THE KODAIKANAL GANDHI PRIZE 2023

 Announcing the Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize for 2023

On Gandhi’s 134th birth anniversary, The Khushwant Singh Literary Festival’s Joy of Learning program, the Gandhi Peace Foundation and the literary journal Out of Print are pleased to announce the fourth edition of the Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize, which aims to increase awareness amongst our young people of the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi in promoting the values of humanity, compassion, democracy, non-violence and truth-telling.

The competition invites entries in the form of a written or multimedia presentation from across India, and is open to students aged 16 to 18. 

The prize-winners will be announced in 2024, on March 12, which marks the start of Gandhi’s historic Dandi Salt March in 1930.

Details of the competition are listed below. They may also be viewed at this link.

The Entry Form for registering and participating in the competition may be downloaded here.

THE KODAIKANAL GANDHI PRIZE 2023

Announcement and Rules

The Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize aims to increase awareness amongst our young people of the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi in promoting the values of humanity, compassion, democracy, non-violence and truth-telling.

The competition invites entries in the form of a written or multimedia presentation from across India, and is open to students aged 16 to 18. Submissions from younger contestants may be considered but will be held to the same standard.

The last date of submission is January 14, 2024. 

Prizes will be awarded on March 12, which marks the start of Gandhi’s historic Dandi Salt March.

The top three submissions will be awarded prizes of: Rs. 15,000, Rs. 10,000, and Rs. 5000. A fourth prize of Rs. 5,000 for creative writing will also be awarded.

Prize winning essays will be published in the journal, Out of Print.

Rules: 

1. Registration. To register for the contest, students must send in their names through their schools (principal or designated teacher) to savita@kslitfest.com by November 30, 2023. 

Students wishing to enter independently may also write in directly to this email, giving their date of birth, name of school and grade. 

Should the participating schools or students wish, prize organizers can provide students with a set of readings.

2. Entry options. Entries can be either written (essay, poem, short story, short play) or multimedia (graphic novel, video or power point).

The word limits for written entries: 1500 to 2,000 words

The page limits for graphic novels: 5 to10 pages

Time limit for a video or power-point presentation: 2.5 minutes

3. Topics. Students may choose to address any one or more of the three topics listed below:

a. Would a Gandhian today support a uniform civil code? If yes, what would s/he say should be its core approach or elements? If no, why not?

b. How might Gandhi have responded to the way elections are conducted today, looking at one or more of the following: (1) election financing; (2) campaign rhetoric; or (3) the election commission.

c. Can the recently enacted reservation for women in parliament be considered Gandhian? Should it include Dalit and OBC quotas within it or should there be women’s quotas in existing Dalit and OBC reservation?

Note for teachers and students: Entrants are encouraged to show knowledge of Gandhi’s writings or practice in relation to the topics above. They are also encouraged to look at Gandhi in his context and offer their own analysis of whether his opinions on the three topics are valid today.

4. Submission. Entries must be submitted on Turnitin by 5 pm on January 14, 2023. Plagiarism is strictly prohibited and any entries found to have plagiarised are automatically disqualified. Students must properly reference any quotations.

We seek your cooperation to encourage maximum participation. Please share this with your students, fellow educators, and others in your network. 

We look forward to welcoming your students to the competition!