Justine Hardy

She was born in London, raised in Oxfordshire, and educated in England. Hardy is the daughter of Robert Hardy,{{cite web|url=https://issuu.com/tudorhallschool/docs/tudor_rose_25__spring_2016_ | title=Nanette Godfrey Memorial Lectures|website=Tudor Hall School|date=Spring 2016|access-date=22 December 2016}} a noted actor, and actress Sally Pearson,{{cite journal |url=http://www.justinehardy.com/assets_cm/files/pdf/n074.pdf |title=A Humane Being |first=Geeta Alvares |last=Meneses |journal=Libas International |year=2009 |via=Justine Hardy website |page=74 |access-date=2016-12-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223134739/http://www.justinehardy.com/assets_cm/files/pdf/n074.pdf |archive-date=2016-12-23 |url-status=dead }} whose parents were actress Dame Gladys Cooper{{cite web|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw19025/Dame-Gladys-Cooper-with-her-daughter-Sally-Pearson-ne-Cooper | title=Dame Gladys Cooper with her daughter Sally Pearson (née Cooper)|website=National Portrait Gallery|access-date=22 December 2016}} and Sir Neville Pearson.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/166832107/|title=Gladys Cooper dies at 82 - Stage, film star |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |date=18 Nov 1971 | page=23| via=newspapers.com|url-access=subscription }} In 1978, she won the Partridge Essay Contest at her school in Banbury, Oxfordshire.{{cite news|url=http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/community/memorylane/10368683.The_changing_face_of_Banbury/ |title=The Changing Face of Banbury|first=John|last=Chipperfield|date=22 April 2013 | website=Oxford Mail|access-date=22 December 2016 }} She attended Tudor Hall School, Banbury.{{cite web|url=http://www.tudorhallschool.com/media/news/article/123/Justine-Hardy-Old-Tudorian-Nanette-Godfrey-Memorial-Lecture|title=Justine Hardy, Old Tudorian – Nanette Godfrey Memorial Lecture|date=10 March 2016|access-date=22 December 2016|archive-date=23 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223133254/http://www.tudorhallschool.com/media/news/article/123/Justine-Hardy-Old-Tudorian-Nanette-Godfrey-Memorial-Lecture|url-status=dead}}

Hardy has been a residential INSPIRE fellow at Tufts University’s Institute of Global Leadership.{{cite web|url=http://www.tuftsgloballeadership.org/current-inspire-fellows|title=Current Inspire Fellows|publisher=Tufts Global Leadership|access-date=22 December 2016}} In 2011, she received an internship to the Oslo Scholars Program.{{cite web|url=https://osloscholars.com/about/the-internships/|title=The Internships|website=Oslo Scholars|access-date=22 December 2016|archive-date=23 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223133954/https://osloscholars.com/about/the-internships/|url-status=dead}}

Hardy has reported on South Asia for over 25 years since about 1990. She has written much about her experiences in Kashmir, which has been the site of conflict since the 1947 partition between India and Pakistan, which resulted in the first First Kashmir War. Since 1989, there has been conflict in the region, with fighters backed by China, Iran, and the United States.{{cite journal|url=https://www.winstonchurchill.org/images/chartwellbulletins/%20cb24.pdf|title=New England - Boston, April 8th|website=Chartwell Bulletin|publisher=The Churchill Centre & Museum at the Cabinet War Rooms|date=June 2010|number=24|access-date=22 December 2016|archive-date=16 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160716034419/http://www.winstonchurchill.org/images/chartwellbulletins/%20cb24.pdf|url-status=dead}}

She has written for an Indian newspaper and contributed to Financial Times, The Times, Vanity Fair, Traveler, and National Review.{{cite web | url=http://www.nationalreview.com/author/justine-hardy|title=Justine Hardy|website=National Review|access-date=22 December 2016}} She became a regular contributor to Traveller magazine in 2015.{{cite web|url=https://d19lgisewk9l6l.cloudfront.net/pdf/traveller_46.pdf |title=All Kinds of Magic |volume=46|number=2|year=2015|access-date=22 December 2016}} She has written about female activists within Islam, peace, and the mental health crisis in Kashmir. Other subjects include social topics, book reviews, and travel.

In 1996, she began working as a documentary presenter for Channel 4 on the series Urban Jungle. She was a presenter on Travel TV for four years. She has also been involved in several BBC programs about India, and was also a co-presenter on a BBC series about Eastern philosophy in the West.

She is on the advisory board of Women's Voices Now, which advocates women's rights through film.{{cite web | url=http://www.womensvoicesnow.org/advisory-board|title=Advisory Board|website=Women's Voices Now|access-date=22 December 2016}}

Hardy wrote The Ochre Border: A Journey through the Tibetan Frontierlands in 1995, which is an account of Hardy's journey to a remote valley on the Indo-Tibetan border in the Himalayas.{{cite web|url=http://www.justinehardy.com/pages/books/the-ochre-border/intro.htm|title=The Ochre Border - A Journey through the Tibetan Frontierlands|publisher=Justine Hardy website|access-date=2016-12-17|archive-date=2016-05-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160504182221/http://www.justinehardy.com/pages/books/the-ochre-border/intro.htm|url-status=dead}} Four years later, Scoop-Wallah (1999) recounts Hardy's stint as a reporter for a Delhi newspaper.{{Cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/justine-hardy/scoop-wallah/|title=Scoop-Wallah|date=1 December 1999|website=Kirkus Reviews|access-date=19 December 2016}}{{efn|Scoop-Wallah was short-listed for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award in 2000.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/afghanistan/722753/Bringing-the-Afghans-to-book.html|title=Bringing the Afghans to book|date=25 September 2000|website=Telegraph|access-date=20 December 2016}}}} Goat: A Story of Kashmir and Notting Hill (2000){{cite web|url=http://www.justinehardy.com/about.htm|title=About Justine Hardy|publisher=Justine Hardy|access-date=2016-12-17|archive-date=2011-03-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110325120837/http://www.justinehardy.com/about.htm|url-status=dead}} contemplates the route taken by the goat hair gathered in Tibet to fashionable London, where it is sold in the form of shawls. She wrote Bollywood Boy in 2002, which is a study of the Indian film business, Bollywood. Geographical says, "In this, her best book yet, she captures the glitz of Bollywood while laying bare the more sinister side of a business enmeshed with the underworld, using as her central ploy the year-long tracking down of Hrithik Roshan, Bollywood's brightest new star, for an interview."{{cite news|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-85879872.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120000707/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-85879872.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2018-11-20|title=Lights! camera! action! (Pick of the month). (Bollywood Boy book and video Rough Guide to Bollywood)|last=Liesenfeld|first=Winnie|date=2002|work=Geographica |access-date=19 December 2016}}

The Wonder House (2005), Hardy's first novel, is a family chronicle set against the background of the Kashmir conflict.{{Cite news|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-993437501.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180111165139/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-993437501.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 January 2018|title=Inspired by the Vale|date=24 February 2006|work=Hindustan Times |access-date=19 December 2016}} It takes place in October 1999 and the protagonist is a secular, older woman, Gracie Singh.{{Cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/justine-hardy/the-wonder-house/|title=The Wonder House|date=1 February 2006|website=Kirkus Reviews|access-date=19 December 2016}} While Library Journal praised the plot twist, they felt that the characters were "bland" and the pacing of the story was slow.{{Cite journal|last=Gillespie|first=Kellie|year=2006|title=The Wonder House|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=19532977&site=ehost-live|journal=Library Journal|volume=131|issue=2|pages=71|url-access=subscription |via=EBSCOhost}}{{efn|The Wonder House was short-listed for the Author’s Club prize for best first novel in 2006. The Guardian described it as “partly an elegy to Nehruvian secularism in India and to Kashmir...always poised, often engrossing, and sometimes perceptive and moving.”{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/oct/22/featuresreviews.guardianreview16|title=Bleak house|last=Khair|first=Tabish|date=21 October 2005|website=The Guardian|access-date=20 December 2016}}}}

The Valley of Mist (2009) tells the story of the conflict in Kashmir through the story of the people in Kashmir, where she has lived for several years.{{Cite news|url=|title=Books|date=9 April 2010|work=Daily Post|access-date=}}{{efn|The Valley of Mist was a runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in 2010.}} She spent time with the Dars in 1997 and much of her experience with the Muslim family over two decades in the city is part of the book.{{Cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/justine-hardy/in-the-valley-of-mist/|title=In the Valley of Mist|date=15 April 2008|website=Kirkus|access-date=19 December 2016}} Kenneth McClane, a Cornell professor and judge for the Dayton prize, called the book “magnificent” and compared it to the works of Anton Chekhov and James Baldwin.{{cite web|url=http://daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/2010-nonfiction_runner-up.htm|title=Dayton Literary Peace Prize - Justine Hardy, 2010 Nonfiction Runner-Up|first=D. Verne Morland, Digital Stationery International|last=LLC|access-date=2016-12-17|archive-date=2016-12-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221004515/http://daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/2010-nonfiction_runner-up.htm|url-status=dead}} Booklist wrote that the book's "intimate and dramatic chronicle clarifies and humanizes Kashmir's torments, which are of grave global consequence."{{Cite journal|last=Seaman|first=Donna|year=2009|title=In the Valley of the Mist|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=40525672&site=ehost-live|journal=Booklist|volume=105|issue=18|pages=16|url-access=subscription |via=EBSCOhost}} Library Journal wrote that "Hardy's account contributes to our understanding of the tragedy of cross-cultural conflicts, if not its solutions."{{Cite journal|last=Otness|first=Harold M.|year=2009|title=In the Valley of the Mist|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=38594903&site=ehost-live|journal=Library Journal|volume=134|issue=7|pages=100|url-access=subscription |via=EBSCOhost}}

Hardy's books have been translated into nine languages.

Following the October 2005 Kashmir earthquake, she worked to rebuild schools, a medical center, and homes with a local non-governmental organization (NGO). Hardy has been involved in several aid projects, including the Kashmir Welfare Trust. She also directs the Development Research and Action Group, which establishes schools in the Delhi slums. She has worked for over two decades with The New Bridge Foundation, which seeks to rehabilitate criminal offenders.

In 2010, Hardy founded Healing Kashmir, a mental health program to provide a comprehensive treatment plan to help patients overcome "the debilitating mental health situation in the region." Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), along with the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) and Kashmir University's Department of Psychology conducted a mental health survey of Kashmir, the first comprehensive study of the country. Performed in 399 villages between October and December 2015, it found that a majority of people have experienced or witnessed conflict-related trauma and nearly 1.8 million adults or 45% of adults in Kashmir suffer from mental distress. In the Kashmir Valley, about 7.7 million people, or one in five adults, have significant PTSD symptoms and about 2.48 million meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.

The country's health system is overwhelmed by the increasing number of patients. There are not enough government mental health resources and clinicians might have just a couple of minutes to spend with each person. The traditional mental health approach in the country is to medicate patients—with high doses of sedatives, tranquilizers, or antidepressants—that do not address the underlying issues that bring relief over the long term. In many cases, the medicine caused side effects that were worse than the diagnosed disorder. Many people commit suicide. Further, the culture there does not support openly discussing mental health issues.

Hardy brought in therapists and implemented treatment plans that include use of alternative and conventional treatments, including counseling, homeopathic medicine, and several forms of hands-on healing therapies.{{Cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Where-the-mind-is-with-fear/articleshow/6094580.cms|title=Where the mind is with fear|last=Arshadi|first=Sameer|date=26 June 2010|work=The Times of India|access-date=20 December 2016}} Healing Kashmir, sees patients in the clinical environment—in its main office in Burzalla, Srinagar or in hospitals in six areas—and in villages.{{cite web|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/edit-page/Kashmiris-have-felt-isolated-during-conflict/articleshow/5502439.cms?|title=Kashmiris have felt isolated during conflict|date=27 January 2010|website=The Times of India|access-date=20 December 2016}} The charity also conducts awareness and training programs in universities and colleges and for child development workers. Hardy said, "the gradual breakdown of the stigma associated with mental illness is one of our biggest accomplishments." It was registered as a nongovernmental organization in the United Kingdom and India in 2009, and it is headquartered in Baghat Burzalla, Srinagar.{{cite news | url=http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/story/231209.html | title=Healing Kashmir: A Ray of Hope for Mental Health|first=Sama Ashraf |last=Bég|date=16 October 2016 |access-date=23 December 2016}}

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{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SaBdQ6Pe2E Healing Kashmir - Youtube]
• [http://healingkashmir.org Healing Kashmir Official Website]{{Dead link|date=January 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• [https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/justine-hardy/1062256/ Penguin Books - List of books by Justine Hardy]

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Category:1966 births

Category:Living people

Category:People educated at Tudor Hall School, Banbury

Category:British women journalists

Category:21st-century British psychologists

Category:British expatriates in India