"Used to bully them when we were younger but now...: Shashi Tharoor on his equation with his sisters". India Today. 10 October 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
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Newspaper Circulation
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Tharoor, Shashi; Khan, Shaharyar Mohammed (2009). Shadows Across the Playing Field: 60 Years of India-Pakistan Cricket. Roli Books. p. 189. ISBN 978-81-7436-718-1. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
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Tunku Varadarajan, "'The Struggle for India's Soul' Review: Nationalism in New Delhi: An Indian politician and writer calls for a return to liberal ideals." Wall Street Journal 3 Dec 2021
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Tharoor, Shashi (January 2003). Kerala, God's own country. Books Today. p. 57. ISBN 81-87478-43-8. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2015.

External links

Official website
Shashi Tharoor on Instagram
Dr Shashi Tharoor Official bio-data at Lok Sabha, Parliament of India
Cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Prime Ministers Office, Archived
Shashi Tharoor at United Nations
Shashi Tharoor collected news and commentary at The New York Times
Shashi Tharoor collected news and commentary at The Times of India
Why Is PM Narendra Modi 'The Paradoxical Prime Minister'? | The Interview With Shashi Tharoor (Videotape). ET Now. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021.
Appearances on C-SPAN
Shashi Tharoor at IMDb
Works by Shashi Tharoor at Open Library
Globalization and the Human Imagination Opening speech of the 3. international literature festival berlin

Lok Sabha
Preceded byPannyan Raveendran	Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram 2009	Incumbent
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Not sure	Secretary-General UN Communications and Public Information 2001–2007	Succeeded byKiyotaka Akasaka

v t e Malayalam literature
Organisations	Kerala Sahitya Akademi Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham Sahithya Pravarthaka Co-operative Society
Literary awards	Abu Dhabi Sakthi Award Asan Smaraka Kavitha Puraskaram Cherukad Award Edasseri Award Ezhuthachan Puraskaram Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Biography and Autobiography Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Children's Literature Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Drama Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Humour Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Literary Criticism Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Miscellaneous Works Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Overall Contributions Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Scholarly Literature Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Translation Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Travelogue Kerala Sahitya Akademi Fellowship Mathrubhumi Literary Award Muttathu Varkey Award O. N. V. Literary Award O. V. Vijayan Literary Award Odakkuzhal Award Padmarajan Award P. Kesavadev Literary Award Ulloor Award Vallathol Award Vayalar Award
Fiction writers	Ajijesh Pachat Akbar Kakkattil Anand Anita Nair Anoop Sasikumar Appu Nedungadi Ashitha Ashtamoorthi K. V. Aymanam John Babu Bharadwaj B. M. Suhara B. Sandhya C. Radhakrishnan C. V. Balakrishnan C. V. Raman Pillai C. V. Sreeraman Chandramathi Cherukad E. Harikumar E. Vasu G. R. Indugopan George Onakkoor Gracy I. K. K. Menon Jayasree Kalathil John Abraham Jose Panachippuram Joy J. Kaimaparamban K. J. Baby Arch Deacon Koshy K. L. Mohana Varma K. N. Ezhuthachan K. P. Nirmal Kumar K. P. Ramanunni K. R. Meera K. Rekha K. Surendran K. P. Joseph Kalarickal K. Thayat Kainikkara Padmanabha Pillai Kakkanadan Kamala Surayya Kanam EJ Karunakaran Karur Neelakanta Pillai Khadija Mumtaz Kottayam Pushpanath Kovilan K. V. Anoop Lajo Jose Lalithambika Antharjanam M. Govindan M. Mukundan M. Sukumaran M. T. Vasudevan Nair Madampu Kunjukuttan Madhupal Malayath Appunni Malayattoor Ramakrishnan Mallika Yunis Muttathu Varkey N. Mohanan N. N. Pisharody N. P. Chellappan Nair N. P. Mohammed N. S. Madhavan Nandanar Narayan O. V. Vijayan Omchery N. N. Pillai Oyyarathu Chandu Menon P. Ayyaneth P. Surendran P. F. Mathews P. K. Balakrishnan P. Kesavadev P. R. Nathan P. R. Shyamala P. Surendran P. Valsala Padmarajan Pamman Parappurath Pattathuvila Karunakaran Paul Chirakkarode Paul Zacharia Perumbadavam Sreedharan Ponjikkara Rafi Ponkunnam Varkey Punathil Kunjabdulla Raghunath Paleri S. Hareesh S. K. Pottekkatt Santhosh Echikkanam Sarah Joseph Sarah Thomas Savithri Rajeevan Socrates K. Valath Sudhakar Mangalodayam Sethu Shihabuddin Poythumkadavu Sohanlal Sreekrishnapuram Krishnankutty Subhash Chandran T. P. Rajeevan T. Padmanabhan T. V. Kochubava T. V. Varkey Tatapuram Sukumaran Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai Thikkodiyan Thomas Joseph U. A. Khader U. K. Kumaran Unnikrishnan Puthur Unnikrishnan Thiruvazhiyode Uroob V. K. N. V. P. Sivakumar Vaikom Muhammad Basheer Vallachira Madhavan Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar Vilasini Vinoy Thomas
Poets	A. Ayyappan A. C. Sreehari A. R. Raja Raja Varma Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri Arnos Pathiri Attoor Ravi Varma Balachandran Chullikkadu Balamani Amma Bodheswaran Chandiroor Divakaran Changampuzha Krishna Pillai Cherukad Cherusseri Namboothiri D. Vinayachandran Edappalli Raghavan Pillai Edasseri Govindan Nair G. Shankara Kurup Irayimman Thampi K. Ayyappa Paniker K. C. Kesava Pillai K. V. Ramakrishnan Kadammanitta Ramakrishnan Kadathanat Madhavi Amma Kadavanad Kuttikrishnan Kamala Surayya Kattakayam Cherian Mappillai Kavitha Balakrishnan Kumaran Asan Kunchan Nambiar Kureepuzha Sreekumar Lalitha Lenin M. Govindan M. P. Appan M. S. Banesh Manoj Kuroor Mary John Thottam Mohanakrishnan Kaladi Moyinkutty Vaidyar N. N. Kakkad N. V. Krishna Warrier Nalapat Narayana Menon Nellikkal Muraleedharan Niranam poets O. N. V. Kurup Olappamanna Subramanian Namboothirippad P. Kunhiraman Nair P. P. Ramachandran Pala Narayanan Nair Poonthanam Namboothiri Pulikkottil Hyder Punaloor Balan Puthussery Ramachandran S. Joseph Satchidanandan Satyan Madakkara Savithri Rajeevan Sugathakumari Thirunalloor Karunakaran Tholan Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer Unnayi Variyar V. Madhusoodanan Nair V. C. Balakrishna Panicker V. M. Girija Vadakkumkur Rajarajavarmaraja Vallathol Narayana Menon Vayalar Ramavarma Veerankutty Vennikkulam Gopala Kurup Vijayalakshmi Vishnunarayanan Namboothiri V Madhusoodanan Nair Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon Sreedevi Kakkad
Playwrights	C. J. Thomas C. L. Jose C. N. Sreekantan Nair Cherukad G. Sankara Pillai K. T. Muhammed M. Govindan Nalapat Narayana Menon S. L. Puram Sadanandan Thoppil Bhasi T. N. Gopinathan Nair V. T. Bhattathiripad
Children's literature	Malayath Appunni P. Narendranath Sumangala Shebaly Sippy Pallippuram Kiliroor Radhakrishnan
Essayists/Critics	Annie Thayyil C. N. Ahmad Moulavi C. S. Venkiteswaran Joseph Mundassery K. M. Daniel K. P. Appan K. P. Sankaran K. Damodaran K. M. George Kesari Balakrishna Pillai Kozhikodan Kuttikrishna Marar Kuttipuzha Krishna Pillai M. K. Sanu M. Krishnan Nair (author) M. Leelavathy M. N. Karassery M. N. Vijayan M. P. Paul M. R. Chandrasekharan Narendra Prasad O. V. Vijayan P. Surendran S. Guptan Nair S. Rajasekharan Sabeena Rafi Sanjayan Sukumar Azhikode V. C. Sreejan V. T. Bhattathiripad Vijayakrishnan V. V. K. Valath
Scholars and Grammarians	A. R. Raja Raja Varma Arnos Paathiri George Mathan Hermann Gundert Jyeṣṭhadeva Kerala Varma Valiya Koil Thampuran Kottarathil Sankunni Krishna Chaithanya R. Narayana Panickar Vadakkumkur Rajarajavarmaraja
Translators	Leela Devi M. K. Kumaran M. N. Sathyaardhi N. K. Damodaran Nileena Abraham
Genre	Champukkal Drama Kilippattu Manipravalam Novel Vadakkan Pattukal Venmani School Vanchippattu
Novels	Aalahayude Penmakkal Aalohari Anandam Aadujeevitham Aarachaar Akkapporinte Irupathu Nasrani Varshangal Anal Haq Anargha Nimisham Anuragathinte Dinangal Agnisakshi Ara Nazhika Neram Arabi Ponnu Arohanam Asuravithu Avakasikal Ayussinte Pusthakam Balyakalasakhi Barsa Chemmeen Cheviyorkkuka! Anthimakahalam Daivathinte Vikrithikal Delhi Gadhakal Enmakaje Ente Katha Ente Thankam Francis Itty Cora Gurusagaram Indulekha Kaalam Kayar Kesavante Vilapangal Khasakkinte Itihasam Kocharethi Kundalatha Manju (novel) Manushyanu Oru Aamukham Maranathinte Nizhalil Marthandavarma Mathilukal Maya Mayyazhippuzhayude Theerangalil Mucheettukalikkarante Makal Mullappoo Niramulla Pakalukal Muthassi Naadan Premam Naalukettu Nakshathrangale Kaaval Ntuppuppakkoranendarnnu Odayil Ninnu Ormayude Arakal Oru Desathinte Katha Oru Sankeerthanam Pole Oru Theruvinte Katha Othappu Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathirakolapathakathinte Katha Pathummayude Aadu Peruvazhiyambalam Ponni Pravasam Premalekhanam Randamoozham Randidangazhi Rathinirvedam Sarada Shabdangal Smarakasilakal Sufi Paranja Katha Sundarikalum Sundaranmarum Thottiyude Makan Ummachu Vasanavikriti Vasanthathile Poomarangal Verukal Viddikalude Swargam Visappu Yakshi Yanthram
Treatises	Aithihyamala Alphabetum grandonico-malabaricum sive samscrudonicum Kerala Panineeyam Nātyakalpadrumam Sarvavijnanakosam State Institute of Encyclopaedic Publications Viswasahityavijnanakosam Yuktibhāṣā
Poems	Atmopadesa Śatakam Daiva Daśakaṁ Jnanappana Omanathinkal Kidavo Makarakoythu Puthen Pana Ramanan (play in verse) Rani (poem) Sree Bhoothanaathopakhyaanam Unnuneeli Sandesam Kuchelavritham Vanchippattu Krishnagatha
Assorted articles	Arabi Malayalam Arabi Malayalam script Chakara Malayalam grammar Malayalam poetry Mathrubhumi Yearbook Jewish copper plate Judeo-Malayalam Malayalam script Malayalam triumvirate poets Malayanma Mannan language Mappila dialect Mozhi (transliteration) Mullu Kurumba language Pandy Malayalam Romanisation of Malayalam
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v t e Members of the 17th Lok Sabha from Kerala State
GE 2019	A. M. Ariff Adoor Prakash Anto Antony Benny Behanan Dean Kuriakose E. T. Muhammed Basheer Hibi Eden K. Muraleedharan K. Sudhakaran Kodikkunnil Suresh M. K. Raghavan N. K. Premachandran P. K. Kunhalikutty Rahul Gandhi Rajmohan Unnithan Ramya Haridas Shashi Tharoor T. N. Prathapan Thomas Chazhikadan V. K. Sreekandan
16th LS members 18th LS membersMembers of the 17th Lok Sabha from States AP AR AS BR CT GA GJ HR HP JH KA KL MP MH ML MN MZ NL OR PB RJ SK TG TN TR UP UT WB Union territories AN CH DH DL JK LA LD PY

Members of the 17th Lok Sabha from Kerala State

GE 2019

16th LS members

18th LS membersMembers of the 17th Lok Sabha from

States: AP; AR; AS; BR; CT; GA; GJ; HR; HP; JH; KA; KL; MP; MH; ML; MN; MZ; NL; OR; PB; RJ; SK; TG; TN; TR; UP; UT; WB

Union territories: AN; CH; DH; DL; JK; LA; LD; PY

v t e Members of the 16th Lok Sabha from Kerala State
GE 2014	K. C. Venugopal P. K. Biju A. Sampath Innocent K. V. Thomas Joice George P. K. Sreemathy P. Karunakaran N. K. Premachandran Jose K. Mani M. K. Raghavan E. Ahamed Kodikunnil Suresh M. B. Rajesh Anto Antony E. T. Mohammed Basheer Shashi Tharoor C. N. Jayadevan Mullappally Ramachandran M. I. Shanavas
Bye-elections 2017	PK Kunhalikutty Pre-bye poll: E. Ahamed - death
15th LS members 17th LS members Members of the 16th Lok Sabha from States AP AR AS BR CT GA GJ HR HP JH KA KL MP MH ML MN MZ NL OR PB RJ SK TG TN TR UP UT WB Union territories AN CH DH DL JK LA LD PY

Members of the 16th Lok Sabha from Kerala State

GE 2014

Bye-elections
2017

PK Kunhalikutty
- Pre-bye poll: E. Ahamed - death

15th LS members

17th LS members Members of the 16th Lok Sabha from

States: AP; AR; AS; BR; CT; GA; GJ; HR; HP; JH; KA; KL; MP; MH; ML; MN; MZ; NL; OR; PB; RJ; SK; TG; TN; TR; UP; UT; WB

Union territories: AN; CH; DH; DL; JK; LA; LD; PY

Second Manmohan Singh ministry

Prime Minister: Manmohan Singh

Cabinet Ministers

Agriculture	Sharad Pawar
Civil Aviation	Ajit Singh
Coal	Shriprakash Jaiswal
Commerce and Industry	Anand Sharma
Communications and IT	Kapil Sibal
Culture	Chandresh Kumari Katoch
Defence	A. K. Antony
Earth Sciences	Jaipal Reddy
External Affairs	Salman Khurshid
Finance	P. Chidambaram
Food Processing Industries	Sharad Pawar
Health and Family Welfare	Ghulam Nabi Azad

Heavy Ind. & Public Enterprises	Praful Patel
Home Affairs	Sushilkumar Shinde
Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation	Girija Vyas
Human Resource Development	Pallam Raju
Labour and Employment	Sis Ram Ola
Law and Justice	Kapil Sibal
Mines	Dinsha Patel
Minority Affairs	K. Rahman Khan
New and Renewable Energy	Farooq Abdullah
Overseas Indian Affairs	Vayalar Ravi
Parliamentary Affairs	Kamal Nath
Petroleum and Natural Gas	Veerappa Moily

Railway	Mallikarjun Kharge
Road Transport and Highways	Oscar Fernandes
Rural development	Jairam Ramesh
Science and Technology	Jaipal Reddy
Social Justice and Emp.	Selja Kumari
Steel	Beni Prasad Verma
Shipping	G. K. Vasan
Textiles	Kavuri Samba Siva Rao
Tribal Affairs	Kishore Chandra Deo
Urban Development	Kamal Nath
Water Resources	Harish Rawat

Ministers of State (Independent Charge)

Chemicals and Fertilizers	Srikant Kumar Jena
Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution	K. V. Thomas
Corporate Affairs	Sachin Pilot
Development of North Eastern Region	Paban Singh Ghatowar
Drinking Water and Sanitation	Bharatsinh Madhavsinh Solanki
Environment and Forests	Jayanthi Natarajan
Information and Broadcasting	Manish Tewari

MSME	K. H. Muniyappa
Power	Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia
Statistics and Programme Implementation	Srikant Kumar Jena
Tourism	K. Chiranjeevi
Women and Child Dev.	Krishna Tirath
Youth Affairs and Sports	Jitendra Singh

Ministers of State

Agriculture	Charan Das Mahant, Tariq Anwar
Civil Aviation	K. C. Venugopal
Coal	Pratik Prakashbapu Patil
Commerce and Industry	Daggubati Purandeswari, E. M. Sudarsana Natchiappan
Comm. & IT	Killi Krupa Rani, Milind Murli Deora
Corporate Affairs	R. P. N. Singh
Defence	Jitendra Singh
External Affairs	E. Ahamed, Preneet Kaur
Finance	Namo Narain Meena, S. S. Palanimanickam
Food Processing Ind.	Charan Das Mahant

Health and Family Welfare	Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, S. Gandhiselvan
Home Affairs	Mullappally Ramachandran, R. P. N. Singh
Human Resource Development	Jitin Prasada, Shashi Tharoor
Information and Broadcasting	S. Jagathrakshakan
Labour and Employment	Kodikunnil Suresh
Minority Affairs	Ninong Ering
Parliamentary Affairs	Paban Singh Ghatowar, Rajeev Shukla
Petroleum and Natural Gas	Panabaka Lakshmi, R. P. N. Singh
New and Renewable Energy	S. Jagathrakshakan
Personnel, Public Griev. & Pensions	V. Narayanasamy
Planning Commission	Rajeev Shukla

Power	K. C. Venugopal
PMO	V. Narayanasamy
Railway	Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, K. J. Surya Prakash Reddy
Road Trans. & Highways	Sarvey Sathyanarayana, Tushar Amarsinh Chaudhary
Rural development	Lal Chand Kataria, Pradeep Jain Aditya
Shipping	Milind Murli Deora
Social Justice and Emp.	Balram Naik, Manikrao Hodlya Gavit
Textiles	Panabaka Lakshmi
Tribal Affairs	Mahadeo Singh Khandela, Ranee Narah
Urban Development	Deepa Dasmunsi

Portals:

v t e Sahitya Akademi Award for English
1960–1970	The Guide by R. K. Narayan (1960) The Serpent and the Rope by Raja Rao (1964) The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin by Verrier Elwin (1965) Shadow From Ladakh by Bhabani Bhattacharya (1967) An Artist in Life by Niharranjan Ray (1969)
1971–1980	Morning Face by Mulk Raj Anand (1971) Scholar Extraordinary by Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1975) Jawaharlal Nehru by Sarvepalli Gopal (1976) Azadi by Chaman Nahal (1977) Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai (1978) Inside the Haveli by Rama Mehta (1979) On the Mother by K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar (1980)
1981–1990	Relationship by Jayanta Mahapatra (1981) The Last Labyrinth by Arun Joshi (1982) Latter-Day Psalms by Nissim Ezekiel (1983) The Keeper of the Dead by Keki N. Daruwalla (1984) Collected Poems by Kamala Das (1985) Rich Like Us by Nayantara Sahgal (1986) Trapfalls In the Sky by Shiv K. Kumar (1987) The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth (1988) The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh (1989) That Long Silence by Shashi Deshpande (1990)
1991–2000	The Trotter-Nama by Allan Sealy (1991) Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra by Ruskin Bond (1992) After Amnesia by G. N. Devy (1993) Serendip by Dom Moraes (1994) Memories of Rain by Sunetra Gupta (1996) Final Solutions and Other Plays by Mahesh Dattani (1998) The Collected Poems by A. K. Ramanujan (1999) Cuckold by Kiran Nagarkar (2000)
2001–2010	Rajaji: A Life by Rajmohan Gandhi (2001) A New World by Amit Chaudhuri (2002) The Perishable Empire by Meenakshi Mukherjee (2003) The Mammaries of the Welfare State by Upamanyu Chatterjee (2004) The Algebra of Infinite Justice by Arundhati Roy (2005) The Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa (2006) Disorderly Women by Malathi Rao (2007) Mahabharata: An Inquiry into the Human Condition by Chaturvedi Badrinath (2009) The Book of Rachel by Esther David (2010)
2011–2020	India after Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha (2011) These Errors are Correct by Jeet Thayil (2012) Laburnum For My Head by Temsula Ao (2013) Trying to Say Goodbye by Adil Jussawalla (2014) Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer by Cyrus Mistry (2015) Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto (2016) The Black Hill by Mamang Dai (2017) The Blind Lady's Descendants by Anees Salim (2018) An Era of Darkness by Shashi Tharoor (2019) When God is a Traveller by Arundhathi Subramaniam (2020)
2021–present	Things to Leave Behind by Namita Gokhale (2021) All The Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy (2022)

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