Basharat Peer

{{Short description|Kashmiri-American journalist, commentator and author}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Basharat Peer

| image = Basharat Peer bharat-s-tiwari-photography-IMG 9738 July 28, 2017.jpg

| caption = Peer in 2017

| birth_date = {{circa|1977}}

| birth_place = Seer Hamdan, Jammu and Kashmir

| alma_mater = {{plainlist|

}}

| occupation = Journalist, author, political commentator

| spouse = {{marriage|Ananya Vajpeyi|2013}}

| children =

| relatives =

| credits = {{plainlist|

Curfewed Night (2008)
Haider (2014)
A Question of Order (2017)

}}

Basharat Peer ({{langx|ks|{{resize|{{nq|بشارت پیٖر}}}}}}, born 1977) is a Kashmiri{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/08/11/my-nationality-a-matter-of-dispute-basharat-peer/|title='My Nationality a Matter of Dispute': Basharat Peer|last=Sircar|first=Subhadip|date=2010-08-11|website=WSJ|access-date=2017-04-18|archive-date=18 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418163951/https://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/08/11/my-nationality-a-matter-of-dispute-basharat-peer/|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|last=Peer|first=Basharat|date=2019-03-02|title=Opinion {{!}} The Young Suicide Bomber Who Brought India and Pakistan to the Brink of War (Published 2019)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/02/opinion/sunday/kashmir-india-pakistan.html|access-date=2021-02-07|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=3 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203194325/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/02/opinion/sunday/kashmir-india-pakistan.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|last=Shamsie|first=Kamila|date=2010-06-04|title=Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer {{!}} Book review|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/05/curfewed-night-basharat-peer-review|access-date=2021-02-07|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=12 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312093443/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/05/curfewed-night-basharat-peer-review|url-status=live}} journalist, script writer, and author.{{Cite web |last=Reporter |first=The Newspaper's Staff |date=2015-02-25 |title=Nothing as difficult as writing a book: Basharat Peer |url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1165739 |access-date=2022-03-17 |website=DAWN.COM |language=en |archive-date=17 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220317125208/https://www.dawn.com/news/1165739 |url-status=live }}

Peer spent his early youth in the Kashmir Valley before shifting to Aligarh and then, Delhi for higher education.{{Cite web|last=Nath|first=Shiven|date=2020-09-23|title=Curfewed Night- Book Review|url=https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2020/09/23/curfewed-night-book-review/|access-date=2021-02-07|website=Modern Diplomacy|language=en-US|archive-date=28 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128080340/https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2020/09/23/curfewed-night-book-review/|url-status=live}} In August 2006,{{Cite web|last=Peer|first=Basharat|date=June 2007|title=Style Over Substance|url=https://www.cjr.org/feature/style_over_substance_1.php|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207203640/https://archives.cjr.org/feature/style_over_substance_1.php|archive-date=7 February 2021|access-date=7 February 2021|website=Columbia Journalism Review|language=en}} he relocated from India to New York City in the United States, where he is currently based as an opinion-editor at The New York Times.{{cite web|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/The-Wail-of-Kashmir/391833|title=The Wail of Kashmir|date=30 November 2008|work=Indian Express|accessdate=14 May 2010|archive-date=1 December 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201083118/http://www.indianexpress.com/news/The-Wail-of-Kashmir/391833|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/lr/2008/12/07/stories/2008120750150400.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228073454/http://www.hindu.com/lr/2008/12/07/stories/2008120750150400.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 February 2009|title=How green was my valley|date=7 December 2008|work=The Hindu|accessdate=14 May 2010|location=Chennai, India}}{{cite web|url=http://kashmirlife.net/basharat-peer-new-york-times-staff-editor-124323/.html|title=Basharat Peer is New York Times staff Editor|date=22 December 2016|work=Kashmir Life}}{{Dead link|date=October 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Biography

= Early and personal life =

Peer was born in Seer Hamdan area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district of the erstwhile Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir into a Kashmiri Muslim family.{{Cite web|date=2010-06-19|title=Curfewed Night {{!}} Book review|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/20/curfewed-night-basharat-peer-dalrymple|access-date=2021-02-07|website=the Guardian|language=en|archive-date=27 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227004405/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/20/curfewed-night-basharat-peer-dalrymple|url-status=live}} He did his early schooling from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Aishmuqam, an educational institution located near the city of Anantnag, and attended Aligarh Muslim University as well as the University of Delhi for higher education in the fields of political science and law, respectively. Peer also attended the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in the United States.{{cite web|url=http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/news/362 |title='Curfewed Night' by Basharat Peer, M.A. '07, gets high praise from The New Yorker |accessdate=2013-06-29 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131210230835/http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/news/362 |archivedate=10 December 2013 |df=dmy }}

Peer's father is a retired officer of the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service.{{cite book|last1=Peer|first1=Basharat|author2=Basharat Peer|title=Curfewed Night|date=2 February 2010|publisher=Random House India|isbn=9788184000900|page=52|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lqiqnt4uQ34C&q=basharat+peer+Kashmir+Administrative+Services&pg=PA52|language=English|access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=13 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313100539/https://books.google.com/books?id=lqiqnt4uQ34C&q=basharat+peer+Kashmir+Administrative+Services&pg=PA52|url-status=live}} He married Ananya Vajpeyi—a Delhi-based academician of Hindu–Sikh{{Cite web|last=Vajpeyi|first=Ananya|date=27 June 2011|title=THE INWARD EYE - Only Kabir's name can stand for India's vast poetic traditions|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-inward-eye-only-kabir-s-name-can-stand-for-india-s-vast-poetic-traditions/cid/386025|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207202518/https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-inward-eye-only-kabir-s-name-can-stand-for-india-s-vast-poetic-traditions/cid/386025|archive-date=7 February 2021|access-date=7 February 2021|website=Telegraph India|quote=I knew of Allahabad because that was the place associated with Harivansh Rai Bachchan, the older Hindi poet who had first helped my father to find his feet in Delhi in the early 1960s, and who, together with his wife Teji, had acted in loco parentis for my Brahmin father at his — at the time rather controversial — wedding to my Sikh mother.}} background—in 2013, following an eight-year-long courtship.{{Cite journal|last=|first=|date=May 2014|title=Vogue India – On The Same Page|url=http://www.porterfolio.net/uploads/article/file/4070/104_VO_0514.pdf|journal=Vogue India|volume=2014|pages=104–105|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207205025/http://www.porterfolio.net/uploads/article/file/4070/104_VO_0514.pdf|archive-date=7 February 2021 }}{{Cite news|last=Bhatia|first=Ritika|date=2014-11-01|title=Basharat Peer: The man who scripted Haider|work=Business Standard India|url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/basharat-peer-the-man-who-scripted-haider-114103000877_1.html|access-date=2021-02-07|archive-date=25 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425153242/https://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/basharat-peer-the-man-who-scripted-haider-114103000877_1.html|url-status=live}}

= Career =

Peer started his career as a reporter at Rediff and Tehelka. In his early career he was based in Delhi. He has worked as an Assistant Editor at Foreign Affairs and was a Fellow at Open Society Institute, New York. He was a Roving Editor at The Hindu. He has written extensively on South Asian politics for Granta,{{cite web |title=Kashmir's Forever War |url=http://www.granta.com/Archive/112/Kashmirs-Forever-War/1 |publisher=Granta |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131201030951/http://www.granta.com/Archive/112/Kashmirs-Forever-War/1 |archivedate=1 December 2013 |df=dmy }} Foreign Affairs,{{cite magazine|title=India's Broken Promise|url=http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137530/basharat-peer/indias-broken-promise|publisher=Foreign Affairs|date=May–June 2012|last1=Peermay/June 2012|first1=Basharat|access-date=10 January 2014|archive-date=10 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110124514/http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137530/basharat-peer/indias-broken-promise|url-status=live}} The Guardian,{{cite news|last=Peer|first=Basharat|title=Victims of December 13|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jul/05/kashmir.india|accessdate=5 July 2003|newspaper=The Guardian|location=London|date=5 July 2003|archive-date=27 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130827051926/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jul/05/kashmir.india|url-status=live}} FT Magazine,{{cite web|title=Divided but not forgotten|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/de2496fa-2eb8-11e2-9b98-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2pzczeovs|publisher=Financial Times Magazine|accessdate=16 November 2012|archive-date=19 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119224146/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/de2496fa-2eb8-11e2-9b98-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2pzczeovs|url-status=live}} The New Yorker,{{cite news|last=Peer|first=Basharat|title=Posts by Basharat Peer|url=https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/basharat-peer|newspaper=The New Yorker|date=13 May 2013|access-date=20 February 2020|archive-date=22 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140122222302/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/basharat-peer|url-status=live}} The National{{cite web|title=Bound for success|url=http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/bound-for-success#full|publisher=The National|accessdate=6 June 2009|archive-date=12 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130212083314/http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/bound-for-success#full|url-status=live}} and The Caravan.{{cite web|title=The Legacy of The Looming Tower|url=http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/legacy-looming-tower|publisher=The Caravan|accessdate=1 September 2010|archive-date=25 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130325014038/http://caravanmagazine.in/reportage/legacy-looming-tower|url-status=live}}

He is the author of Curfewed Night, an eyewitness account of the Kashmir conflict, which won the Crossword Prize for Non-Fiction and was chosen among the Books of the Year by The Economist and The New Yorker.{{cite news | url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/witnessing-kashmirs-invisible-war/?_r=0 | work=The New York Times | first=Nida | last=Najar | title=Witnessing Kashmir's Invisible War | date=24 February 2010 | access-date=29 June 2013 | archive-date=29 October 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029213515/http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/witnessing-kashmirs-invisible-war/?_r=0 | url-status=live }}{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/05/curfewed-night-basharat-peer-review | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Kamila | last=Shamsie | title=Curfewed Night: A Frontline Memoir of Life, Love and War in Kashmir by Basharat Peer | date=5 June 2010 | access-date=11 December 2016 | archive-date=12 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312093443/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/05/curfewed-night-basharat-peer-review | url-status=live }} Peer ran the "India Ink" blog on the digital edition of The New York Times.{{Cite web |url=http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2013/06/8530821/prominent-kashmiri-journalist-basharat-peer-take-over-times-blog-india |title=Prominent Kashmiri journalist Basharat Peer to take over 'Times' blog India Ink | Capital New York |access-date=29 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130622044217/http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2013/06/8530821/prominent-kashmiri-journalist-basharat-peer-take-over-times-blog-india |archive-date=22 June 2013 |url-status=dead }}

Peer was the script writer along with Vishal Bhardwaj for the 2014 Bollywood film Haider, in which he also made a special appearance.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/up-close-with-haider-s-scriptwriter-basharat-peer/story-0BtweAO0voKoigemPYUv7J.html|title=Up Close with Haider's scriptwriter, Basharat Peer|date=2014-10-10|website=Hindustan Times|language=en|access-date=2019-08-19|archive-date=19 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819233010/https://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/up-close-with-haider-s-scriptwriter-basharat-peer/story-0BtweAO0voKoigemPYUv7J.html|url-status=live}}

He is also known for his literary pieces. His open letter to Indians under the title of "Letter to an Unknown Indian" started a literary debate on the Kashmir dispute.{{cite news |last1=Peer |first1=Baharat |title=Letter to an Unknown Indian |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/kashmir-unrest-a-letter-to-unknown-indian/articleshow/6278402.cms |access-date=15 October 2022 |archive-date=15 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221015072957/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/kashmir-unrest-a-letter-to-unknown-indian/articleshow/6278402.cms |url-status=live }}

In 2025, Peer's reporting on migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic was adapted into the film Homebound, directed by Neeraj Ghaywan. The film premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.{{cite web |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-culture/homebound-cannes-2025-real-story-essay-neeraj-ghaywan-10022152/ |title=Homebound at Cannes 2025: The real story behind the film |work=The Indian Express |date=2025-05-20 |access-date=2025-05-23}}{{cite news |last=Peer |first=Basharat |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/opinion/sunday/India-migration-coronavirus.html |title=The Exodus From Hell |work=The New York Times |date=2020-07-31 |access-date=2025-05-23}}

References

External links

{{Twitter | BasharatPeer | Basharat Peer}}
[http://www.asiasociety.org/video/policy-politics/curfewed-night-complete Video: Basharat Peer discusses his book Curfewed Night] at the Asia Society, New York. 12 April 2010 Article about Basharat Peer adapting and co-writing the screenplay of the movie Haider, an adaptation of Hamlet set in mid-1990s Kashmir and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140309014345/http://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/books/the-dawn-after-curfew/article1-1192577.aspx Hindustan Times]

Category:1967 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century Indian essayists

Category:Writers about the Kashmir conflict

Category:Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni

Category:Indian Muslims

Category:Indian columnists

Category:Indian male essayists

Category:Indian male journalists

Category:Indian political writers

Category:Journalists from Jammu and Kashmir

Category:American people of Kashmiri descent