Tariq Thachil Awarded Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy Prize

Tariq Thachil, Madan Lal Sobti Professor for the Study of Contemporary India, has been awarded the Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy Prize from the Association for Asian Studies alongside Adam Auerbach, a Johns Hopkins University professor focused on South Asia and climate issues. They are being honored for their book, Migrants and Machine Politics: How India’s Urban Poor Seek Representation and Responsiveness, published in 2023 by Princeton University Press.
 
AAS announced the winners of a slew of prizes during its annual conference in Columbus, OH. Also receiving the prize is the University of Virginia’s Neeti Nair, for her book Hurt Sentiments: Secularism and Belonging in South Asia.
 
Named for Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, a Ceylonese metaphysician and historian, the award “honors a distinguished work of scholarship in South Asian Studies that promises to define or redefine the understanding of whole subject areas.” Specifically it recognizes works from authors who have already been published and acknowledged in their fields. To determine honorees, AAS seeks nominations of works with “innovative approaches that may concern any topic in any discipline or may cross disciplinary lines.”
 
Thachil and Auerbach have received a number of additional awards and distinctions for Migrants and Machine Politics, including two from the American Political Science Association—the Giovanni Sartori Book Award and the Best Book Award.