Rahul Pandita: Difference between revisions

| name             = Rahul Pandita

| birth_date       = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1976|02|07}}<ref name="deduce1"/><ref name="deduce2"/>

| birth_place     = [[Jammu and Kashmir (state)|Jammu and Kashmir]], India

| nationality     = Indian

| occupation       = Journalist, Author

| native_name     =  

| awards           = International Red Cross award (2010)

'''Rahul Pandita''' ({{IPA-hi|raːɦʊl pŋɖɪt̪aː}}) is an Indian [[author]] and [[journalist]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/rahul-pandita/article5397869.ece|title=Rahul Pandita|work=The Hindu|date=28 November 2013|access-date=26 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://openthemagazine.com/special/will-the-milk-come-to-a-boil-in-jk/|title=Two days in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir}}</ref>

Rahul Pandita is a [[Kashmiri Pandits|Kashmire Pandit]] born in the [[Kashmir Valley]].<ref>{{Cite web |author=Rahul Pandita |title=Tweet |date=21 January 2020 |url=https://twitter.com/rahulpandita/status/1219495570496032768 |access-date=2022-03-17 |website=Twitter |language=en}}</ref> At the age of 14, he had to leave the valley along with his family in January 1990 as part of the [[Exodus of Kashmiri  Pandits]].<ref name="deduce1">{{cite news |author=Rahul Pandita |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/living-as-a-refugee-in-one-s-own-country/story-y0qXanNR4kx6RPxuczCcQP.html |title=30 years of Pandit exodus: Living as a refugee in one’s own country|newspaper=Hindustan Times |date=17 January 2020}}</ref><ref name="deduce2">{{cite web|title=Rahul Pandita – Author profile |publisher=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/rahul-pandita/article5397869.ece}}</ref>

Pandita's recent job was the Opinion and Special Stories Editor of ''[[The Hindu]]'', one of India's leading newspapers.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/a-requiem-for-moral-coherence/article6055202.ece |title=A requiem for moral coherence|date=28 May 2014|newspaper=The Hindu|first=Rahul|last=Pandita|access-date=6 October 2019}}</ref> He quit ''The Hindu'' citing frequent and childish interventions in edit pages by [[Malini Parthasarathy]], the owner-editor of the paper.  He was one of the founding members of the much-acclaimed [[Open (Indian magazine)|''Open'' magazine]] and has also previously worked with the ''[[The Indian Express|Indian Express]]'' and the ''[[TV Today Network|TV Today]]'' group. He is a conflict-writer, who has reported extensively from war zones, including Iraq and Sri Lanka. His vast experience in reporting on India's [[Naxalite–Maoist insurgency|Maoist insurgency]] has resulted in two books: ''Hello, Bastar: The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement'' and ''The Absent State''.

Pandita is also the author of the best-selling memoir on Kashmir, ''[[Our Moon Has Blood Clots]],'' covering the [[ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus]], which was described as the "most powerful non-fiction book of the year''".<ref name="Narayan2014">{{cite journal|last1=Narayan|first1=Shyamala A.|year=2014|title=India|journal=The Journal of Commonwealth Literature|volume=49|issue=4|pages=535–567|doi=10.1177/0021989414553750|s2cid=220679984}}</ref>''<ref name="dna 2013">{{cite web |title=Book Review: 'Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits' - Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis |website=dna |date=10 February 2013 |url=http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/review-book-review-our-moon-has-blood-clots-the-exodus-of-the-kashmiri-pandits-1797521 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511085424/http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/review-book-review-our-moon-has-blood-clots-the-exodus-of-the-kashmiri-pandits-1797521 |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 May 2018 |access-date=15 May 2018}}</ref> The book  inspired many parts of the 2020 Hindi film [[Shikara (2020 film)|Shikara]].<ref name=":2">{{cite web|url=https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/bollywood/shikara-movie-review-vidhu-vinod-chopras-account-of-kashmiri-pandit-exodus-is-strikingly-poetic-but-seldom-urgent-8014271.html|title=Shikara movie review: Vidhu Vinod Chopra's account of Kashmiri Pandit exodus is strikingly poetic but seldom urgent- Entertainment News, Firstpost|last=Sharma|first=Devansh|date=2020-02-07|website=Firstpost|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-02-07}}</ref>

Pandita has worked as a [[war correspondent]], and is known for his journalistic dispatches from the war hit countries like [[Iraq]] and [[Sri Lanka]]. However, in the recent years, his focal point has been the [[Maoism in India|Maoist movement]] in India's [[red corridor]].<ref name="RP-about me">{{cite web |title=about me |url=http://rahulpandita.com/about-me/ |publisher=rahulpandita.com |access-date=16 October 2013}}</ref> He has also reported from [[North-East]]ern India.<ref name="TAS">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PHgnSgAACAAJ|title=The Absent State: Insurgency as an Excuse for Misgovernance|publisher=Hachette India (Local)|year=2010|isbn=978-93-50092-15-6|edition=illustrated|location=Gurgaon|oclc=636921104}}</ref>  In 2009, he became only the third journalist to have interviewed the Maoist supreme commander, [[Ganapathi (Maoist)|Ganapathi]].<ref>{{Cite document |title=We Shall Certainly Defeat the Government – Somewhere in the impregnable jungles of Dandakaranya, the supreme commander of CPI (Maoist) spoke to Pandita on issues ranging from the Government's proposed anti-Naxal offensive to Islamist Jihadist movements |url=https://casi.sas.upenn.edu/visiting/rahulpandita |work=Rahul Pandita |publisher=[[OPEN (Indian magazine)|OPEN]] |location=Dandakaranya |date=17 October 2009 |access-date=16 October 2013}}</ref>

The book covers the [[Naxalite–Maoist insurgency]] in the [[Bastar district]] beginning the 1980s.<ref name="toi2">{{cite news|last=Sharma|first=Jyoti|date=19 July 2011|title='Hello Bastar' an untold story of India's Maoist movement|work=The Times of India|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Hello-Bastar-an-untold-story-of-Indias-Maoist-movement/articleshow/9285262.cms|access-date=23 November 2018}}</ref> The book includes several interviews and real life accounts and was published by Tranquebar.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|title=Hello Bastar: The Untold Story Of Indias Maoist Movement|url=http://books.rediff.com/book/hello-bastar--the-untold-story-of-indias-maoist-movement/9789380658346|access-date=23 November 2018|work=Rediff.com}}</ref> He claimed to have worked on the subject for 12 years in a bid to differentiate between a terrorist and a naxal.<ref name="toi2" />

 

 

Jasodhara Banerjee of ''[[Forbes India]]'' felt that the book "leaves much unanswered, much unasked." Writing: What is starkly absent is the touch of his own experience of spending time in some of the most feared regions of the country."<ref name=":1">{{cite news|last=Banerjee|first=Jasodhara|date=7 September 2011|title=Book Review: Hello, Bastar|work=Forbes India|url=http://www.forbesindia.com/article/appraisals/book-review-hello-bastar/28182/1|access-date=23 November 2018}}</ref> Freny Manecksha of ''[[Daily News and Analysis]]'' called it a "hastily produced and written" book that "suffers from a lack of focus and clarity of thought."<ref name=":3">{{cite news|last=Manecksha|first=Freny|date=4 September 2011|title=Book review: 'Hello Bastar: The Untold Story Of India's Maoist Movement'|work=Daily News and Analysis|url=https://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-book-review-hello-bastar-the-untold-story-of-india-s-maoist-movement-1582961|access-date=23 November 2018}}</ref> Akash Banerjee of ''[[India Today]]'' wrote: "Hard-hitting, well researched and penned with a lot of passion, this book has all the ingredients of a fictional socio-political thriller; ambition, deceit, love, revenge and nationalism, except that it's not."<ref name=":4">{{cite news|last=Banerjee|first=Akash|date=29 July 2011|title=Review of Hello, Bastar|work=India Today|url=http://blogs.intoday.in/headlinestoday/Review-of-Hello-Bastar-62438.html|access-date=23 November 2018}}</ref>

Pandita was awarded the ''International Red Cross award'' for his reportage from the Maoist-affected areas in central and east India, in 2010.<ref name="RP-about me" /> In 2015, he was named a [[Yale World Fellow]].<ref name="Sharma 2015">{{cite web|last=Sharma|first=Betwa|date=18 April 2015|title=Two Indians Named 2015 Yale World Fellows In US|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/04/18/2015-yale-world-fellows_n_7091230.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126212543/https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/04/18/2015-yale-world-fellows_n_7091230.html|archive-date=26 November 2015|access-date=15 May 2018|website=HuffPost India}}</ref>