Unveiling The History Of The International Booker Prize: From Literary Excellence To Reckoning With Its Origins In Colonial Exploitation

History Of The International Booker Prize: One of the literary world’s most prestigious awards, the Booker Prize, has recently come under criticism due to its original sponsor, the Booker Group’s historical ties to slavery.

Last week, BBC Radio host Richie Brave posted about a page from the Booker website on Managed the slaves.”

He wrote, “Hi @TheBookerPrizes, I really appreciate your transparency. I am from the same family as the enslaved Africans mentioned on the website. Josias and George did not ‘manage’ my family, they enslaved them,” the website has since changed the word ‘managed’ to “enslaved” (Hindi meaning – slave), meaning slave.

What Booker Prize is and how did it start?

The Booker Prize was started in 1969, initially only for writers from Commonwealth countries, but later it started being given globally also. Each year, the award is presented to a work of fiction in the English language. In 2004, a separate International Booker Prize for translated works was established.

The award was co-founded by publishers Tom Maschler and Graham C. Green, and from 1969 to 2001, it was sponsored by and named after a British wholesale food company called Booker Group Limited. (That company was founded in 1835 as a shipping and trading company, and is now owned by Tesco). Then in 2002, the prize became sponsored by the British investment management firm Man Group, and thus it became known as “The Man Booker Prize”. After Man Group ended its sponsorship in 2019, it was sponsored by the American charity CrankStart and the name of the award was changed back to its original ‘Booker Prize’.

What is Booker’s connection to slavery and indentured labor?

In 1815, the Congress of Vienna divided the northeastern coast of South America between three European powers. The Dutch got modern Suriname, the French got French Guiana (which is still a French Overseas Territory), and Britain got what is now known as Guyana. Many enterprising European businessmen, such as the Booker brothers, headed to these colonies to make money.

The economy of British Guiana was largely driven by the sugar and (to a lesser extent) cotton industries, with African slaves providing essential labor on the plantations. The Booker brothers were part of this exploitative slave-based economy. According to Booker’s website, Josias managed a cotton plantation in northern Guyana where he “enslaved approximately 200 people.” Then, along with his brothers, he became the owner of several sugar plantations, which were also operated by slaves.

When slavery was abolished in Guyana in 1834, the Booker brothers received compensation from the state for 52 freed slaves. According to the Booker website, a sum of £2,884 was recorded in the Legacies of Slave Ownership database at University College London, equivalent to £378,000 in 2020. This amount is Rs 3,95,56,725 in Indian currency.

The International Booker Prize

This is a British literary award given annually for outstanding literary fiction in English.

Those who are rewarded with this award get 50 thousand pounds i.e. Rs 52,31,729.

It was founded in 1969 by the Booker Company and McConnell Ltd., the founders being Jock Campbell, Charles Tyrrell, and Tom Maschler.

How are judges and award winners selected?

The selection process for the winner of this award begins with the appointment of a panel of five judges, which changes every year. Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, selects the judges in consultation with an advisory committee made up of senior members of the UK publishing industry. On special occasions a judge can be elected for the second time. Judges are selected from among leading literary critics, writers, academics and prominent public figures. Until a few years ago, the winner of this award was announced at a formal, black-tie dinner at the Guildhall in London in the month of October. However, due to the Corona pandemic in 2020, the winner ceremony was hosted from the Roundhouse in partnership with BBC in the month of November.

Indians have received this award till now

Till now many Indian novelists have got the opportunity to participate prominently in the Booker Prize Award Ceremony. There are many novelists who were shortlisted or won the Booker Prize in different years.

Rohinton Mistry: He is an Indo-Canadian novelist, who wrote three novels and was selected for the Booker Prize thrice.

Kiran Desai: This Indian novelist was given the award in 2006 for his novel The Inheritance of Loss.

Arundhati Roy: She received this award in the year 1997 for the novel ‘God of Small Things’.

Indra Sinha: A British-Indian author, who was a finalist in 2007 for her novel on the Bhopal gas tragedy – ‘Animals People’.

Amitabh Ghosh: Bengali writer who was shortlisted in 2008 for his sixth novel, ‘Sea of ​​Poppies’, the year two Indians made it to the Booker shortlist together. The second was Arvind Adiga.

Arvind Adiga: An Indian-Australian writer and journalist born in Chennai. His first novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize.

Jeet Thayil: A novelist of many talents, who is also a poet and musician. Selected for the Man Booker Prize in 2012, his first work – ‘Narcopolis’ was selected.

Gitanjali Shri: This Indian novelist received the International Booker Prize in 2022 for the novel Tomb of Sand. Which was translated by Daisy Rockwell.

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