Tripurdaman Singh, Arun Mohan Sukumar win Ramnath Goenka Awards for their books on Indian history

Every year the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards honours writers of books whose works offer thorough research into, and investigation of, an issue or idea on a scale that “newspaper or television channels, with their space and time limitations, cannot aspire to tackle.”

At the awards ceremony for 2019 and 2020, held on March 23, Arun Mohan Sukumar and Tripurdaman Singh were given the prizes for their respective books Midnight’s Machines (2019) and Sixteen Stormy Days (2020). Both books have been published by Penguin Random House India. Each of the winners received a cash prize of Rs 1,00,000 and a trophy.

Sixteen Stormy Days tells the story of the first amendment of the Constitution of India, passed in June 1951 in the face of tremendous opposition within and without the Parliament, and the subject of some of Independent India’s fiercest parliamentary debates. It was a pivotal moment in Indian constitutional and political history.

The first amendment broke new ground to curb the freedom of speech-public order, the interests of the security of the state and relations with foreign states; enabled caste-based reservations in education by restricting freedom against discrimination; circumscribed the right to property; validated zamindari abolition; and, finally, created a special schedule where laws could be placed to make...

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