Hiranmay Karlekar

Current Positions

In journalism:
Self-employed with a contractual arrangement with The Pioneer to act as its Consultant Editor. My work at The Pioneer includes selection of editorial subjects, allocation of editorial writing work and passing editorials. I write most of the important editorials on domestic and foreign affairs and also a fortnightly column, which is also carried in Newstime, Hyderabad.

Other journalistic work:
Frequent appearance on Radio and Television as commentator on domestic and foreign affairs.

Other Current Positions:
-- Member of the Court of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
-- Member of the Society of Maulana Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Calcutta

Previous Positions

Positions earlier held in Newspapers:
-- Editor, The Hindustan Times (1975-80)
-- Deputy Editor, Indian Express (1992-94)
-- Senior Editor, Indian Express (1985-92)
-- Editor, Express News Service (1983-85)
-- Resident Editor, Indian Express, Bombay (1981-83)
-- Associate Editor, Aajkaal, a Bengali daily published from Calcutta (1994-98)
-- Assistant Editor, The Statesman (1969-75)
-- Assistant Editor, The Hindusthan Standard (1965-68)
-- Staff Reporter, Ananda Bazar Patrika, Bengali daily published from Calcutta,(1963-65)

Positions held outside newspapers:
-- Member, Press Council of India (1978-80),
-- Member, Board of Directors, Press Trust of India (1979-80)
-- General Secretary, Editors Guild of India (1991-93)
-- Founder Member, National Union of Journalists (established 1972)
-- Spokesman, Coordination Committee of the National Press to fight the
Defamation Bill (1988)
-- Convenor, Citizens for Press Freedom Set up in Bombay to fight the Bihar
Press Bill (1982)

Other important positions held:
-- Member, Executive Council, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi (1998-2001)
-- Nieman Fellow at Harvard University (1966-67)
-- Member, Distance Education Council, Indira Gandhi National Open University (1998-2001)

Publications

Books in English:
-- Author: In the Mirror of Mandal: Social Justice, Caste, Class and the Individual, Ajanta, Delhi, 1992
-- Editor: Independent India: The First Fifty Years, Indian Council of Cultural Relations and Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1998

Books in Bengali:
-- Bhabisyater Ateet (1994), Meherunnisa (1995) -- both novels published by Dey's, Calcutta

Journalistic Publications:
-- A very large number of editorials (unsigned), signed articles, columns and book reviews in newspapers like Ananda Bazar Patrika (Bengali) The Statesman, The Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Aajkaal (Bengali) and The Pioneer.

Other writings:
-- Wrote an article on the evolution of Bengali language and literature (covering both India and Bangladesh) in a special issue of the Dawn, Karachi, heralding the coming of the new millennium. The articles in the edition, including mine entitled 'Bengali: Response to History', were published by Oxford University Press, Karachi, in the form of an anthology entitled South Asian Century: 1900-1999 edited by Zubeida Mustafa.
-- A number of long articles and book reviews published in journals like The Book Review and the Seminar.

Lectures and Seminars

-- At the invitation of the US State Department participated in the Afro-Asian Student Leaders' seminar in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1960. Went on a tour of the mainland United States after that.
-- Participated in a seminar on inter-dependence organized by the Nihon Shimbun Kyokuyo (Japan Newspaper Editors' and Publishers' Association) in Tokyo in 1976.
-- Read a paper on 'Crisis in Civilization' at the M.N Roy Centenary Seminar organised by the Indian Renaissance Institute in Bombay in 1986.
-- Delivered the M.N. Roy Memorial Lecture on 'Freedom, Humanism and Technology' organized by the Indian Renaissance Institute in Delhi in 1988.
-- Delivered the M.N. Roy Centenary lecture organised by the Indian Renaissance Institute at Ahmedabad in 1988.
-- Read a paper on Indo-Canadian relations at the India-Canada Opportunities Conference organised by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, Confederation of Indian Industry, University of Calgary and others at Calgary, Canada, in 1988.
-- Read a paper entitled 'Literature in the Age of Technology' at the Sahitya Akademi's (India's national academy of letters) annual festival of letters in Delhi in 1988.
-- Delivered a series of lectures in several cities across Canada in 1990 as a fellow of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. The universities where I spoke included McGill, Toronto, Western Ontario, McMaster, Calgary and Vancouver.
-- Read a paper entitled 'Popular Literature and the Reading Public' at the Sahitya Adademi's annual festival of letters in New Delhi in 1991.
-- Made a presentation, with a specific reference to journalism, on South Asian Cooperation, at the conference of SAARC Press Clubs in Dhaka in 1994.
-- Read a paper entitled 'Defending Culture' at the Sahitya Akademi's annual festival of letters in Delhi in 1997.
-- Sponsored by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, made a presentation on 'Crisis in Civilization' at a seminar on "Dialogue among Civilisations" organised by the Malaysian Institute of Strategic Studies at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1997.
-- Delivered a lecture 'Media in the 20th Century India' as a part of the millennium series of lectures held in Delhi in 1999 under the auspices of the India International Centre. All lectures in the series are to be published as an anthology by the India International Centre and the National Book Trust.
--Read a paper on 'National Identity in a Globalising World' organized by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations at an India-Iran seminar at Neemrana, Rajasthan, in 2000.
-- Participated in the South-Asian Conference Against Fundamentalism and Communalism held in Dhaka, Bangladesh in June 2001 under the auspices of the Committee for the Realisation of the Spirit of the Liberation War and the Eradication of the Agents and Killers of 1971. Made a presentation on "Fundamentalism and Terrorism."

Countries Visited

Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, People's Republic of China, Japan, The United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Italy and Turkey.

Important Visits

-- Accompanied Prime Minister Morarji Desai during his tour of Belgium, the United Kingdom and the United States in 1978
-- Visited China as a part of the Indian Press delegation in 1995
-- Accompanied President K.R. Narayanan on his state visit to China in 2000