Chandan Mitra (Bengali: চন্দন মিত্র) (born December 12, 1955) is an Indian journalist, presently editor and managing director of The Pioneer newspaper in Delhi, India. He was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha during August 2003 to August 2009. He was elected to another term in the Rajya Sabha, as a Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Madhya Pradesh, in June 2010.[1]
Mitra was educated at La Martiniere College, Kolkata, where he was the Founder's Gold Medallist in 1971. He was a batchmate of Swapan Dasgupta and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta at La Martiniere, and all three went up to St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, after leaving school. At St.Stephen's, Mitra and Shashi Tharoor were to become great friends and Mitra even became campaign manager for Tharoor's successful campaign to become President of the college's student union.[2] Mitra received an MA and M.Phil in History at Delhi University as well. He taught for a short while at Hansraj College.
In 1984 he was awarded a D.Phil degree at Oxford University, where he was a member of Magdalen College, for the thesis "Political mobilisation and the nationalism movement in India – a study of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, 1936-1942" written under supervision of the noted Indian historian Dr Tapan Raychaudhuri.
Mitra started in journalism as Assistant Editor with The Statesman in Kolkata before he moved to the Times of India in Delhi and then The Sunday Observer; he went on to become Editor of the paper which was funded by Reliance Industries. After Reliance stopped funding, Mitra moved to the Hindustan Times as Executive Editor. Mitra left to join The Pioneer as Editor, and eventually bought control of the newspaper from the Thapar family in 1998 when industrialist L. M. Thapar decided to cut his losses.[3]
He wrote a well-received history of his alma mater, La Martiniere, titled Constant Glory, for the 150th anniversary of the school's founding in 1850.
Mitra is married to Shobori Ganguly. He has two sons from a previous marriage.