Shashi Tharoor (born 9 March 1956) is an
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n
politicianA politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and a
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(
MP) from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in
Keralaor Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
. He previously served as the
United Nations Under-Secretary GeneralAn Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations is a senior official within the United Nations System, normally appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Secretary-General for a renewable term of four years....
for Communications and Public Information and as the Minister of State for the
Ministry of External AffairsThe Ministry of External Affairs is the foreign ministry of India. It is the Indian government agency responsible for the foreign relations of India. The Minister of External Affairs holds cabinet rank as a member of the Council of Ministers. The current minister is S M Krishna...
.
He is also a prolific author,
columnistA columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
, journalist and a
human rightsHuman rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
advocate.
He is the managing trustee of the
Chandran Tharoor Foundation which he founded with his family and friends in the name of his late father, Chandran Tharoor.
Childhood and education
Shashi Tharoor was born in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Lily and Chandran Tharoor, both
MalayaliMalayali is the term used to refer to the native speakers of Malayalam, originating from the Indian state of Kerala...
s, hailing from the state of
Keralaor Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
. Tharoor studied at
Montfort SchoolMontfort School, Yercaud, is a secondary school for boys and girls run by the Montfort Brothers of St. Gabriel in the town of Yercaud, near Salem in Tamil Nadu, India. The school motto is "Virtue and Labour".-The Founder:...
in
Yercaud and Campion School in
MumbaiMumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
. He attended high school at
St. Xavier’s Collegiate SchoolSt. Xavier's Collegiate School was established in 1860 in Kolkata, India by missionaries of the Society of Jesus. The school is named after St. Francis Xavier...
in
KolkataKolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
and obtained his
Bachelor of ArtsA Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in
historyHistory is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
from
St. Stephen’s CollegeSt. Stephen's College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi located in Delhi, India. The college admits both undergraduates and post-graduates, and awards degrees under the purview of the University. Famous for its rich history and many traditions, St...
,
DelhiDelhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
.
He went on to win a scholarship to study at
The Fletcher School of Law and DiplomacyThe Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University is the oldest school in the United States dedicated solely to graduate studies in international affairs. It is regarded as one of the world's foremost schools of international affairs. Every Fall, the school enrolls approximately 265...
at
Tufts UniversityTufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
and earned three degrees in three years - a Ph.D. and two master's degrees At the age of 22, Tharoor is the youngest person in the history of the Fletcher School to be awarded a doctorate. His doctoral thesis, "Reasons of State", was a required reading in courses on Indian foreign-policy making. In 2000, Tharoor was awarded a honorary
Doctor of LettersDoctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
degree by the
University of Puget SoundThe University of Puget Sound is a private liberal arts college located in the North End of Tacoma, Washington, in the United States...
and in 2008 he received a honorary doctorate degree by the
University of BucharestThe University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
.
Diplomatic career
Beginning
Shashi Tharoor's career in the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
began in 1978 as a staff member of the
UN High Commissioner for RefugeesThe Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , also known as The UN Refugee Agency is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to...
(UNHCR) in
GenevaGeneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. From 1981 to 1984 he headed the UNHCR office in
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
during the
boat peopleBoat people is a term that usually refers to refugees, illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who emigrate in numbers in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made...
crisis. In 1989 he was appointed as the Special Assistant to the
Under-Secretary-GeneralAn Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations is a senior official within the United Nations System, normally appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Secretary-General for a renewable term of four years....
for Special Political Affairs, the unit that later became the
Peacekeeping OperationsThe Department of Peacekeeping Operations is a department of the United Nations which is charged with the planning, preparation, management and direction of UN peacekeeping operations.-History of the DPKO:...
in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Until 1996, he led the team responsible for
peacekeepingPeacekeeping is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....
operations in the former
YugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
.
Under-Secretary-General at the UN
In 1996 Tharoor was appointed Director of Communications and Special Projects and as Executive Assistant to the Secretary-General
Kofi AnnanKofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
. In January 2001, he was appointed as the
Under-Secretary-GeneralAn Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations is a senior official within the United Nations System, normally appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Secretary-General for a renewable term of four years....
for Communications and Public Information, and as the head of
Department of Public InformationThe United Nations Department of Public Information helps non-governmental organizations gain access to and disseminate information about United Nations issues so the public can better understand the aims and objectives of the organizations...
(UNDPI). In this capacity, he was responsible for the communication strategy, enhancing the image and effectiveness of the UN. In 2003, the Secretary-General appointed him to the additional responsibility of United Nations Coordinator for Multilingualism. During his tenure at the UNDPI, Tharoor reformed his department and undertook a number of initiatives, ranging from organizing and conducting the first-ever UN seminar on anti-Semitism, the first-ever UN seminar on Islamophobia and launching an annual list of "Ten Under-Reported Stories the World Ought to Know About".
On 9 February 2007, Tharoor resigned from the post of UN Under-Secretary-General on and left the UN effective 1 April 2007.
Campaign for Secretary-General: 2007
| 2007 Secretary-General candidates |
|
Name |
Position |
 South Korea |
Ban Ki-moonBan Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
|
South Korean foreign minister A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...
|
 India |
Shashi Tharoor |
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations An Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations is a senior official within the United Nations System, normally appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Secretary-General for a renewable term of four years....
for public information; from India |
 Latvia |
Vaira Vīķe-FreibergaVaira Vīķe-Freiberga was the sixth President of Latvia, the first female President of Latvia and the first female leader in eastern Europe. She was elected President of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected in 2003.Dr...
|
President of Latvia |
 Afghanistan |
Ashraf GhaniDr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is a prominent politician in Afghanistan and the former chancellor of Kabul University. He is also the chairman of the Institute for State Effectiveness, an organization set up in 2005 to promote the ability of states to serve their citizens. Before returning to...
|
Chancellor of
Kabul UniversityKabul University is located in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. It was founded in 1931 but officially opened for classes in 1932. Kabul University is currently attended by approximately 7,000 students, of which 1,700 are women. As of 2008, Hamidullah Amin is the chancellor of the university...
, Afghanistan |
 Thailand |
Surakiart SathirathaiSurakiart Sathirathai was, until September 19 2006, a Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand overseeing Foreign Affairs, Education and Culture.-Family and early career:...
|
Deputy prime minister
of Thailand |
 Jordan |
Prince Zeid bin Ra'adPrince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein was born 26 January 1964 in Amman, Jordan to Prince Ra'ad bin Zeid head of the Royal Houses of Iraq and Syria and pretender to the Iraqi throne and his Swedish-born wife Margaretha Inga Elisabeth Lind, henceforward known as Majda Raad...
|
Jordan's ambassador
to the United Nations |
 Sri Lanka |
Jayantha Dhanapala Professor Jayantha Dhanapala is a member of the Board of Sponsors of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and a governing board member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Dr. Dhanapala was Sri Lanka's official candidate for the post of Secretary-General of the United Nations,...
|
Former Under-Secretary-General
for disarmament; from Sri Lanka |
In 2006, Tharoor was nominated by the
Government of IndiaThe Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
for the post of UN Secretary General. Tharoor came a close second (behind
Ban Ki-moonBan Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
) in each of the four
straw pollA straw poll or straw vote is a vote with nonbinding results. Straw polls provide dialogue among movements within large groups, reflecting trends like organization and motivation...
s conducted by the UN Security Council and won the online poll conducted by the
BBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
website. After the fourth poll, Ban emerged as the only candidate with the support of all five permanent members, each of whom has the power to veto candidates. Of the seven contenders for the post, Tharoor remained the only other to enjoy a majority in the Security Council. One Permanent Member (later revealed to be the US under the Bush Administration) opposed and China abstained from voting. After the vote, Tharoor withdrew his candidacy expressing his confidence for Ban to win.
Had he been elected, the then 50 year old Shashi Tharoor would have been the second-youngest Secretary-General to be appointed to the post. The first being
Dag HammarskjöldDag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author. An early Secretary-General of the United Nations, he served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is the only person to have been awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. Hammarskjöld...
who was appointed at the age of 46 years.
Post-UN career
In February 2007, amidst rampant speculation about his post-UN future, it was presciently reported in the Indian press that Tharoor might be inducted into council of ministers of Prime Minister
Manmohan SinghManmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
as Minister of State for External Affairs. In the same month, it was reported in an American gossip
blogA blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
that Tharoor was a finalist for the position of dean of the
USC Annenberg School for CommunicationThe USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism comprises a School ofCommunication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California . It is led by Dean Ernest J. Wilson III, Ph.D....
in Los Angeles, though he withdrew his name from consideration at the final stage. Instead, Dr. Tharoor—in addition to a variety of other activities in his private life— became chairman of Dubai-based Afras Ventures, which established the Afras Academy for Business Communication (AABC) in Trivandrum,
Keralaor Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, India. He also spoke widely around the globe about India and Kerala, the state where he spent increasing amounts of time before moving for good in October 2008.
Political Career in India
In March 2009, Shashi Tharoor contested the Indian
General Elections in 2009India held general elections to the 15th Lok Sabha in five phases between 16 April 2009 and 13 May 2009. With an electorate of 714 million , it was the largest democratic election in the world to date.By constitutional requirement, elections to the Lok Sabha must be...
as
Congress PartyThe Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
candidate from Thiruvananthapuram (Lok Sabha constituency) in
Keralaor Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
. His opponents included P. Ramachandran Nair of the
Communist Party of IndiaThe Communist Party of India is a national political party in India. In the Indian communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Indian communist party was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by CPI is 26 December 1925...
(CPI), Neelalohitadasan Nadar of the
Bahujan Samaj PartyThe Bahujan Samaj Party is a centrist national political party in India with socialist leanings. It was formed to chiefly represent Bahujans , referring to people from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes as well as Buddhists. The party claims to be inspired by the...
(BSP), M.P. Gangadharan of the
Nationalist Congress PartyThe Nationalist Congress Party is a centre to centre left political party primarily based in the state of Maharashtra, India.-Background:...
(NCP) and
P. K. Krishna DasP K Krishnadas is State President for Bharathiya Janata Party of Kerala State, India and hails from Thalassery in Kannur. He held positions in the party as Yuvamorcha Mandalam General Secretary, Yuvamorcha District Vice President, Yuvamorcha District President, Yuvamorcha State Secretary,...
of Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP). Despite being criticized as an "elite outsider" he went on to win defeating his nearest CPI rival P. Ramachandran Nair by a margin of approximately 100,000 votes. Subsequently Shashi Tharoor was selected as
Minister of StateMinister of State is a title borne by politicians or officials in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a "minister of state" is a junior minister, who is assigned to assist a specific cabinet minister...
in the Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. On 28 May 2009 he was sworn in as the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs.
Tharoor's use of his political website (www.tharoor.in) and new media technologies like
TwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
quickly earned him a celebrity status. He went on to become the first Indian celebrity to get 100,000 followers on Twitter. However, some of his tweets (or twitter posts) proved controversial and were quoted by the press and opposition parties to criticize his work. On 18 April 2010 Tharoor resigned from his post as Minister of State for External Affairs on instructions from Prime Minister
Manmohan SinghManmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
, following allegations that he had misused his office to get shares in the IPL cricket franchise of Cochin. Tharoor stoutly denied the charges and in his resignation speech called for a full inquiry. His position seems vindicated by the fact that there have been no adverse findings and no legal proceedings have been instituted against him.
On 2 May 2010, he was nominated to be a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for External Affairs by
Lok SabhaThe Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
Speaker
Meira KumarMeira Kumar is an Indian politician and a five time Member of Parliament. She was elected unopposed as the first woman Speaker of Lok Sabha on 3 June 2009.She is a lawyer and a former diplomat...
.
Literary career
Tharoor has written numerous books in English. Most of his literary creations are centred on Indian themes and they are markedly “Indo-nostalgic.” Perhaps his most famous work is
The Great Indian NovelThe Great Indian Novel is a satirical novel by Shashi Tharoor. It is a fictional work that takes the story of the Mahabharata, the epic of Hindu mythology, and recasts and resets it in the context of the Indian Independence Movement and the first three decades post-independence...
, published in 1989, in which he uses the narrative and theme of the famous Indian epic
MahabharataThe Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
to weave a satirical story of Indian life in a non-linear mode with the characters drawn from the
Indian Independence MovementThe term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
. His novel
Show Business (1992) was made into the film 'Bollywood' (1994). The late
Ismail MerchantIsmail Merchant was an Indian-born film producer, best known for the results of his famously long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included director James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala...
had announced his wish to make a film of Tharoor’s novel
Riot shortly before Merchant’s death in 2005.
Tharoor has been a highly-regarded columnist in each of India's three best-known English-language newspapers, most recently for
The HinduThe Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
newspaper (2001–2008) and in a weekly column, “Shashi on Sunday,” in the
Times of India (January 2007 – December 2008). Following his resignation as Minister of State for External Affairs, he began a fortnightly column on foreign policy issues in the "Deccan Chronicle". Previously he was a columnist for the
GentlemanGentleman was an English language literary magazine published in India from 1980 to 2001. It was initially owned by the Stirling Group of Magazines, which sold this and other magazines to the Indian Express Group in 1987. It was edited and published by Sambit Bal and Rajib Sarkar .Although, the...
magazine and the
Indian Express newspaper, as well as a frequent contributor to
Newsweek International and the
International Herald TribuneThe International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
. His Op-Eds and book reviews have appeared in the
Washington Post, the
New York Times and the
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, amongst other
papers. His monthly column, "India Reawakening", distributed by Project Syndicate, appears in some 80 newspapers around the world.
Tharoor began writing at the age of six and his first published story appeared in the “Bharat Jyoti”, the Sunday edition of the "Free press Journal", in Mumbai at age 10. His
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
adventure novelThe adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme.-History:...
Operation Bellows, inspired by the
Biggles"Biggles" , a pilot and adventurer, is the title character and main hero of the Biggles series of youth-oriented adventure books written by W. E. Johns....
books, was serialized in the Junior
StatesmanThe Statesman is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper founded in 1875 and published simultaneously in Kolkata, New Delhi, Siliguri and Bhubaneswar. The Statesman is owned by The Statesman Ltd., its headquarters at Statesman House, Chowringhee Square, Calcutta and its national...
starting a week before his 11th birthday. Each of his books has been a best-seller in India.
The Great Indian NovelThe Great Indian Novel is a satirical novel by Shashi Tharoor. It is a fictional work that takes the story of the Mahabharata, the epic of Hindu mythology, and recasts and resets it in the context of the Indian Independence Movement and the first three decades post-independence...
is currently in its 28th edition in India and his newest volume.
The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone has undergone seven hardback re-printings there.
Tharoor has lectured widely on India, and is often quoted for his observations, including, "India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay." He has also coined a memorable comparison of India's "thali" to the American "melting pot": "If America is a
melting potThe melting pot is a metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" into a harmonious whole with a common culture...
, then to me India is a
thaliThali is a Western, Central, and North-Western Indian meal with contents varying from one region to another. More usual and famous thalis are Maharashtrian, Gujarati and Rajasthani. A thali is a selection of different dishes, usually served in small bowls on a round tray. The round tray is...
- a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes different, and does not necessarily mix with the next, but they belong together on the same plate, and they complement each other in making the meal a satisfying repast.". (Other quotes in Wikiquote.)
Personal life
A theatre buff and successful actor in his school days, he played
AntonyMarcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...
to
Mira NairMira Nair is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! , won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination...
’s Cleopatra in a 1974 production of
Antony and CleopatraAntony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
. At
St. Stephen’sSt. Stephen's College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi located in Delhi, India. The college admits both undergraduates and post-graduates, and awards degrees under the purview of the University. Famous for its rich history and many traditions, St...
in the early 1970s he founded the Quiz Club, which is still in existence; he also revived the Wodehouse Society, which is no longer in existence. Upon election as President of the College Union he relinquished the Secretaryship of the History Society as well as the editorship of the campus humour magazine “Kooler Talk.” He was invited by St. Stephen’s College to deliver the college’s 125th Anniversary Jubilee Lecture in 2005.
He has been an elected Fellow of the
New York Institute for the HumanitiesThe New York Institute for the Humanities is an academic organisation affiliated with New York University, founded by Richard Sennett in 1976 to promote the exchange of ideas between academics, professionals and the general public. The NYIH regularly holds seminars open to the public, as well as...
and a member of the Advisory Board of the Indo-American Arts Council and also served on the Board of Directors of
BreakthroughBreakthrough or Break through may refer to:* Breakthrough , an abstract strategy board game* Breakthrough , 1979 war film* Breakthrough , 1950 war film featuring John Agar...
, an international human rights organization, the Board of Overseers of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the Board of Trustees of the
Aspen InstituteThe Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1950 as the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. The organization is dedicated to "fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues." The...
, and as an International Adviser to the
International Committee of the Red CrossThe International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
. He also supported various educational causes, including as Patron of the Modern High School in
DubaiDubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
.
At the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1976, he founded and was the first chair of the editorial board of the Fletcher Forum of International Affairs, a journal examining issues in international relations.
Tharoor has twin sons Ishaan and Kanishk from his first marriage to Tilottama Mukherji, an academic who he knew from school days in Calcutta. Both sons attended
Yale UniversityYale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. Ishaan writes for Time magazine's international edition in Hong Kong, while Kanishk is an editor at Open Democracy in London. Ishaan has written a wide range of stories, including cover stories on Nepal and the Philippines. Kanishk is a journalist and also a writer of fiction, for which he was nominated for a US
National Magazine AwardThe National Magazine Awards are a series of US awards that honor excellence in the magazine industry. They are administered by the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City...
in 2009.
Later he was married to Christa, a Canadian working at the United Nations.
After their divorce, Tharoor went on to his third marriage.
Shashi Tharoor married
Sunanda PushkarSunanda Pushkar, who in April 2010 voluntarily relinquished a stake in the Kochi IPL team estimated at Rs 70 crore, belongs to a family of landlords and Army officers from Bomai, 8 km from Sopore in the Kashmir Valley, India. She was sales director in a Dubai-based real estate company Tecom...
in a quiet ceremony at his ancestral home in Elavanchery village in Kerala's
Palakkad districtPalakkad District is one of the 14 districts of the Indian state of Kerala. The city of Palakkad is the district headquarters. Palakkad is bordered on the northwest by the Malappuram District, on the southwest by the Thrissur District and on the east by Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu. The...
on 22 August 2010.
Controversies
- In September 2009, Tharoor and S M Krishna were accused of staying in luxurious 5-star hotels. Tharoor defended himself, saying that it was because of the delay in his official residence being ready and he only spent from his own pocket for the accommodation. Later on Pranab Mukherjee
Pranab Kumar Mukherjee is the current Finance Minister of India and leader of the current Lok Sabha.Mukherjee is a senior member of the Cabinet Committees on Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs, Prices, Security, Unique Identification Authority of India,...
's request Tharoor and Krishna moved out of the hotels.
- A controversy erupted on a joke in which Tharoor, responding to the question as to whether he would travel in "Cattle Class", replied that he would do so. This remark on Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
(@ShashiTharoor), the media claimed that he equated the travelling public to cattle and also taunted his party, the Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
over their austerity drive. It was also reported that Congress may take action against him. However this was subsequently resolved when the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pointed out that it was a joke. Tharoor met his party leadership and offered them an explanation.
- Another controversy erupted on Gandhi Jayanti
Gandhi Jayanti is a National Holiday celebrated in India to mark the occasion of the birthday of Mohandas Gandhi, the "Father of the Nation." He was born on October 2, 1869. Hence Gandhi Jayanti is celebrated every year on the 2nd of October. It is one of the three official declared National...
when he said people should be working rather than staying at home taking a holiday, thereby paying real homage to Mahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
.
- Tharoor was in the news again for publicly criticizing the new visa guidelines adopted by the Indian Government in the wake of the gaps exposed by the arrest of 26/11
The 2008 Mumbai attacks were more than 10 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India's largest city, by Islamist attackers who came from Pakistan...
terror suspects, David HeadleyDavid Coleman Headley, formerly known as Daood Sayed Gilani, is a Chicago-based Pakistani American,who conspired with Lashkar-e-Taibaand, he claims, Pakistani military officers...
and Tahawwur Rana. For this,he was criticized for breaking ranks with the official position of the Government. He later met External Affairs Minister, SM Krishna and explained his position on the issue. The rules were subsequently partly modified.
- In January 2010, Tharoor was reported to have criticized Gandhi and Nehru for their vision on Indian foreign policy by the Indian media. This angered his party, the Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
. In the wake of this controversy, he held a press conference describing the report as "inaccurate" and "tendentious". He said, "irresponsible reporting may briefly gratify a few sensation-seekers in the media, but they do no credit to the need for informed discussion of foreign policy issues in our democracy. India deserves better. So, frankly, do I."
- In February 2010 when accompanying the Indian Prime Minister
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
Manmohan SinghManmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
on a three-day visit to Saudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, he said "We feel that Saudi Arabia has a long and close relationship with Pakistan, that makes Saudi Arabia even more a valuable interlocutorAn interlocutor is someone who formally explains the views of a government and also can relay messages back to a government. Unlike a spokesperson, an interlocutor often has no formal position within a government or any formal authority to speak on its behalf, and even when they do, everything an...
for us. When we tell them about our experience, Saudi Arabia listens as somebody who is not in any way an enemy of Pakistan, but a friend of Pakistan and, therefore, will listen with sympathy and concern to a matter of this nature". He was asked whether India expected Saudi Arabia, given their close ties with Islamabad, to help address the terror threat from Pakistan. The remark about Saudi Arabia being a "valuable interlocutor" raised a strong reaction within the Indian political circle. The Pakistani press even went on to report that he had proposed that Saudi Arabia play a mediator's role in improving India's relationship with Pakistan. In response, Tharoor tweetTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
ed saying, "An interlocutor is someone you speak to. If I speak to you, you are my interlocutor. I mentioned the Saudis as our interlocutors, i.e. the people we are here to speak to".
- In February 2010, a website called "Keralawatch" published an investigative report which alleged that Tharoor used incomplete records to enrol his name in the voter's list in Thiruvananthapuram constituency. Tharoor has not found it necessary to respond to this issue.
- Lalit Modi
Lalit Kumar Modi, is the former architect of the Indian Premier League.Best known for his stint as the Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League and the Chairman of the Champions League, between 2008 and 2010, he has also occupied the roles of Vice President of the Board of Control...
published the shareholderA shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
s details of Kochi-IPL team's franchise owners, Rendezvous Sports WorldRendezvous Sports World is a new cricket franchise in the Indian Premier League which has 10% of equity on Kochi IPL Team. Rendezvous Sports World Limited is a consortium made up of multiple companies...
(RSW) group in his Twitter account and also mentioned that he was asked by an influential Union Minister not to get into details of Sunanda PushkarSunanda Pushkar, who in April 2010 voluntarily relinquished a stake in the Kochi IPL team estimated at Rs 70 crore, belongs to a family of landlords and Army officers from Bomai, 8 km from Sopore in the Kashmir Valley, India. She was sales director in a Dubai-based real estate company Tecom...
, who was given a sweat equitySweat equity is a term that refers to a party's contribution to a project in the form of effort --- as opposed to financial equity, which is a contribution in the form of capital....
of approximately 4.5 per cent of total equity (estimated by the media to be worth Rs 70 crore) in Kochi IPL team. In an official statement, Tharoor denied having made any financial gains from the sale or having pressured Modi in any way. He further accused Modi of trying to delay and discredit the new owners so that the franchise can be re-awarded elsewhere. RSW protested Modi's breach of confidentiality agreement. Sunanda Pushkar also issued a statement denying being a proxy for Tharoor. Later amidst demands for his resignation from the Union Cabinet by the opposition parties, Sunanda Pushkar gave up the sweat equity offered to her by RSW. But IT department stated that she will have to pay income tax on her sweat equity in Rendezvous Sports World even after having given it up.http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/apr/20/pushkar-has-to-pay-tax-on-sweat-equity.htm Allegations that this was pay back for denying a request to not issue a visa to a South African model close to Lalit Modi have surfaced, and so have death threats to Shashi Tharoor by the Mumbai underworld. Under severe push from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee combine, the Congress core committee decided to ask for Tharoor's resignation.http://inwww.rediff.com/news/2010/apr/19what-marked-tharoors-dead-end.htm.18 April 2010 Shashi Tharoor resigned from the post of Minister of State in MEA after calling for a full inquiry into the matter. An internet support site was set up by his admirers to collect pledges for the support of Shashi Tharoor on the same day.
Honors, Awards and International Recognition
- 1976, Aged 20, Wins the Rajika Kripalani Young Journalist Award for the Best Indian Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
under 30.
- 1990 – Wins the Federation of Indian Publishers' Hindustan Times Literary Award for the Best Book of the Year for The Great Indian Novel.
- 1991 – His book The Great Indian Novel wins the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize
Commonwealth Writers is an initiative by the Commonwealth Foundation to unearth, develop and promote the best new fiction from across the Commonwealth. It's flagship are two literary awards and a website...
for the Best Book of the Year in the Eurasian Region.
- 1998 – Awarded the Excelsior Award for excellence in literature by the Association of Indians in America (AIA) and the Network of Indian Professionals
The Network of Indian Professionals of North America is a non-profit organization for South Asian professionals.NetIP was founded in 1990, by Dr. Satish Chandra in Chicago, IL...
(NetIP).
- May 2000 – Conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
in International Affairs by the University of Puget SoundThe University of Puget Sound is a private liberal arts college located in the North End of Tacoma, Washington, in the United States...
- 1998 – Named Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
in DavosDavos is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,248 . Davos is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range...
, SwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
- 2009–Presented with the Hakim Khan Sur Award for National Integration by the Maharana of Udaipur
Udaipur , also known as the City of Lakes, is a city, a Municipal Council and the administrative headquarters of the Udaipur district in the state of Rajasthan in western India. It is located southwest of the state capital, Jaipur, west of Kota, and northeast from Ahmedabad...
.
- 2004 – Awarded the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman
The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman is an award constituted by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India in conjunction with the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas , to honor exceptional and meritorious contribution in their chosen field/profession...
, India’s highest honour for non-resident Indians. But did not accept it at the time owing to UN rules prohibiting acceptance of governmental honours.
- 2007 – Went on to accept the award after having resigned from the position of Under Secretary General at the UN.
- 2008 – Conferred a Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
Honoris Causa by the University of BucharestThe University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
, Romania.
- 2009 – Awarded the Zakir Hussain Memorial "Pride of India" Award.
- 2009 – Awarded GQ's Inspiration of the Year Award at its Man of the Year Awards.
- 2010 – Awarded the Sarva Deshiya Prathibha award by the Pazhassiraja Charitable Trust, Kozhikode
Kozhikode During Classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, Kozhikkode was dubbed the "City of Spices" for its role as the major trading point of eastern spices. Kozhikode was once the capital of an independent kingdom of the same name and later of the erstwhile Malabar District...
.
- March 2010 – Awarded "New Age Politician of the Year" Award by NDTV at its Indian of the Year awards.
- 2010 – Awarded the Fifth IILM Distinguished Global Thinker Award in New Delhi
- 2010 – Awarded Digital person of the year at the first ever Indian Digital Media Awards (IDMA) for popularising the digital medium in India
Fiction
- Riot (2001)
- Show Business (1992)
- The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories
The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories is a short story collection by Shashi Tharoor published in 1990 by Arcade Publishing, New York. Stories collected were written in late teens by the author, and were published initially in various magazines and newspapers including JS, The Illustrated Weekly...
(1990)
- The Great Indian Novel
The Great Indian Novel is a satirical novel by Shashi Tharoor. It is a fictional work that takes the story of the Mahabharata, the epic of Hindu mythology, and recasts and resets it in the context of the Indian Independence Movement and the first three decades post-independence...
(1989)
Non-fiction
- Shadows Across the Playing Field: Sixty Years of India-Pakistan Cricket [with Shaharyar Khan] (2009)
- The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century (2007)
- Bookless in Baghdad
Bookless in Baghdad is a 2005 book by author Shashi Tharoor and consists of a collection of previously published articles, book reviews and columns on writers, books and literary musings....
(2005)
- Nehru: The Invention of India (2003)
- India: From Midnight to the Millennium
India: From Midnight to the Millennium is a 1997 book authored by Shashi Tharoor. It talks about diverse topics like caste, Indian democracy, the legacy of Indira Gandhi, the partition of India and India’s transition from a socialist economy to a free market economy.Shashi Tharoor argues...
(1997)
- Reasons of State (1982) ISBN 978-0-7069-1275-3
Illustrated books
- Kerala: God’s own country (2002) [with artist M.F. Husain]
- L'Inde (French) and India (English) (2008) [with photographer Ferrante Ferranti]
External links
- Shashi Tharoor
- Shashi Tharoor on Twitter
- Pledge Your Support for Shashi Tharoor
- The Chandran Tharoor Foundation
- TED Talk – Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue "soft" power
- United Nations biography
- USC Center on Public Diplomacy biography
- BBC Q&A with Tharoor, 22 June 2000
- "Shashi Tharoor for UN Secretary-General" website
- "Awakening India:" Shashi Tharoor's monthly op/ed commentary series for Project Syndicate
Project Syndicate is an international not-for-profit newspaper syndicate and association of newspapers. It distributes commentaries and analysis by experts, activists, Nobel laureates, statesmen, economists, political thinkers, business leaders and academics to its member publications, and...
- Audio: Sashi Tharoor in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion show The Forum
The Forum is the BBC World Service's flagship discussion programme. It brings together prominent thinkers from different disciplines and different parts of the world to try and create stimulating discussion, informed by highly distinct academic, artistic and cultural backgrounds.-Format:Each...
- Shashi Tharoor's Videos