Praful Bidwai

Praful Bidwai

Independent Journalist

Praful Bidwai is a political columnist, social science researcher, and activist on issues of human rights, the environment, global justice and peace. He currently holds the Durgabai Deshmukh Chair in Social Development, Equity and Human Security at the Council for Social Development, Delhi, affiliated to the Indian Council for Social Science Research. 

A former Senior Editor of The Times of India, Bidwai is one of South Asia’s most widely published columnists, whose articles appear in more than 25 newspapers and magazines. He is also frequently published by The Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique and Il Manifesto.

Bidwai is a founder-member of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (India). He received the Sean MacBride International Peace Prize, 2000 of the International Peace Bureau, Geneva & London. 

He was a Senior Fellow, Centre for Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. Bidwai is the co-author, with Achin Vanaik, of South Asia on a Short Fuse: Nuclear Politics and the Future of Global Disarmament, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1999, a radical critique of the nuclearisation of India and Pakistan and of reliance on nuclear weapons for security.  

Work area:

Peace & Security

Areas of expertise:

Nuclear Disarmament in South Asia; Nuclear Weapon Free Zones; Alternative Security; Communalism in India; India; Pakistan; Indian electoral politics

Honours/Awards:

Praful Bidwai is a co-recipient, with Achin Vanaik, of the International Peace Bureau's Sean McBride International Peace Prize for 2000.

Media experience:

Praful Bidwai regularly publishes in Khaleej Times, The New Internationalist, Rediff.com, Navhid Times, The Times of India, Frontline, The Hindu, Inter Press Service and Tehelka.com

Contact

Email: bidwai AT bol.net.in


 

English

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Selected publications

The Politics of Climate change and the Global crisis
New Nukes
The World at the Climate Crossroads

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Recent content by Praful Bidwai

BRICS: Little sense of purpose

April 2013
Is BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa), comprising some of the world’s biggest, fastest-growing economies, about to rewrite the rules of global political and economic governance?

Tax the Rich

March 2013
The Human Development Report 2013 highlights the rise of the Global South as the main drivers of the world economy, but rapid economic growth does not always equate to improvements in human development as India's experience shows.

Towards A ‘21st Century Socialism’

March 2013
He was called a "socialist showman" and "elected autocrat", derided as a blind hater of the United States, and ridiculed as a demagogue who splurged his country's great oil wealth on ill-conceived populist schemes, distributed largesse to undeserving regimes in the neighbourhood, ran the nation's economy into the ground, and sharply polarised its society.

India’s fading regional influence: Falling between two stools

March 2013
Regional conflicts:
India’s neighbourhood is in great turmoil, but New Delhi seems unable to fashion a coherent, balanced, mature and self-confident response to it. In particular, India has dealt with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar and Nepal in confused and indecisive, if not wholly inept, ways. 

‘Respect Gandhi If You Will, Don’t Sentimentalise Him’

December 2012
The Indian Ideology, is a scathing critique of the dominant celebratory discourse of the Idea of India, or the lionising of the democratic stability, multi-cultural unity and impartial secularity of the Indian state as a miracle. In an e-mail interview with columnist and writer Praful Bidwai, Anderson discusses his book at length.

Israel is right to back away from war with Iran despite nuclear fears

December 2012
Nuclear weapons:
Iran has shown itself amenable to diplomacy, while Israel's security establishment advises against military intervention

Wholesale disaster in retail trade

October 2012
Imagine a society where 80 percent of all grocery sales are monopolised by just five giant retailers like Walmart, Tesco and Carrefour, locally grown fresh food is largely replaced by processed, low-nutrition plastic-packaged items, and heterogeneity of attire based on traditional and ethnic fabrics is gradually destroyed.

Fighting Maoists

August 2012
The killing of 20 civilian men, women and children by Indian military police is morally impermissible and a political triumph for the Maoist argument that the Indian state is structurally and irredeemably anti-people, anti-Adivasi and brutal.

Renewables option

March 2012
Instead of imposing nuclear power upon unwilling people, India should join the renewables revolution for handsome gains. 

Radiation Crisis continues in Fukushima

February 2012
The multi-reactor meltdown accident in Japan beginning last March 2011 has not ended. Plants continue to leak radiation and shockingly no sytematic monitoring of radiation levels is taking place.