Palagummi Sainath

Last updated

Palagummi Sainath
P Sainath.jpg
Sainath in Attappadi, Kerala
Born (1957-05-13) 13 May 1957 (age 67)
Madras, Madras State, India
Alma mater
Occupation Journalist
Notable work Everybody Loves a Good Drought
Relatives V. V. Giri (grandfather)
Awards
Website psainath.org

Palagummi Sainath (born 13 May 1957) is an Indian columnist and author of the acclaimed book Everybody Loves a Good Drought . [1] [2] He has extensively written on rural India, his notable interests are poverty, structural inequities, caste discrimination and farmers protests. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

He founded the People's Archive of Rural India (PARI) in 2014, an online platform that focuses on social and economic inequality, rural affairs, poverty, and the aftermath of globalization in India. [5] He was a senior fellow at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, and was earlier the Rural Affairs Editor at The Hindu until his resignation in 2014. [6]

He has received many awards for his journalism. The economist Amartya Sen called him "one of the world's great experts on famine and hunger". [7] His book Everybody Loves a Good Drought is a collection of his field reports as a journalist, and focuses on different aspects of rural deprivation in India. [8]

PARI receiving the Praful Bidwai Memorial Award Sainathp.jpg
PARI receiving the Praful Bidwai Memorial Award

Early life and education

Sainath was born into a Telugu speaking family in Madras, Madras State (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu). He is the grandson of Indian politician and former President of India, V. V. Giri.[ citation needed ]

Sainath attended Loyola College in Chennai. He has a history degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.[ citation needed ]

Career

Sainath started his career at the United News of India in 1980. He then worked for the Blitz , a major Indian weekly tabloid published from Mumbai, first as foreign affairs editor and then as deputy editor, which he continued for ten years. [9]

In the fall of 2012, he served as the McGraw Professor of Writing [10] at Princeton University. [11] [12] On 1 June 2015, Sainath became the first ThoughtWorks Chair Professor in Rural India and Digital Knowledge at the Asian College of Journalism. [13] He won the inaugural World Media Summit [14] Global Award for Excellence 2014 in Public Welfare for exemplary news professionals in developing countries. [15]

Sainath served as the Coady Chair in Social Justice [16] at St. Francis Xavier University.[ when? ] [17]

Sainath is also a photographer. [18] This exhibition Visible Work, Invisible Women: Women and work in rural India has been seen by more than 600,000 people in India alone. The exhibit toured internationally and included a showing at the Asia Society. [19] [20]

Research and books

The International Monetary Fund-led economic reforms launched in 1991 by Manmohan Singh constituted a watershed in India's economic history and in Sainath's career. He felt that the media's attention was moving from "news" to "entertainment" and consumerism and lifestyles of the urban elite gained prominence in the newspapers which rarely carried news of the reality of poverty in India.[ citation needed ]

He was awarded a fellowship and traveled to the ten poorest districts of five Indian states. He covered 100,000 km using sixteen forms of transportation and walked 5,000 km. [21] He credits two editors at the Times with much of his success in getting the articles published, since it is one among the very newspapers that has been accused of shifting the onus from page one to page three.[ clarification needed ] The paper ran 84 reports by Sainath across 18 months, many of them subsequently reprinted in his book Everybody Loves A Good Drought .[ citation needed ] The website India Together [22] has archived the reports he filed at The Hindu. [23]

His writing has provoked responses that include the revamping of the Drought Management Programs in the state of Tamil Nadu, development of a policy on indigenous medical systems in Malkangiri in Orissa, and revamping of the Area Development Program for tribal people in Madhya Pradesh state. The Times of India institutionalized his methods of reporting,[ clarification needed ] and 60 other leading newspapers initiated columns on poverty and rural development. [24]

In 2001, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Agriculture Commission in Andhra Pradesh to suggest ways for improving agriculture in that state:

The crisis states are AP, Rajasthan and Orissa. In the single district of Anantapur, in Andhra Pradesh, between 1997 and 2000, more than 1800 people have committed suicides, but when the state assembly requested these statistics, only 54 were listed. [see 29 April and 6 May 2001 issues of The Hindu, for more details]. Since suicide is considered a crime in India, the district crime records bureaus list categories for suicide – unrequited love, exams, husbands' and wives' behavior, etc.; in Anantapur, the total from these categories was less than 5%. The largest number, 1061 people, were listed as having committed suicide because of "stomach ache". This fatal condition results from consuming Ciba-Geigy's pesticide, which the government distributes free, and is almost the only thing the rural poor can readily acquire!! [25]

Sainath, at an interaction program in Bangalore, revealed that the People's Archive of Rural India is going to commence operation on an experimental basis from June 2013. According to him this meant to serve as "an archive and living journal of history of rural India". He also clarified that the archive will not accept any direct funding by the government or corporate houses and that it will be an independent body. Sainath cited "Rural India is the most complex part of the planet" as the reason for launching PARI. [26]

In literature or pop culture

Writer Manu Joseph caricatures Sainath using a character named "P Sathya" in his 2017 political thriller. [27]

Awards and honours

Sainath became the first Indian reporter to win the European Commission's Lorenzo Natali Prize for journalism in 1995. [28] In 2000, he won the inaugural Amnesty International Global Human Rights Journalism Prize. [29] That same year, he was awarded the United Nation's Food & Agriculture Organisation's Boerma Prize. [30] [31]

In 2002, he was given the Inspiration Award at the Global Visions Film Festival [32] in Edmonton, Canada. [33] During the decade, Sainath toured ten drought-stricken states in India. This tour inspired him to write his book Everybody Loves a Good Drought . [34]

He was awarded the Harry Chapin Media Award in New York in 2006. [35]

Sainath was awarded the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism Literature and Creative Communications Arts. He was given the award for his "passionate commitment as a journalist to restore the rural poor to India’s national consciousness". [36] He was the first Indian to win the Magsaysay in that category after R.K. Laxman in 1984. [37]

He was the 2007 winner of Ramnath Goenka 'Journalist of the Year' award [38] from The Indian Express.

Sainath has not accepted government awards, stating in 2009 that "Journalism should not be judged by government and journalists should not accept awards from governments they are covering or writing about". [39] He therefore turned down the Padma Shri [40] – India’s third highest civilian award – in 2009.

On June 28, 2021, Sainath won the Fukuoka Grand Prize, [1] one of Japan’s most prestigious international awards that honours "individuals, groups or organisations who create as well as preserve the many distinct and diverse cultures of the Asian Region." In the 31-year history of the award, Sainath is the first Grand Prize Laureate from the field of journalism. Sainath contributed the 5-million-yen prize money for two purposes: Rs. 1 million to families of rural journalists [41] who lost their lives to Covid-19, and Rs. 2.3 million to set up People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) fellowships for rural journalists from Dalit and Adivasi communities.[ citation needed ]

On July 7, 2021, the government of the state of Andhra Pradesh announced the winners of its new YSR Lifetime Achievement Awards. Sainath’s was the first name in the journalist category for this prize that gives each winner Rs. 1 million. [42] He, however, turned down the prize as it is his belief that journalists should not accept awards from governments they cover and critique. In his words “the journalist is an external auditor to government". [43]

Canadian documentary film maker Joe Moulins made a film about Sainath titled A Tribe of his Own. When the jury at the Edmonton International Film Festival picked its winner, it decided to include Sainath in the award along with the maker of the film because this was 'an award about inspiration'.[ citation needed ] Another documentary film, Nero's Guests, [44] looks at inequality (as manifest in India's agrarian crisis) through Sainath's reporting on the subject. Nero's Guests won the Indian Documentary Producers Association's Gold Medal for best documentary [45] for 2010.

He was awarded a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) degree honoris causa by the University of Alberta in Edmonton in 2011 [46] and another D.Litt by the St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, in 2017.[ citation needed ]

Bibliography

Works by Palagummi Sainath

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siddharth Varadarajan</span> Indian journalist

Siddharth Varadarajan is a journalist and editor in India. He was editor of the English language national daily The Hindu from 2011 to 2013. He is one of the founding editors of the Indian digital news portal The Wire, along with Sidharth Bhatia, and M. K. Venu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy</span> 14th Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh

Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy, popularly known as YSR, was an Indian politician. He served as the 14th chief minister of Andhra Pradesh from 2004 to 2009. Reddy was elected four terms to the Lok Sabha from Kadapa and was also elected six terms to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Pulivendula. Over the course of his career, he won every election that he contested, either to Assembly or Lok Sabha.

<i>Madhyamam</i> Malayalam-language newspaper published in Kerala, India

Madhyamam is a Malayalam-language newspaper published in Kerala, India, since 1987. It was founded by Ideal Publications Trust run by the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind wing in Kerala. It has nine editions in India and its Persian Gulf edition Gulf Madhyamam has nine in the Middle East.

<i>Frontline</i> (magazine) Fortnightly Indian English-language magazine

Frontline is a fortnightly English language magazine published by The Hindu Group of publications headquartered in Chennai, India. Vaishna Roy is the editor of the magazine. It is a news and views magazine that provides in-depth coverage on various topics such as politics, world affairs, culture, science, health, business and personalities. Frontline gives coverage to developmental issues and issues related to the working classes, unorganized sectors, tribal regions and other under-served regions in India.

Press Council of India (PCI) is a statutory and quasi-judicial body in India, re-established in 1979 by the Press Council Act, 1978. Its objective is "preserving the freedom of the press by maintaining and improving the standards of newspapers and the news agencies" in India. It was initially set up in 1966 under the Indian Press Council Act, 1965. However, the Act was repealed in 1975 and PCI was abolished during the Emergency.

Farmers' suicides in India refers to the event of farmers dying by suicide in India since the 1970s, due to their inability to repay loans mostly taken from private landlords and banks. India being an agrarian country with around 70% of its rural population depending directly or indirectly upon agriculture, the sector had a 15% share in the economy of India in 2023, and according to NSSO, around 45.5% of country's labor force was associated with agriculture in 2022. Activists and scholars have offered several conflicting reasons for farmer suicides, such as anti-farmer laws, high debt burdens, poor government policies, corruption in subsidies, crop failure, mental health, personal issues and family problems.

<i>Everybody Loves a Good Drought</i> Nonfiction book

Everybody Loves a Good Drought is a book, by P. Sainath, about his research findings of poverty in the rural districts of India. The book won him the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

Rustom Khurshedji Karanjia was an Indian journalist and editor. He typically signed his reports as "R. K. Karanjia". He founded the Blitz, a weekly tabloid with focus on investigative journalism in 1941, and ran it for the next four decades. He also founded The Daily, a daily tabloid which was run by his daughter.

Praveen Swami is an Indian journalist and author specialising on international strategic and security issues. He is currently the Group Consulting Editor at Network18 Group. He was the Diplomatic Editor of The Daily Telegraph newspaper between September 2010 – October 2011, after which, he became the National Editor of The Indian Express newspaper from August 2014- January 2017. Swami is the author of two books on the India-Pakistan conflict in Kashmir. He was described by the BBC as "one of India's foremost experts of Islamist terrorism".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarun Tejpal</span> Indian journalist

Tarun Tejpal is an Indian journalist, publisher, novelist, entrepreneur and founder editor of Tehelka magazine. He is known for the groundbreaking human interest and investigative journalism that was pioneered by Tehelka between 2000 and 2013. He is the author of four internationally acclaimed novels, including The Story of My Assassins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dayamani Barla</span> Indian politician

Dayamani Barla is an Indian tribal journalist and activist from the Indian state of Jharkhand. She became notable for her activism in opposing Arcelor Mittal's steel plant in Eastern Jharkhand that tribal activists say would displace forty villages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basharat Peer</span> Kashmiri-American journalist, commentator and author

Basharat Peer is a Kashmiri journalist, script writer, and author.

Khabar Lahariya is an Indian newspaper, published in various rural dialects of Hindi, including Bundeli, Avadhi and Bajjika dialects. The newspaper was started by Nirantar, a New Delhi–based non-government organisation which focuses on gender and education. Initially seen as a women-only publication, it now covers local political news, local crime reports, social issues and entertainment, all reported from a feminist perspective. As of September 2012, its total print-run, all editions included, was around 6000 copies; the management claimed an estimated readership of 80,000. Since its digitalisation its outreach has massively extended.

The Lorenzo Natali Prize is a journalism prize awarded annually by the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships since 1992. The prize rewards outstanding reporting on issues related to climate, environment and energy, digital and infrastructure, gender equality, human development, migration and forced displacement, peace and governance, sustainable growth and jobs, and youth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ravish Kumar</span> Indian journalist and anchor (born 1974)

Ravish Kumar is an Indian journalist, author, media personality and YouTuber. He was the Senior Executive Editor of NDTV India. He hosted a number of programmes including the channel's flagship weekday show Prime Time, Hum Log, Ravish Ki Report, and Des Ki Baat.

The 9th was held at BAFTA(British Academy of Film and Television Arts) on 22 June 2000. The host was Michael Mansfield QC.

Blitz was a popular investigative weekly tabloid newspaper or newsmagazine published and edited by Russi Karanjia from Bombay. Started in 1941, it was India's first weekly tabloid and focussed on investigative journalism and political news. It was published in English, and with editions in Hindi, Urdu and Marathi languages.

Annie Zaidi is an English-language writer from India. Her novel, Prelude To A Riot, won the Tata Literature Live! Awards for Book of the Year 2020. In 2019, she won The Nine Dots Prize for her work Bread, Cement, Cactus and in 2018 she won The Hindu Playwright Award for her play, Untitled-1. Her non-fiction debut, a collection of essays, Known Turf: Bantering with Bandits and Other True Tales, was short-listed for the Vodafone Crossword Book Award in 2010.

<i>Peoples Archive of Rural India</i> Digital journalism platform in India

The People's Archive of Rural India is a multimedia digital journalism platform in India. It was founded in December 2014 by veteran journalist Palagummi Sainath, former rural affairs editor of The Hindu, author of the book Everybody Loves a Good Drought and winner of over 50 national and international awards.

References

  1. 1 2 "Grand Prize 2021 [31st] PALAGUMMI Sainath". Fukuaka Prize. 28 June 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Sainath, Palagummi". www.rmaward.asia. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  3. ↑ P Sainath (13 April 2018). "In India, Farmers Face a Terrifying Crisis". New York Times.
  4. ↑ "Farm Bills Will Create a Vacuum that May Result in Utter Chaos: P. Sainath" 23 September 2020. Mukherjee, Mitali. The Wire.
  5. ↑ P Sainath (1 August 2007). "Invisible India is the elephant in your bedroom". Indiatogether.org. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  6. ↑ "Another churn at The Hindu as Praveen Swami & P Sainath quit". Bestmediainfo.com.
  7. ↑ "Boerma Award winners talk about their work". Food and Agriculture Organization. Archived from the original on 24 November 2001. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  8. ↑ "Everyone loves a good drought: Book review". Times of India Blog. 31 August 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  9. ↑ "Blitz revisited: How P Sainath carried forward the legacy of one of India's greatest cultural icons". Scroll. 20 August 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  10. ↑ McGraw Professor of Writing
  11. ↑ "Psainath - psainath - PIIRS". Archived from the original on 22 August 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  12. ↑ "Journalism at Princeton Announces 2018–2019 Visiting Professors — Princeton University Humanities Council". Humanities.princeton.edu. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  13. ↑ "ThoughtWorks Chair Professor of Rural India and Digital Knowledge - P. Sainath - ThoughtWorks". Thoughtworks.com. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  14. ↑ World Media Summit
  15. ↑ "World Media Summit awards for P. Sainath, Al Jazeera". The Hindu. 27 October 2014. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  16. ↑ Coady Chair in Social Justice
  17. ↑ "P. Sainath_Chair". 30 July 2016. Archived from the original on 30 July 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  18. ↑ photographs Archived 6 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ↑ "Asia Society". Asia Society. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  20. ↑ "Visible Work, Invisible Women: Women & Work in Rural India « Centre f…". Archive.is. 6 July 2011. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  21. ↑ "Asha-10 The Tenth Anniversary Conference" (PDF). Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  22. ↑ "India Together". India Together. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  23. ↑ Sainath, P (15 November 2017). Everybody loves a good drought. Penguin Books.
  24. ↑ "Palagummi Sainath". Ashoka.org. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  25. ↑ "P. Sainath's talk to AID volunteers, May 2001". Indiatogether.org. Archived from the original on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  26. ↑ Kumar, B. S. Satish (13 January 2013). "PARI". The Hindu. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
  27. ↑ "Manu Joseph's Miss Laila is a provocative take on Ishrat Jahan encounter case." India Today. Jason Overdorf. 20 October 2017.
  28. ↑ "European Commission - PRESS RELEASES - Press release - MR. P. SAINATH AWARDED WITH THE NATALI PRIZE OF JOURNALISM". Europa.eu. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  29. ↑ "Palagummi Sainath – P. Sainath". Psainath.org. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  30. ↑ Boerma Prize
  31. ↑ "FAO - C 2001/REPORT". www.fao.org. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  32. ↑ Global Visions Film Festival
  33. ↑ "P. Sainath_Chair". Archived from the original on 30 July 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  34. ↑ P, Sainath (1996). Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's Poorest Districts. Penguin Books.
  35. ↑ "Honouring Sainath". Frontline.thehindu.com. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  36. ↑ "Sainath, Palagummi - The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation - Honoring greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia". rmaward.asia. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  37. ↑ Menon, Meena (26 January 2015). "The uncommon man: R.K. Laxman (1921-2015)". The Hindu . The Hindu Group . Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  38. ↑ "Ramnath Goenka Awards: Karan Thapar, P Sainath adjudged 'Journalist o…". Archive.is. 4 September 2012. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  39. ↑ "Sainath refuses Padma Shri". Hindustan Times. 30 January 2009.
  40. ↑ Team, N. L. (8 July 2021). "'Journalists should not accept awards from govts they critique': P Sainath declines AP government award". Newslaundry. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  41. ↑ Priyadarshini, Anna (29 June 2021). "'Will raise funds for families of rural journalists who died of Covid': P Sainath on winning Fukuoka Grand Prize". Newslaundry. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  42. ↑ Staff Reporter (8 July 2021). "YSR Lifetime Achievement, YSR Achievement awards announced". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  43. ↑ "Scribes shouldn't accept govt prizes: P Sainath on rejecting YSR Lifetime Achievement award". Free Press Journal. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  44. ↑ "Nero's Guests". Nerosguests.com. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  45. ↑ "Gold Model for best documentary". Idpaindia.org. 15 July 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  46. ↑ "Spring convocation: Armed and ready to join the battleground of ideas - University of Alberta". Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
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.