Indian politician, writer and Congress party member Shashi Tharoor won the Sahitya Akademi Award 2019 today. The Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram won the prestigious award for his book An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India. The book was published in 2016.
On December 18, 2019, Sahitya Akademi shared a press release announcing its annual Sahitya Akademi Awards in 23 languages. Shashi Tharoor was one of the winners in the list. He won for his work in creative non-fiction in the English language.
Shashi Tharoor's book talks about the effect of British rule in India and how the colonizers exploited the country.
Born in London, Tharoor graduated from St. Stephen's College in Delhi in 1975. In 1978, he completed his doctorate in International Relations and Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
Tharoor has also served as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information and as the Minister of State for External Affairs. He is popularly known for his impeccable hold on the English language and for going viral on the internet for his vocabulary.
Tharoor is also the author of many bestsellers like Why I Am A Hindu, Paradoxical Prime Minister and Inglorious Empire.