The Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize 2023
Announcement of the Prize Winners
The Khushwant Singh Literary Festival, the Gandhi Peace Foundation and the literary journal Out of Print are honoured to announce the prize-winners of the Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize 2023-2024. The 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. This, the fourth edition of the prize, asked students to imagine what a Gandhian approach would be to women’s reservation, a Uniform Civil Code and the conduct of elections today. The prise-winning entries will be published in Out of Print.
Discussing the student submissions, founder of the Kodaikanal Gandhi prize Radha Kumar said, ‘I was surprised and delighted to see how many of the students stressed the core Gandhian values of consultation and processes of on-ground change for formulating or implementing a Uniform Civil Code; how many felt that Dalit, Adivasi and OBC reservation should form a dub-category of women’s reservation to parliament, and vice-versa; and how many were sharply critical of campaign finance in India today, both for its scale and in its nature.’
Emphasising the importance of the prize, Indira Chandrasekhar, founder and chief editor of Out of Print said, ‘It is heartening to see the effort students put into reading and understanding Gandhi, and in attempting to imagine his responses to critical political issues that impact the nation. In an age of information and technological advancement where it is easy to plagiarise work, and to use AI to generate writing, the jury looks for thoughtful analyses, and presentations that reflect, with integrity, the students’ individual thinking.’
Director of the Gandhi Peace Foundation and co-sponsor of the prize Kumar Prashant concluded, ‘I am not surprised but reassured that whenever our young friends get the opportunity to express themselves freely, they side with right, they side with morality, they side with humanity... and they side with Gandhi. Gandhi is not an individual for them but synonymous with values. Gandhi Peace Foundation is honoured to associate with this endeavour.’
The Prize winners are:
First Prize (shared):
Krishna Kalal Jasnoor Matharoo
DPS Bopal, Ahmedabad YPS Mohali
Topic: The Elections Topic: The UCC
Second Prize (shared):
Jeevitha S Samaira Gargi
Parikrma, Bengaluru DPS Bopal, Ahmedabad
Topic: The Women’s Reservation Bill Topic: The UCC
Third Prize:
Chandana P
Parikrma, Bengaluru
Topic: The Women’s Reservation Bill
Creative Effort (Awarded by the literary journal Out of Print)
Ashaz Daud
DPS, Varanasi. Topic: The Elections
Honourable Mentions:
Jayesh Mahajan
DPS, Jalandhar
Topic: The Elections
Jayosi Gayen
DPS Bopal, Ahmedabad
Topic: The Women’s Reservation Bill
Lakshmi M
Parikrma, Bengaluru
Topic: The UCC
The prize-winning essays will be published. Links to the essays will be provided when the work is uploaded.
