Honoring Praful Bidwai: A lifelong advocate for Global Justice On this day in 1949

12 June 2024

On this day in 1949, Praful Bidwai, a brilliant, courageous and accomplished Indian journalist and champion of the international left, was born. Praful was an erudite and acclaimed journalist and commentator, and a well known activist against nuclear weapons. He died in 2015 in Amsterdam at the age of 66. He was a fellow of TNI, with which he had been associated since 1988.

Praful was a passionate, insightful and prolific writer. His journalistic career spanned more than four decades. He became the Times of India’s most cited journalist, and eventually the senior editor. As well as being a journalist, Praful, was an activist and founder member of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (India). His work on nuclear issues earned him the 2000 Sean McBride Peace Prize, which he shared with Achin Vanaik. In 1999, he and Achin co-authored, South Asia on a Short Fuse: Nuclear Politics and the Future of Global Disarmament.

He later embarked on a freelance career that made him a household name across the sub-continent. His syndicated columns covered a wide range of issues from domestic to foreign policy, from the impacts of climate change to the geopolitics of war.

Among his last writings were condemnations of rising inequality in India, and a damning assessment of the communal politics and authoritarian tendencies exhibited by the Modi regime in its first year in government. A few years before his death, Praful issued a clarion call for India and all governments to give greater leadership and responsibility for addressing climate change.

His last book, The Politics of Climate Change and the Global Crisis: Mortgaging Our Future, was co-published by TNI and Orient Blackswan in 2012. In it, he demonstrated how real solutions to climate change were within grasp if only political leaders would confront vested fossil-fuel interests and act decisively.

Praful was a well known face in the left intellectual tradition in Indian media. Over the course of his life, he took part in various left-leaning regional movements. He was a founder member of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (India), and his work on nuclear issues earned him the 2000 Sean McBride Peace Prize, which he shared with Achin Vanaik.

After his death, friends of Praful set up the Praful Bidwai Memorial Award, which is intended to honour and highlight courageous and independent voices in journalism. His absence is still deeply felt here at the Transnational Institute, but his legacy lives on.

Fellowship