Rahul Pandita

Rahul Pandita is a Kashmiri Pandit born in the Kashmir Valley.{{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}} In 1990, at the age of 14, he had to leave the Valley along with his family as part of the Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits.{{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}}{{cite web|title=Rahul Pandita – Author profile |publisher=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/rahul-pandita/article5397869.ece}}

Pandita is the author of three best-selling and critically-acclaimed books: "Our Moon has Blood Clots: A memoir of a lost home in Kashmir" (Penguin Random House, 2013); "Hello, Bastar: The untold story of India's Maoist movement" (Westland, 2011), and "[https://www.amazon.in/Lover-Boy-Bahawalpur-Pulwama-Cracked/dp/9391165109 The Lover Boy of Bahawalpur]: How the Pulwama case was cracked (Juggernaut, 2021). He is one of the founding members of the much-acclaimed Open magazine and has also previously worked with the Indian Express and the TV Today group. He was also the Opinion and Special Stories Editor of The Hindu, one of India's leading newspapers, which he quit citing frequent and childish interventions in edit pages by Malini Parthasarathy, the owner-editor of the paper. 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 Maoist insurgency has resulted in two books: Hello, Bastar: The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement and The Absent State.

Pandita is 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".{{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}}''{{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 |archive-date=11 May 2018 |access-date=15 May 2018}} The book inspired many parts of the 2020 Hindi film Shikara.{{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|last=Sharma|first=Devansh|date=2020-02-07|website=Firstpost|language=en |access-date=2020-02-07}}

Pandita has worked as a war correspondent, and is known for his journalistic dispatches from the war hit countries like Iraq and Sri Lanka. He has also reported from North-Eastern India.{{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}} In 2009, he was given a rare opportunity to interview the Maoist supreme commander, Ganapathi.{{Cite magazine |title=We Shall Certainly Defeat the Government |url=http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/we-shall-certainly-defeat-the-government |author=Rahul Pandita |magazine=Open |date=17 October 2009 |access-date=16 October 2013}}

Pandita was also awarded the [https://www.newindiafoundation.org/fellows New India Fellowship]. In 2015, he was also named a Yale World Fellow.

Pandita is currently writing a screenplay for a web series{{Cite news |title=Series on 2019 Pulwama attack in the works for SonyLIV, film-maker Onir to director it |work=The Economic Times |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/series-on-2019-pulwama-attack-in-the-works-for-sonyliv-film-maker-onir-to-director-it/articleshow/87127298.cms?from=mdr |access-date=2022-08-09}} for Sony Liv, based on his book on Pulwama, to be directed by the filmmaker Onir. It is supposed to be out by 2023.

• The Absent State (2010)
• Hello, Bastar (2011)
• Our Moon Has Blood Clots (2013)
• The Lover Boy of Bahawalpur (2021)

The book covers the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency in the Bastar district beginning the 1980s.{{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}} The book includes several interviews and real life accounts and was published by Westland.{{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}}

Pandita was awarded the International Red Cross award for his reportage from the Maoist-affected areas in central and east India, in 2010.{{cite web |title=about me |url=http://rahulpandita.com/about-me/ |access-date=16 October 2013 |publisher=rahulpandita.com}} In 2015, he was named a Yale World Fellow.{{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}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{official website}}
• [http://www.openthemagazine.com/category/author/rahul-pandita Rahul Pandita's articles in OPEN], OPEN
• [http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/just-books/just-books-rahul-pandita-on-our-moon-has-blood-clots/263149 Just Books: Rahul Pandita on 'Our Moon Has Blood Clots'], NDTV

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Category:Journalists from Jammu and Kashmir

Category:Indian political journalists

Category:Living people

Category:1976 births

Category:Writers about the Kashmir conflict