The Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize 2022 - Radha Kumar

The Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize 2022

Radha Kumar

2022 was the third year of the Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize, a competition for schoolchildren in classes 9 to 12. Founded by myself and members of the Kodaikanal Fellowship Library in 2019, the prize aimed to revive knowledge about and interest in Gandhi’s political ethos and action, at a time when both appeared particularly salient. 

This third edition of the prize was hosted by the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival’s Joy of Learning program. Beginning with participation from around a dozen schools in 2019, the prize attracted the participation of 52 schools in 2022, a majority of which belonged to the Delhi Public School family. I believe I speak for all the judges – Indira Chandrasekhar of the literary journal Out of Print, a co-sponsor of the prize, writer and analyst Bernard Imhasly, Ramin Jahanbegloo, Gandhian philosopher and head of the Jindal university’s Gandhi Studies Centre, journalist and founder of the KSLF, Rahul Singh, and myself – when I say that we were delighted to find that so many of our young believed in the Indian enlightenment values that lay at the core of the independence movement and the constitution of the republic. Their views gave us hope when so many of our citizens appeared to have succumbed to chauvinism, cynicism or falsehood.

As one of two judges that have been constant through the three iterations of the prize, I was interested to find that this year, a large number of entries focused on exclusion and social discrimination, especially against scheduled tribes. The other major theme of entries was individual rights, especially of women. By comparison, the 2021 entries focused on citizenship and farmers’ rights, two key social movements that dominated 2020, along with handling of the Covid-19 pandemic that swept India and the world. The 2020 entries, in contrast to 2021 and 2022, focused on local aspirations and inequities; the bulk of participating schools that year were in Tamil Nadu. 

Our 2022 prize winners are mostly writers, both essayists and story tellers, though several multimedia presentations received honourable mentions. As in previous years, the judges found it very difficult to judge between our top twenty entries. Once again, we had to split the prizes to give two firsts, two seconds, two thirds, and two prizes for creative expression, along with four honourable mentions. 

One of the gifts of judging the prize is the insights entries offer into the hearts and minds of a few hundred of India’s young. Over the past three years, I have been passionately moved and often forced to step back and think by ideas that have leapt off the page, or screen, as I went through entries. In 2020, I was impressed by the raw statement of many of the entries. My overwhelming 2022 impression is one of grace. Not only our winners, but the enormous majority of entries, made their points gently while not compromising. Taken together, they offered a reflection of our times that is both hopeful and tempered with doubt or sorrow. I hope that readers will find the linked prize-winning entries as rich a food for thought as I did.