Awards
- Honorary Doctorate, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Holland
- Jnanpith Award, 2018
- Lifetime Achievement Award, Times of India festival, Mumbai, 2018
- Utah Award in the Environmental Humanities - 2018
- Lifetime Achievement Award, Tata Literature Live festival, Mumbai, 2017
- Honorary Doctorate, University of Puget Sound, 2014
- Myanmar National Literature Award (The Glass Palace, Burmese translation by U Nay Win Myint) 2012
- Tagore Literature Award, Sahitya Akademi (Sea of Poppies) 2012
- Shortlisted Man Booker Asian Prize (River of Smoke) 2012
- Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix 2011
- Doctorate, Honoris Causa, Sorbonne, 2010.
- Dan David Prize 2010.
- Honorary degree , Queens College, City University of New York, 2010.
- Indiaplaza Golden Quill Popular Vote Award, (Sea of Poppies), 2009.
- Indiaplaza Golden Quill Award for best novel, (Sea of Poppies), 2009.
- Crossword Book Award, for best novel of the year, (Sea of Poppies), 2009.
- Shortlisted, Man Booker Prize, 2008 (Sea of Poppies).
- Asian-American Literary Award for non-fiction (for Incendiary Circumstances), 2007.
- Grinzane Cavour Prize for lifetime achievement, Turin, Italy, 2007.
- Awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India, 2007.
- Finalist, Kiriyama Prize, San Francisco, 2006 (The Hungry Tide).
- Crossword Book Award, for best novel of the year (The Hungry Tide), 2005, Mumbai.
- Grand Prize for Fiction, Frankfurt eBook Award, 2001 (The Glass Palace).
- The Pushcart Prize, for (‘The March of the Novel through History: The Testimony of my Grandfather’s Bookcase’), 1999.
- Nomination for American Society of Magazine Editors Award, for reporting (Countdown, 1999).
- The Arthur C. Clark Award, 1996, (The Calcutta Chromosome).
- Best American Essays, 1995, (‘The Ghosts of Mrs Gandhi’).
- The Annual Awardof the Sahitya Akademi (Indian Academy of Literature), 1990, (The Shadow Lines).
- The Ananda Puraskar, Calcutta, 1990,(The Shadow Lines).
- The Prix Medicis Étrangère, (Paris), 1990, (The Circle of Reason).
