Anjan Sundaram is an Indian author, journalist, academic, and television presenter. He is the author of three memoirs of journalism, ''Stringer'', ''Bad News'' and ''Breakup'', and has been called "one of the great reporters of our age" by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

special correspondent

Fergal Keane Fergal Patrick Keane (born 6 January 1961) is an Irish foreign correspondent with BBC News, and an author. For some time, Keane was the BBC's correspondent in South Africa. He is a nephew of the Irish playwright, novelist and essayist John B. ...

Early life and education

Sundaram was born in

Ranchi Ranchi (; ) is the capital city and also the largest district by population of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern ...

, India, and grew up in Dubai. He studied at

Rishi Valley School Rishi Valley School is an Indian boarding school, founded by the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. The school has a holistic approach to education in the spirit of Krishnamurti's pedagogical vision. Community service and extracurricular activitie ...

in India, and was awarded a gold medal in the Indian Physics Olympiad in 2000. After enrolling in the electrical engineering program at the

Indian Institute of Technology Madras The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras or IIT-M) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence of India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), ...

, he moved to the United States and graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 2005. Sundaram earned a master's degree in mathematics as an undergraduate at Yale, studying

abstract algebra In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures, which are set (mathematics), sets with specific operation (mathematics), operations acting on their elements. Algebraic structur ...

under celebrated mathematician and activist

Serge Lang Serge Lang (; May 19, 1927 – September 12, 2005) was a French-American mathematician and activist who taught at Yale University for most of his career. He is known for his work in number theory and for his mathematics textbooks, including the i ...

Career

He then turned down a job as a mathematician at

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

, and began to write, reporting as a stringer for

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

and The

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. He taught journalism in 2016 at Brockwood Park, a school founded by

Jiddu Krishnamurti Jiddu Krishnamurti ( ; 11 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) was an Indian Philosophy, philosopher, speaker, writer, and Spirituality, spiritual figure. Adopted by members of the Theosophy, Theosophical tradition as a child, he was raised to fill ...

. In 2018, he obtained a PhD in journalism from the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

, studying under British author

Giles Foden Giles Foden (born 11 January 1967)George Stade and Karen Karbiener (eds), ''Encyclopaedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present'', 2nd edn, Infobase Publishing, 2010, p. 176. is an English author, best known for his novel '' The Last King of ...

Stringer: A Reporter's Journey in the Congo

Sundaram's debut ''Stringer: A Reporter's Journey in the Congo'' earned him comparisons to

Ryszard Kapuściński Ryszard Kapuściński (; 4 March 1932 – 23 January 2007) was a Polish journalist, photographer, poet and author. He received many prestigious awards and was considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Kapuściński's personal jo ...

and Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul. ''Stringer'' was published by

Sonny Mehta Ajai Singh "Sonny" Mehta (9 November 1942McFadden, Robert D. (31 December 2019) ''The New York Times''. – 30 December 2019) was a British and American editor. Mehta was the editor-in-chief of Alfred A. Knopf and chairman of the Knopf Doubleday ...

, the legendary editor of Kapuściński, Naipaul and several Nobel laureates, and was featured on ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night talk and news satire television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States, with extended episodes released shortly after on Paramount+ ...

'' with

Jon Stewart Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz, November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, political commentator, actor, and television host. The long-running host of ''The Daily Show'' on Comedy Central from 1999 to 20 ...

, who called the book "remarkable". It was also a

Royal African Society The Royal African Society (RAS) of the United Kingdom was founded as the African Society in 1901 to promote relations between the United Kingdom and countries in Africa. It received a royal charter in 1935, when it acquired its present name. The RA ...

book of the year and a

book of the week. A feature of Sundaram's writing is his immersive portrayal of what it feels like to be in a place.

Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship

''Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship'', about the rise of dictatorship in Rwanda, was published in January 2016 and named an Amazon book of the year. It also won the Moore prize and Ingabire prize, and was a finalist for the PEN/America nonfiction prize. Sundaram received threats to his life during the publication of ''Bad News'', for which he was protected by the New York Police Department and Scotland Yard.

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

praised ''Bad News'' for providing "insights about the human condition that reach far beyond the tragic story of Rwanda."

Christiane Amanpour Christiane Maria Heideh AmanpourStated on ''Finding Your Roots'', 22 January 2019 (; ; born 12 January 1958) is a British-Iranian journalist and television host. Amanpour is the Chief International Anchor for CNN and host of CNN International, ...

interviewed Anjan about the book in 2020. ''Bad News'' documents the persecution of journalists in Rwanda, including a non-exhaustive appendix of Rwandan journalists, many of whom were killed,

disappeared An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the intent of placing ...

, arrested, or forced into exile. ''The Guardian'' called it "an important book that should shatter any lingering faith people might hold in Kagame's hideous regime" and the Washington Post described it as "courageous and heartfelt."

Breakup: A Marriage in Wartime

Sundaram's third memoir explores the effects of his war reporting on his family. ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' listed it as one of the most-anticipated books of 2023 for its reporting "on the global and the personal," while

Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

named it a best book of April 2023.

Amy Goodman Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement, Morocco's occupatio ...

invited Sundaram on

Democracy Now ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long TV, radio, and Internet news program based in Manhattan and hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live ...

to explain "why the world's deadliest conflicts go unreported." The Pulitzer-winning novelist

Junot Díaz Junot Díaz ( ; born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a former fiction editor at '' Boston Review''. Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience ...

wrote that ''Breakup'' "recalls the best of

Michael Herr Michael David Herr (April 13, 1940 – June 23, 2016) was an American writer and war correspondent, known as the author of '' Dispatches'' (1977), a memoir of his time as a correspondent for ''Esquire'' (1967–1969) during the Vietnam War. The ...

and

V.S. Naipaul Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (; 17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienatio ...

but with humanity that steals one’s breath away."

Baillie Gifford Prize The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its ...

-winning lawyer Philippe Sands called ''Breakup'' "immensely powerful," and Booker-finalist Sunjeev Sahota called Sundaram "an astonishing writer." The ''

LA Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012 ...

'' compared Sundaram to the Nobel laureate

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

said of Sundaram: "He writes with exceptional courage and deep humanity. An inspiring chronicler of the world and the spirit."

Reportage

In 2015, a jury of journalists including Jon Lee Anderson and

Carlotta Gall Carlotta Gall is a British journalist and author. She covered Afghanistan and Pakistan for ''The New York Times'' for twelve years. She was also their Istanbul bureau chief covering Turkey, and now covers the war in Ukraine. Career Daughter of ...

awarded Sundaram the annual

Frontline Club The Frontline Club is a media club and registered charity created by Vaughan and Pranvera Smith, located near Paddington Station in London. With a strong emphasis on conflict reporting, it aims to champion independent journalism, provide an effe ...

prize for his war reporting from the Central African Republic, calling his story ''A Place on Earth'' "an excellent, highly original piece of reportage and writing, reminiscent of Ryzard Kapuściński and V.S. Naipaul at their best." Sundaram also received a

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

environmental journalism prize in 2006 for his reporting from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Television

Sundaram hosted a four-part television series called ''Coded World'' in 2019, which explores how

algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for per ...

and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

are changing humans. The series combines Sundaram's expertise in mathematics and journalism. He also presented a four-part series in 2016 called ''Deciphering India with Anjan Sundaram'', which explores the contentious rise of

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

in India. The episodes were titled "Godmen", "The Sacred Cow", "The Great Indian Male" and "Identity".

Talks

His MainStage TED talk in 2024 is titled ''Meet our planet's hidden defenders'', about indigenous environmental defenders fighting drone wars and legal battles to protect some of the world's last pristine ecosystems. His previous TED Talk, in 2017, titled ''Why I risked my life to expose a government massacre'', is about his reporting on remote conflicts. In 2016 he gave a talk called ''Detecting a Dictatorship'' at the

Oslo Freedom Forum Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) is a series of global conferences run by the New York–based non-profit Human Rights Foundation under the slogan "Challenging Power". OFF was founded in 2009 as a one-time event and has taken place annually ever since. ...

, about journalists who confronted Rwanda's authoritarian government.

Personal life

He was married to the French-Canadian journalist and author, Nathalie Blaquiere, for nearly a decade, before they divorced in 2017. They have a daughter. He describes his marriage and divorce, along with his war correspondence, in his book ''Breakup: A Marriage in Wartime.'' His mother is the journalist and actress Vasanti Sundaram.

References

External links

*
Anjan Sundaram's TED Talk

Christiane Amanpour speaks to Anjan Sundaram

"'Bad News' Chronicles the Loss of Press Freedom in Rwanda"
radio interview with Sundaram on NPR's ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

'' (6 min., 2016) Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of the University of East Anglia Indian war correspondents Indian male journalists Yale University alumni People from Ranchi People from Dubai Indian expatriates in the United Arab Emirates Indian memoirists Journalists from Jharkhand {{authority control