Sircar joined the IAS in 1975, served as chief executive officer in Prasar Bharati from 2012 to 2016 and was Secretary to the Government of India 2008–12. He has also held important portfolios in the Central and State governments.[1][2][3]
Summary
Jawhar Sircar is a Member of the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) of the Indian Parliament who was nominated by the All India Trinamool Congress party and elected uncontested on 2 August 2021 to represent the State of West Bengal. He is a public intellectual based out of Kolkata.
He has headed India's Culture Ministry[4] from November 2008 to February 2012 – the longest for any Secretary.[5][6] Sircar supports campaigns to preserve India's inclusive cultural heritage against constant attempts to utilise it for sectarian gains. He has represented India in top international organisations, including the UNESCO and he speaks regularly and writes on public issues relating to the conservation of heritage.[7]
He was CEO of India's public broadcaster,[8] (2012 - 2016)[9][10][11][12] he resigned from the prasar bharati CEO post before his term ended, as he was not comfortable with the NDA government as he was appointed to the post by the UPA government. He has stood up to resist constant encroachments on media freedom and recently, DIGIPUB News India Foundation,[13] that represents all important digital media organisations in India, selected him for its 'appellate committee' – as an individual with "unimpeachable public service record and accomplishments". He was on its four-member statutory national-level self regulatory mechanism, which is chaired by the former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan Lokur.[14]
Jawhar Sircar was an active member of a powerful pressure group of retired central secretaries, chief secretaries of states, director generals of police, Indian ambassadors and others, known as the 'Constitutional Conduct Group'. Sircar is involved with civil society in its constant opposition to right-wing political and governmental forces encroaching on liberty of thought, idea, expression and belief.
He studied at the universities of Calcutta, Presidency, Cambridge and Sussex and has two master's degrees in History and Sociology. His main field work has been on social history, popular religion and the cult of Dharma Thakur in western Bengal.
He covered numerous field sites in five districts of the state of West Bengal, but could not submit his thesis, as government did not permit even a short sabbatical.
Jawhar Sircar[15][16][17] has published numerous articles on cultural,[18] historical and anthropological subjects for several years in books, as also in noted national and international journals and newspapers. He has also delivered several talks on the subjects of history, religion, contemporary affairs and the intersection between religion and anthropology. The Asiatic Society of Kolkata (established in 1774) has conferred its Biman Behari Memorial Award[19] on him for his contribution to popularising the study of history and politics.
From 2017 to 2020, he has chaired the Board of Governors of the prestigious Centre for Studies in Social Sciences,[20] Kolkata – one of India's top 5 social science research and teaching institutes. Sircar was, in fact, its first non academic chairman in its half century history.
As an officer of India's premier Indian Administrative Service, Jawhar Sircar has served in the sectors of finance, commerce and industries for 17 years and in 'public communication', i.e., in the administration of education, culture and media for more than a dozen years. He was honoured by the British Museum[21] with its silver medal for piloting museum reforms[22] in the country. The former President of India has publicly complimented him as an "outstanding performer and visionary", while the former Prime Minister described him as "one of India's most distinguished civil servants."
Academics and publications
He has been active in research even while working full-time in administration. He has published numerous articles on cultural,[23][24] historical[25] and anthropological subjects for several years. He has published research papers on the subjects of history,[26][27] culture,[28][29] media[30] & society.[31][32]
He has also delivered talks on the subjects of history,[33][34][35][36] culture[37][38][39][40] and media.[41][42][43] His monograph: The Construction of the Hindu Identity in Medieval Western Bengal: The Role of Popular Cults was well received in India and abroad.
While Signing an MoU with Chinese Counterpart as Hon'ble PM Narendra Modi looks on
Jawhar Sircar studied at St. Xavier's School, Presidency College and Calcutta University - all in Kolkata. He did his master's degree in Ancient Indian History and Culture from Calcutta University and a second Masters in Sociology, with Social Anthropology. He graduated in Political Science from Presidency College, standing 2nd in Calcutta University. He also studied at the University of Cambridge and the University of Sussex in the UK.[51]
After joining the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1975[52] in West Bengal (India), he held several postings in the districts of Burdwan and 24 Parganas where he made a name for himself in tackling very difficult problems including communal riots. After this, he moved on to become the Secretary in the Finance Department looking after Expenditure.,[53] he was appointed Sales Tax Commissioner of West Bengal where he could secure the highest rate of growth in the 1990s.
In May, 2006, Sircar was called to the Government of India in New Delhi, on promotion as Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), a term that he helped introduce through a new Act of Parliament. He is known as the pioneer of 'Cluster Development', as well as for grass-roots financing of tiny industries, including Micro Finance and also for initiating several reforms in the sector. [54]
In September 2008,[55] he was elevated as Secretary to Government of India, and moved on to head the Ministry of Culture,[56] where he served as its longest-serving Secretary till early 2012.He initiated long-pending reforms and took up the modernization of museums, archives, and libraries. He is credited with introducing many new programmes to assist cultural organizations and their expressions. Jawhar Sircar was successful in forging a significant number of cultural partnerships between India and other countries,[57] and among his major credits are the Anish Kapoor exhibition from the UK and the holding of seven unique overseas[58] exhibitions of the original paintings of Rabindra Nath Tagore which had not left India shores for more than 80 years.
He also had two short stints as acting Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.[59]
Sircar has worked in the fields of Finance, Commerce[60] and Industries for 17 of his 38 years in public service, where he has managed large corporations, including the multibillion-dollar Haldia Petrochemicals.
On the other hand, he has also worked in the field of public communication: i.e., in Education, Culture and Media[61] related assignments, for over 11 years.
Controversies
Jawhar Sircar made an anti-Brahmin tweet claiming that ‘Brahmanic rulers’ destroyed Buddhist structures. The tweet was later deleted. He served as the CEO of Prasar Bharati from 2012 to 2016, and now Member of the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) of the Indian Parliament who was nominated by the All India Trinamool Congress party. A formal employee of Prasar Bharati and great grandson of C. Rajagopalachari pointed out that his leader Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee is also a Brahmin. Another sitting Rajya Sabha MP and Shiv Sena deputy leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said Jawhar Sircar's comments against Brahmins were hateful and vile, and requested an apology.[62]
Association
Jawhar Sircar was a member of the Governing Councils of Indian Council of World Affairs,[63] Consortium for Educational Communication,[64] Film & Television Institute of India[65] and also Trustee/GB Member of IIM (India Institute of Management), Kolkata,[66] Victoria Memorial Museum, Indian Museum, National Museum, National Library, National School of Drama, IGNCA, and the Three National Akademies.
He has also served on the National Advisory Council of Spic Macay,[67] and was nominated on the National Executive Council of CII. He had also been on the Board of Governors of Media Research Users Council (MRUC), Mumbai, which does research/surveys for readership, viewership and listenership of various media for advertising.[68] He had been on the advisory board of CEMPD, Kolkata (Centre for Environmental Management and Participatory Development).[69] Sircar has also been a Trustee Member of PSBT[70] (Public Service Broadcasting Trust) from 2012 to 2016.
Jawhar Sircar was Vice President of the All India Tennis Association,[71] and served as the President of India's pioneering Children's Little Theatre. Sircar has also been a Trustee Member of PSBT[72] (Public Service Broadcasting Trust) from 2012 to 2016.
He is a Life Member of the 240-year-old Asiatic Society, Indian National Confederation and Academy of Anthropologists,[73][74] & Cultural Heritage, Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, Indian History Congress and several other well-known institutions.
He was the moving spirit behind the Kolkata[75] International Film Festival from 1997 to 2005, and has organized several film and media related programmes, with participation of many countries.
Sircar[76] was instrumental in the management of world's largest Book Fair, in terms of attendance, i.e., the Kolkata Book Fair in its early years.
Awards
Best CEO Award in 2013(Two years after joining PB)[77]
Maulana Jameel Ilyasi Excellency Award – August, 2013[78]
News Television Network CEO of the Year ENBA 2013 Award[79]
Corporate Broadcaster of the Year, Award by Calcutta Management Association[80]
In 2015 Digital Studio Broadcasting & Production Magazine had placed him among the 10 most important people in the broadcasting industry.[81]
Related Research Articles
Prasar Bharati is Indian state-owned public broadcasting, headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament and comprises the Doordarshan Television broadcasting and Akashvani, which were earlier media units of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Parliament of India passed the Prasar Bharati Act to grant this autonomy in 1990, but it was not enacted until 15 September 1997.
Bengali Brahmos are those who adhere to Brahmoism, the philosophy of Brahmo Samaj which was founded by Raja Rammohan Roy. A recent publication describes the disproportionate influence of Brahmos on India's development post-19th Century as unparalleled in recent times.
Mamata Banerjee is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal since 20 May 2011, the first woman to hold the office. Having served multiple times as a Union Cabinet Minister, Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the first time in 2011. She founded the All India Trinamool Congress in 1998 after separating from the Indian National Congress, and became its second chairperson later in 2001. She is often referred to as Didi.
Bengali Brahmins are the community of Hindu Brahmins, who traditionally reside in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, currently comprising the Indian state of West Bengal and the country of Bangladesh.
Bhowanipore is a neighbourhood of South Kolkata in Kolkata district of West Bengal, India.
Mohammed Salim is an Indian politician belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was inducted in the politburo of CPI(M) in the 21st party congress organised at Visakhapatnam in 2015. He was a member of the 16th Lok Sabha, representing Raiganj constituency. Earlier, he was a member of the 14th Lok Sabha, representing the Calcutta North East constituency of West Bengal. After delimitation, in the 2009 Lok Sabha election Salim contested the new Calcutta North constituency, and lost to Sudip Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress.
Bhashacharya Acharya Suniti Kumar Chatterjee was an Indian linguist, educationist and litterateur. He was a recipient of the second-highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Vibhushan.
The Tagore family has been one of the leading families of Kolkata, India, and is regarded as one of the key influencers during the Bengali Renaissance. The family has produced several people who have contributed substantially in the fields of business, social and religious reformation, literature, art and music.
Calcutta Club is an elite gentlemen's club located on Lower Circular Road in Kolkata, India. It was established in 1907 and the first president of the club was the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, Sir Nripendra Narayan. The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII of Great Britain, was among the first royal guests to visit the club when he was invited to a lunch on 28 December 1921. First prime minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru visited the club in 1961. The club has always maintained distinguished members from every community - from Maharaja of Coochbehar to Maharaja of Burdwan, Maharaja of Darbhanga, Nawab Sir KGM Faroqui of Ratanpur to Bhupendra Nath Bose, President of the Indian National Congress to Indian economist and philosopher Amartya Sen. Internationally acclaimed artists like Gaganendranath Tagore and Abanindranath Tagore were regular visitors to the club, as was Oscar award-winning legendary film-maker Satyajit Ray, longest-serving chief minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu. In 2007, 11th president of India Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam visited the club to launch the centenary scholarship fund. Other notable visitors to the club include prominent Indian artists and celebrities such as Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri. Today Calcutta Club stands as an iconic landmark in Kolkata and represents the elite Bengal with rich history and culture, and also referred as "The Grand Duke of all Clubs".
Sir Kariamanikkam Srinivasa Krishnan, was an Indian physicist. He was a co-discoverer of Raman scattering, for which his mentor C. V. Raman was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Mahendralal Sarkar CIE was a Bengali medical doctor (MD), the second MD graduated from the Calcutta Medical College, social reformer, and propagator of scientific studies in nineteenth-century India. He was the founder of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.
Rajat Kanta Ray is a historian of South Asian history, specializing in Modern Indian history.
Jogen Chowdhury is an eminent Indian painter and considered an important painter of 21st century India. He lives and works in Santiniketan. He graduated from the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata and subsequently at École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris in 1967. He has immense contribution in inspiring young artists of India. Jogen Chowdhury had developed his individual style after his return from Paris. His most famous paintings are in ink, water colour and pastel. He has painted in oil medium as well.
Saugata Roy is an Indian politician of Trinamool Congress and also a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha of the Indian Parliament representing the Dum Dum constituency in the 16th Lok Sabha. He has also served as Union Minister of State for Urban Development in the Manmohan Singh government.
Bratyabrata Basu Roy Chowdhury, also known as Bratya Basu, is an Indian actor, stage director, playwright, film director, professor and politician who has been the Education Minister of West Bengal since 2021. He has also assumed the same office in the First Mamata Banerjee ministry. In May 2016, Basu was assigned the portfolios of Tourism, Science Technology and Bio-Technology, Information Technology and Electronics. He has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, from the Dum Dum constituency since the 2011 Assembly Election of West Bengal. Basu is presently the Chairperson of Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi and Minerva Natyasanskriti Charchakendra under the governance of the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, West Bengal.
Javed Ahmed Khan is an Indian politician from the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) party and the present Minister for Disaster Management in the Government of West Bengal. He is also an MLA, elected from the Kasba constituency in the 2011 West Bengal state assembly election. He is politician of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) party. He is a long-standing politician, and a social worker. Born in 1956, Javed Ahmed Khan completed a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.) from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata in 1978. Khan got involved in public service.
Partha Chatterjee is an Indian politician. He earlier served as the Minister of Commerce and Industries and formerly served as the Education Minister of Government of West Bengal. He represented the Trinamool Congress. He also held the political office of Secretary General of the All India Trinamool Congress. In 2022, he was suspended indefinitely from the party following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate.
Madan Mitra is an Indian politician, actor from West Bengal. Madan Mitra started his career with party Indian National Congress. He held many positions of Indian Youth Congress, the party's youth wing. In 1998, he joined All India Trinamool Congress party, founded by his colleague Mamata Banerjee, and his movie debut was in the 2023 Bengali film Oh! Lovely. In 2011, he was elected to the legislative assembly and became a state minister. He was arrested for the Sarada chit fund conspiracy case and got bail after 22 months.
Baidya or Vaidya is a Hindu community located in Bengal. A caste (jāti) of Ayurvedic physicians, the Baidyas have long had pre-eminence in society alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas. In the colonial era, the Bhadraloks were drawn primarily, but not exclusively, from these three upper castes, who continue to maintain a collective hegemony in West Bengal.
Krishna Bose was an Indian politician, educator, author and social worker. She was a Member of Parliament elected from the Jadavpur constituency in West Bengal as an All India Trinamool Congress candidate.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
