Nalin Mehta

Nalin Mehta is an Indian writer, social historian[1] and columnist[2] whose writings have specially focused on the evolution and impact of Indian television, politics and sport history,[3] He is founding Joint Editor of the international peer-reviewed journal South Asian History and Culture[4] and the Routledge South Asian History and Culture book series.[5] He is currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at National University of Singapore.[6] He is the former Managing Editor of 24X7 English News channel Headlines Today which is run by the India Today Network.

Early Life and education

Mehta was born in Delhi and he studied at the Scindia School, Gwalior. While at Scindia, he was the editor of the Scindia School Review and the School Captain.[7] He graduated from the prestigious Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University with an honours degree in Journalism and then studied as a Commonwealth-DFID scholar at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom for an MA in International Relations. He then went to La Trobe University in Melbourne where he was awarded a PhD in Political Science.[8]

Career

Television

Mehta began his career as a television journalist with Zee News when it launched India's first 24-hour news channel in Hindi. He became a political correspondent and anchor with NDTV[9] and covered the 2002 Gujarat violence[10] and subsequent state assembly elections,[11] the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, the assassination of the royal family in Kathmandu and several Indian state elections including Chhattisgarh and Punjab.[12] After finishing his PhD, he returned to journalism in India as Deputy News Editor and prime time anchor at Times Now.[13]

Academic

From 2008–2012 Mehta worked on international development issues with the United Nations Development Program and then the Global Fund in Geneva. During this time, he also held fellowships with the International Olympics Committee's Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland; Australian National University, Canberra; La Trobe University, Melbourne and the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.[8]

His first book India on Television was widely acclaimed as the first major account of the politics and business of news television in India[14] and was awarded the Asian Publishing Convention Award for Best Book on Asian Media in 2009.[15] He then jointly wrote a social history of Indian sport, Olympics: The India Story with the sport historian Boria Majumdar. It was welcomed as a "pioneering"[16] work of history in the press and the country's most well known sociologist Ashis Nandy called it " the first comprehensive, scholarly and yet lively account of Indian's experiences with the Olympics".[17] Mehta and Majumdar joined together again to write Sellotape Legacy, a detailed account of the politics, economics and history of the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010. Former Indian sport minister Mani Shankar Aiyar called it a "blazing expose" and a "thorough, well-researched, sober and absorbingly well-written indictment of Everything You wanted to Know about CWG [Commonwealth Games] but were Afraid to Ask.".[18]

His other major work includes Gujarat Beyond Gandhi, a jointly edited anthology of critical essays which looked at 60 years of politics and social change in Gujarat.[19]

Commentary

Mehta is a columnist and essayist and writes frequently in the newspapers and magazines.[20] He has been a consulting expert for Headlines Today,[6] wrote a weekly column on politics and public culture for Mumbai Mirror between 2010–12 and his writings have appeared in the Indian Express,[2] Outlook,[21] Times of India, Open[22] and other publications.

Awards and Recognition

1. Asian Publishing Award for Best Book on Asian Media/Society for India on Television, 2009.[23]

2. Government of Australia Alumni Excellence Award for Media and Entertainment, 2010.[24]

Bibliography

India on Television: How Satellite TV Has Changed the Way We Think and Act (Harper Collins, 2008).

Sellotape Legacy: Delhi and the Commonwealth Games 2010, with Boria Majumdar (Harper Collins, 2010).

Olympics: The India Story, with Boria Majumdar (Harper Collins, 2008, 2012)

Television in India: Satellites, Politics and Cultural Change (Editor. Routledge, 2008, 2009)

Gujarat Beyond Gandhi: Politics, Conflict and Society, with Mona G. Mehta (Editor. Routledge, 2010, 2011).

The Changing Face of Cricket: From Imperial to Global Game, with Dominic Malcolm & Jon Gemmell (Editor. Routledge, 2010).

References

  1. ↑ Asia Research Institute, "National University of Singapore website"
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 , "Indian Express columnists page"
  3. ↑ Nalin Mehta Books on HarperCollins Publishers India, , Nalin Mehta books by Routledge,
  4. ↑ "South Asian History and Culture website, Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group"
  5. ↑ "Routledge South Asian History and Culture book series website"
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore and is currently Associate Professor at Shiv Nadar University , India
  7. ↑ Nalin Mehta, "The Computer Man", "Qila Quotes: the Scindia School Quarterly", July 2009, p.9
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Australia India Institute, University of Melbourne speaker profile, , 2012
  9. ↑ Ajitha GS, "Small wonder", "Time Out", July 2012
  10. ↑ Amita Malik, "Mauling the Media", "The Tribune", 8 March 2002
  11. ↑ Nalin Mehta, "Modi and the Camera: The Politics of Television in the 2002 Gujarat Riots, "South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies", Dec. 2006, see footnotes on pages 405,408,411,413
  12. ↑ Amita Malik, "On the Election Trail", The Tribune, 15 February 2002
  13. ↑ Author profile in Routledge books
  14. ↑ Amulya Gopalakrishan, "Catch The Waves", "The Indian Express", 13 July 2008
  15. ↑ IANS, "Marketing Campaign for 'The White Tiger' Wins Asian Prize, 17 July 2009
  16. ↑ K. Arumugam, "Olympics: The India Story", "The Hindustan Times", 4 August 2008
  17. ↑ Ashis Nandy, quoted on back cover of Olympics: The India Story. New Delhi, HarperCollins, 2012, 3rd edition
  18. ↑ Mani Shankar Aiyar, "A Pratfall, Mr Kalmadi?", "Outlook", 4 October 2010
  19. ↑ V. Venkatesan, "Enigma of Gujarat", "Frontline", 5–18 Nov 2011
  20. ↑ Matt Wade, "The Poor Superpower", "Sydney Morning Herald, 16 April 2011
  21. ↑ http://www.outlookindia.com/Authorbooks.aspx?author=Nalin%20Mehta&aid=4200
  22. ↑ http://www.openthemagazine.com/category/author/nalin-mehta
  23. ↑ IANS, "The White Tiger Campaign win the Asian multimedia publishing awards 2009", 20 July 2009
  24. ↑ "Inaugural Australian Alumni Excellence Awards Presented", 9 October 2010