Indian-origin author Mahmood Mamdani is among four authors from around the world to be shortlisted for the 2021 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding on Tuesday.

The 75-year-old Mumbai-born Ugandan academic and writer is in the running for the GBP 25,000 non-fiction prize for ‘Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities’, described as an in-depth inquiry into political modernity, colonial and postcolonial, and an exploration of the roots of violence that has plagued postcolonial society. In the book, Mamdani is said to set out a “powerful and original” argument that the nation-state and the colonial state created each other.

“An original and forcefully argued book that explores how the development of the colonial and postcolonial nation state has produced ‘permanent minorities’, who are then victimised as existing outside national belonging,” the judges of the prize said in reference to his book. “The book is particularly strong in exploring the consequences of this problem, here shown to have caused extreme xenophobic violence in various postcolonial situations. Mamdani makes a convincing case for the necessary reimagining of politics that has to happen before the situation can be improved. A valuable book on an issue of outstanding importance.”

“The British Academy is honoured to support this unique non-fiction book prize which celebrates exceptional writers who illuminate the interconnections and divisions that shape cultural identity worldwide. This year’s shortlist shows the breadth and depth of the humanities and social sciences and the vital role they can play in deepening our understanding of people, cultures and societies,” said Professor Julia Black, President of the British Academy.