New Delhi, Nov 11 The Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship for 2026 has been awarded to former Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar for a project on Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s ‘Delhi Muslim proposals’ of 1927, under which the Muslim League offered to give up separate electorates for Muslims in lieu of structural safeguards.
The Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund (JNMF) announced that the fellowship is awarded for a period of two years and carries a stipend of Rs 1 lakh per month and a contingency amount of Rs 75,000 per year.
“On the occasion of the 137th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Jawaharlal Memorial Fund is pleased to announce the award of Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship for the year 2026 to Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar to work on the project ‘The Lost Century (1927-2027): Rise (1927) and Fall (1928) of M A Jinnah’s Delhi Muslim Proposals (20 March 1927)’,” a statement issued by the JNMF said.
A graduate from Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College and a postgraduate from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Aiyar joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1963, worked in the PMO of then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi before getting elected to the Lok Sabha.
The veteran Congress leader also served as a Cabinet minister from 2004 to 2009, holding different portfolios.
With this, the JNMF has so far awarded 164 Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowships since its inception.
According to reports, under the Delhi Muslim Proposals of 1927, for the first time, a group of Muslim leaders led by Jinnah offered to give up the demand for separate electorates and accept joint electorates for Hindu-Muslim unity. In return, they asked for basic structural safeguards.
(PTI News)
