Krishnan Srinivasan (born 15 February 1937) is a retired Indian diplomat, historian, author, former Indian

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwe ...

, and Deputy Secretary-General of the

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the C ...

.Krishnan Srinivasan: Macmillan author page
/ref> He was born in

Madras, India Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and educated at

Bedford School :''Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School, Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas or Bedford Academy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.'' Bedford School is a public school (English ind ...

and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniq ...

. He joined the

Indian Foreign Service The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is the diplomatic service and a central civil service of the Government of India under the Ministry of External Affairs. The Foreign Secretary is the head of the service. Vinay Mohan Kwatra is the 34th and the ...

in May 1959. His early postings included

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, and Tripoli. He was India's

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or s ...

/ High Commissioner to

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

and

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kal ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

and

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...

. He was appointed Secretary and finally Foreign Secretary and retired in 1995. In 1995, he was appointed Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General for Political Affairs in London where he served until 2002. He was a Member of

’s Senior Common Room and High Table from 1998 to 2016, Fellow of

Wolfson College, Cambridge Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The majority of students at the college are postgraduates. The college also admits "mature" undergraduates (aged 21 and above), with around ...

(2002–05), Fellow of the Centre for International Studies Cambridge (2002–05), Fellow of the

Institute of Commonwealth Studies The Institute of Commonwealth Studies, founded in 1949, is the sole postgraduate academic institution in the United Kingdom devoted to the study of the Commonwealth. It is also home to the longest-running interdisciplinary and practice-oriented ...

London (2002–08), Fellow of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies (2003–04), Fellow of the

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies is an autonomous research institute based in Kolkata. It is funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India. It was founded on 4 January 1993. The foundation stone of the institute ...

from 2006 to 2015, and Fellow of the

Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) is an institute for advanced study in Uppsala, Sweden. It is one of the ten member institutions of the Some Institutes for Advanced Study consortium, which brings together the world's most distinguished ...

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the ca ...

in (2008 and 2012–13). He was elected Honorary Professor at ASCI Hyderabad in 2005. He was awarded a

Hind Ratna A hind is a female deer, especially a red deer. Places * Hind (Sasanian province, 262-484) * Hind and al-Hind, a Persian and Arabic name for the Indian subcontinent * Hind (crater), a lunar impact crater * 1897 Hind, an asteroid Military ...

(India) in 2002, and was made a

Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Valeur Chevalier may refer to: Honours Belgium * a rank in the Belgian Order of the Crown * a rank in the Belgian Order of Leopold * a rank in the Belgian Order of Leopold II * a title in the Belgian nobility France * a rank in the French Legion d'h ...

(Cameroon) in 2007.

Bibliography

Non fiction

*''Tricks of the Trade'' (2000). *''The Rise, Decline and Future of the British Commonwealth''. Hardback (2005). Paperback (2008). *''The Jamdani Revolution; Politics, Personalities and Civil Society in Bangladesh'' (2007). *''Towards the New Horizon: World Order in the 21st Century'' (2009) *''Diplomatic Channels'' (2012) *''Europe in Emerging Asia'' (2015) *''Old Europe, New Asia'' (2015) *''Values in Foreign Policy, Investigating Ideals and Interests'' (2019)

Fiction

*''The Eccentric Effect'' (2001). *''The Ugly Ambassador'' (2003). *''Guesswork'' (2005). *''The Invisible African'' (2012) *''Ambassador Marco's Indian Instincts'' (2016) *''The Ambassador and the Private Eye'' (2021)

Newspapers

He is a regular columnist and book reviewer on international affairs for several Indian newspapers.

References

*''

Who's Who ''Who's Who'' (or ''Who is Who'') is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biographical information on the prominent people of a country. The title has been adopted as an expression meaning a group of not ...

'', A & C Black, London 2020 and subsequent issues; *''The International Who's Who'', Routledge, London 2015 and subsequent issues. {{DEFAULTSORT:Srinivasan, Krishnan Indian Foreign Secretaries Ambassadors of India to Zambia Ambassadors of India to Botswana Ambassadors of India to Nigeria Ambassadors of India to Benin Ambassadors of India to Cameroon Ambassadors of India to the Netherlands Commonwealth Deputy Secretaries-General Indian civil servants Commonwealth of Nations experts Politicians from Chennai 1937 births Living people High Commissioners of India to Bangladesh People educated at Bedford School Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford