>DuncanHill at 14:51, 11 December 2021

2021-12-11T14:51:15Z

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{{Short description|Indian social activist and writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2016}}

{{Infobox person
| name = Harsh Mander
| image = Harsh Mander.jpg
| caption = [[:en:Harsh Mander|Harsh Mander]] talking at [[:en:The Energy and Resources Institute|The Energy and Resources Institute]] Bangalore on the subject "Unequal India", program hosted by [[:en:Azim Premji University|Azim Premji University]]
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1955|4|17}}
| birth_place =
| occupation = Writer, Activist
| salary =
| networth =
| spouse =
| children =
| website =
| footnotes =
}}
'''Harsh Mander''' (born 17 April 1955) is an Indian author,<ref name="Sage">{{cite web |title=Unequal Life Chances |url=https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/mst/author/harsh-mander-0 |website=Sage Publishing |access-date=4 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304082013/https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/mst/author/harsh-mander-0 |archive-date=4 March 2020}}</ref> columnist,<ref name=TH>{{cite web |title=Harsh Mander |url=https://www.thehindu.com/profile/contributor/?page=1&urlSuffix=Harsh-Mander-1424 |website=The Hindu |access-date=4 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304075912/https://www.thehindu.com/profile/contributor/?page=1&urlSuffix=Harsh-Mander-1424 |archive-date=4 March 2020}}</ref><ref name="Wire">{{cite web |title=Harsh Mander |url=https://thewire.in/author/harsh-mander |website=The Wire |access-date=4 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304080637/https://thewire.in/author/harsh-mander |archive-date=4 March 2020}}</ref><ref name="OL">{{cite web |title=Harsh Mander |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/people/harsh-mander/7174 |website=OutlookIndia |access-date=4 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304081357/https://www.outlookindia.com/people/harsh-mander/7174 |archive-date=4 March 2020}}</ref> researcher, teacher, and social activist<ref>{{cite web |title=Manipal Institute of Communication |url=https://manipal.edu/soc/news-events/national-conference11.html |access-date=4 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304091132/https://manipal.edu/soc/news-events/national-conference11.html |archive-date=4 March 2020}}</ref> who started the [[Karwan-e-Mohabbat]] campaign in solidarity with the victims of communal or [[religious violence|religiously motivated]] violence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/opinion-why-i-travel-with-the-karwan-e-mohabbat-1554455988839.html|title=Opinion: Why I travel with the Karwan-e-Mohabbat|author=[[Natasha Badhwar]]|date=April 5, 2019|website=Livemint}}</ref> He is the Director of the Centre for Equity Studies, a research organisation based in [[New Delhi]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/who-we-are/staff/harsh-mander|title=Harsh Mander|website=Open Society Foundations|language=en|access-date=2019-11-22}}</ref> He also served as Special Commissioner to the [[Supreme Court of India]] in the [http://www.righttofoodcampaign.in/legal-action/supreme-court-commissioners Right to Food Campaign] and was a member of the [[National Advisory Council]] of the Government of India, set up under the [[United Progressive Alliance|UPA]] government.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Manmohan-acknowledges-key-role-of-NAC/article16242529.ece|title=Manmohan acknowledges key role of NAC|last=Gupta|first=Smita|date=2010-06-10|work=The Hindu|access-date=2019-12-20|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}</ref>
[[File:Md09645.jpg|thumb|Mander speaking on 28 February 2017]] He has occasionally come under media attention for his liberal views.<ref>{{cite news |title=Police seeks Contempt Case Against Activist Harsh Mander For Remarks On Supreme Court |url=https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/police-seeks-contempt-case-against-activist-harsh-mander-for-remarks-on-supreme-court-2190022 |work=NDTV.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=सीएए का विरोध करने वाले हर्ष मंदर ने कसाब को बचाने की लगाई थी गुहार, जानें उनके बारे में |url=https://www.jagran.com/politics/national-activist-harsh-mandar-wants-to-save-mumbai-attack-convicts-azmal-kasab-jagran-special-20087275.html |work=Dainik Jagran |language=hi}}</ref>

==Career==
Mander formerly worked in the [[Indian Administrative Services(IAS)]],<ref name="TPrint">{{cite news |title=Harsh Mander — 'bleeding-heart liberal' who's fighting Modi govt with Gandhi's 'radical love' |url=https://theprint.in/theprint-profile/harsh-mander-bleeding-heart-liberal-whos-fighting-modi-govt-with-gandhis-radical-love/340117/ |access-date=4 March 2020 |publisher=The Print |date=25 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304075258/https://theprint.in/theprint-profile/harsh-mander-bleeding-heart-liberal-whos-fighting-modi-govt-with-gandhis-radical-love/340117/ |archive-date=4 March 2020 |quote=Former IAS officer and social activist Harsh Mander}}</ref> serving in the predominantly tribal states of [[Madhya Pradesh]]<ref name="Zed">{{cite book |last1=edited by John Gaventa, Rosemary McGee |title=Citizen Action and National Policy Reform: Making Change Happen |date=4 April 2013 |publisher=Zed Books, UK |page=119 |isbn=9781848138322 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ARdjDgAAQBAJ&q=harsh%20mander&pg=PT119 |access-date=4 March 2020}}</ref> and [[Chhattisgarh]] for almost two decades. After [[2002 Gujarat riots|Gujarat Riot]], Mander left the service in 2002, and started social activism.<ref name="Zed"/>
He is a founding member of the National Campaign for the People’s Right to Information. He was a Member of the Core Groups on Bonded Labour and Mental Hospitals of the statutory [[National Human Rights Commission]] of India; and also on various national official National Committees such as those for Social Protection and the [[Below Poverty Line]] (BPL) populations.

From October 1999 to March 2004, he worked as Country Director, [[ActionAid|ActionAid India]], a development support organization. He is Founder-Chairperson of the State Health Resource Centre, Chhattisgarh, which established the [https://shsrc.in/mitanin-programme-community-process/ Mitanin Community Health Programme], the forerunner of the [[Accredited Social Health Activist|Asha Programme]], and the Chairperson of INCENSE (The Inclusion and Empowerment of People with Severe Mental Disorders). He is also a member of the Working Group of the Project on Armed Conflict Resolution & People's Rights, [[University of California, Berkeley]].

He was appointed a Member of India’s [[National Advisory Council]] by the council President [[Sonia Gandhi]] in June 2010.<ref name=":0" /> He convened the working groups on the [[Food security bill|Food Security Bill]], [[Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Bill]], Child Labour Abolition, Urban Poverty and Homelessness, Disability Rights, Bonded Labour, Street Vendors and Urban Slums, and co-convened the groups on the Communal and Targeted Violence Bill, Dalits and Minorities and Tribal Rights, among others. His tenure was not renewed in 2012.

===Teaching career===
Harsh Mander teaches courses on poverty and governance at the [[Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=News - IIMA|url=https://www.iima.ac.in/web/media/news#/post/iimas-course-on-poverty-a-hit-among-students-630|access-date=2020-06-22|website=www.iima.ac.in}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Bhatia|first=Tanushree|date=2018-07-09|title=IIMA's course on 'Poverty' a hit among students|url=https://www.dnaindia.com/ahmedabad/report-iima-s-course-on-poverty-a-hit-among-students-2635017|access-date=2020-06-22|website=DNA India|language=en}}</ref> and [[St. Stephen’s College, Delhi]]. He taught at the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution at [[Jamia Millia Islamia]], Delhi and at the [[Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration]], Mussoorie while he was Deputy Director of the institution, during which he also played a dominant role in the [[Right to Information Act, 2005|Right to Information Act]] (RTI).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sharma|first=Prashant|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Po2bBAAAQBAJ&q=harsh+mander+LBSNAA&pg=PA49|title=Democracy and Transparency in the Indian State: The Making of the Right to Information Act|date=2015-03-24|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-62395-3|pages=49|language=en}}</ref> He has also lectured at the [[California Institute of Integral Studies]], San Francisco; the Centre for Law and Governance, [[Jawaharlal Nehru University]], Delhi; [[Institute of Development Studies]], University of Sussex, UK; [[NALSAR University of Law]], Hyderabad; [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], Boston; [[University of California, Los Angeles]] (UCLA) and at the Universities of Stanford, Washington (Stanford), Austin, among others.

==Literary works==
Harsh Mander has written and co-authored<ref name="Sage"/> several books and regularly writes columns<ref name="IExpress">{{cite web |title=Indian express |url=https://indianexpress.com/profile/columnist/harsh-mander/ |access-date=4 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304091843/https://indianexpress.com/profile/columnist/harsh-mander/ |archive-date=4 March 2020}}</ref><ref name="OL"/><ref name="Wire"/> for newspapers like [[The Hindu]],<ref name="TH"/> [[Hindustan Times]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Harsh Mander |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/harsh-mander |website=Hindustan Times |access-date=4 March 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304090730/https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/harsh-mander |archive-date=4 March 2020}}</ref> and [[Dainik Bhaskar]], and contributes frequently to scholarly journals. His stories have been adapted into films such as [[Shyam Benegal]]’s ''[[Samar_(1999_film)|Samar]]'', and [[Mallika Sarabhai]]’s dance drama, ''[[Unsuni]]''.

Some of his selected publications include:
* (2019) 'Between Memory and Forgetting: Massacre and the Modi Years in Gujarat' (New Delhi, [[Yoda Press]])<ref name="TULIKA">{{cite web |title=Between Memory And Forgetting |url=https://lefttest.tulikabooks.in/between-memory-and-forgetting.html?___store=in |access-date=4 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304090421/https://lefttest.tulikabooks.in/between-memory-and-forgetting.html?___store=in |archive-date=4 March 2020}}</ref>
* (2019) 'Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the Idea of India' (New Delhi, Penguin Viking)
* (2018) 'The Right to Food Debates: Social Protection for Food Security in India' (New Delhi, [[Orient Blackswan]]) (authored with Ashwin Parulkar, Ankita Aggarwal)
* (2018) 'Reconciliation: Karwan e Mohabbat’s Journey of Solidarity through a Wounded India' (New Delhi, Context) (co-authored with [[Natasha Badhwar]]).
* (2016) 'Fatal Accidents of Birth: Stories of Suffering, Oppression and Resistance' (New Delhi, [[Speaking Tiger Books]])
* (2015) 'Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India' (New Delhi, Speaking Tiger Books)
* (2012) 'Ash in the Belly: India's Unfinished Battle Against Hunger' (New Delhi, [[Penguin India]])
* (2009) 'Fear and Forgiveness' (New Delhi, Penguin India)

==Awards==
Among his awards are the [[Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award]] for peace work, the [[M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award]] in 2002, the South Asian Minority Lawyers Harmony Award in 2012 and the Chisthi Harmony Award in 2012.{{cn|date=February 2020}}

==See also==
* [[Vijay Shankar Pandey]], whistle blower IAS
*[[Natasha Badhwar]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*[http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Harsh_Mander/ Harsh Mander's column in The Hindu]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20030524234202/http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20020415&fname=Cover+Stories&sid=3 'Obedience Pushes You To Fascism'] Harsh Mander interview, ''Outlook'', 15 April 2002
*[http://speakingtigerbooks.com/books/looking-away-inequality-prejudice-and-indifference-in-new-india/ Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India at Speaking Tiger Books]
*http://www.yodapress.co.in/between-memory-and-forgetting

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mander, Harsh}}
[[Category:1956 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Adivasi activists]]
[[Category:Indian civil servants]]
[[Category:Indian columnists]]
[[Category:Indian male essayists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian essayists]]
[[Category:Social workers]]
[[Category:Activists from Madhya Pradesh]]
[[Category:Social workers from Chhattisgarh]]
[[Category:Indian Administrative Service officers]]

Harsh Mander - Revision history

>DuncanHill at 14:51, 11 December 2021