Nandini Das has won the 2023 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding for Courting India: Seventeenth-Century England, Mughal India, and the Origins of Empire. The award is given annually to “a nonfiction book that has made an outstanding contribution to global cultural understanding for a wider public audience.”

Das’ book, published in the U.S. by Pegasus in April, is an account of Thomas Roe, who in 1616 became England’s first ambassador to India’s Mughal Empire. A critic for Kirkus called the book an “ornately detailed study of an early ambassador, with an emphasis on fruitful trade in India.”

Charles Tripp, a member of the prize jury, said, “Through her beautiful writing and exceptional research, the jury was drawn to the contrast between an impoverished, insecure Britain and the flourishing, confident Mughal Empire and the often amusing, sometimes querulous exchanges between their various representatives. Moreover, we were reminded through this story of the first ambassadorial mission of the value of international diplomacy, but also of the cultural minefields that surround it in ways that still have resonance today.”

Das reacted to her win on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing, “This is such an honour and privilege, and even more so to be considered alongside the five extraordinary other books and writers who were on the shortlist.”

The British Academy Book Prize was first awarded in 2013. Past winners include Timothy Garton Ash for Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World and Sujit Sivasundaram for Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire.

Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.