Anand Giridharadas () is an American journalist and political pundit. He is a former columnist for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. He is the author of four books: ''India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking'' (2011), ''The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas'' (2014), ''
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World'' (2018), and ''The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy'' (2022).
Early life and education
Giridharadas was raised in
Shaker Heights, Ohio
Shaker Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 Census, the city population was 29,439. Shaker Heights is an inner-ring streetcar suburb of Cleveland, abutting the eastern edge of the city's limits. In July 1911, ...
;
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
; and
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, France.
["For 'India Calling,' former Clevelander Anand Giridharadas writes eloquently of two cultures"]
''The Plain Dealer''. January 4, 2011. Accessed February 24, 2011. His childhood visits to extended family members in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
sparked an interest in that country that influenced his later writing. He attended
Sidwell Friends School
Sidwell Friends School is a Quaker school located in Bethesda, Maryland and Washington, D.C., offering pre-kindergarten through high school classes. Founded in 1883 by Thomas W. Sidwell, its motto is ' ( en, Let the light shine out from all), al ...
. He studied politics and history at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
.
As of 2010, Giridharadas was a doctoral candidate at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.
Career
After graduating from college, Giridharadas moved to
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
in 2003 as a consultant for the global management consulting firm
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...
, where he followed the path of his father, who was a director at McKinsey. In 2005, he became a journalist, covering India for the ''
International Herald Tribune
The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France for international English-speaking readers. It had the aim of becoming "the world's first global newspaper" and could fairly be said ...
'' and ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. In 2009, after returning to the United States, he began to write the "Currents" column for those newspapers. He also writes longer magazine pieces. In a 2020 ''New York Times'' Opinion piece, he wrote about Biden's power to make transformational progress and endorsed ''
The American Prospect
''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The American Prospect'' says it "is devoted to ...
''s Day One Agenda. He is a Henry Crown Fellow of the
Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. The institute's stated aim is the realization of "a free, just, and equitable society" through seminars, policy programs ...
, an
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
commentator, and a visiting scholar at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
.
''Seat at the Table''
Giridharadas hosted the talk show ''Seat at the Table with Anand Giridharadas'' on
Vice on TV
Vice (formerly known as Viceland and also known as Vice TV) is an American basic cable television channel that launched on December 2, 2019, replacing H2 on most multichannel television providers in the United States. It is a part of the Vicela ...
. The show premiered in April 2020, and was canceled in July 2020.
''The.Ink''
In June 2020, Giridharadas started the
Substack
Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters. It allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers. Founded in 2017, Substack ...
newsletter ''The.Ink'' devoted to politics, culture, money and power. Most posts are free, while paid subscribers gain exclusive access to live events and the occasional special post.
Books
''India Calling'' (2011)
In 2011, Giridharadas published his first book, ''India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking''.
In it he discusses the increasing opportunities the Indian economy provides. He also delves into class issues, and has said, "in India, you're eternally a master and eternally a servant."
In ''
The Plain Dealer
''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday.
As of Ma ...
'', Jo Gibson called the book "readable" and "intriguing" and Giridharadas "a marvelous journalist—intrepid, easy to like, curious."
In a review for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'',
Gaiutra Bahadur
Gaiutra Bahadur is a Guyanese-American writer. She is best known for '' Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture,'' which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2014.
Early life
Bahadur was born in New Amsterdam, East Berbice-Corentyne in rural ...
wrote, "'India Calling' has what Hanif Kureishi once described as 'the sex of a syllogism.' Full-figured ideas animate every turn. So, simultaneously, does Giridharadas’s eye for contradiction. The combination both pleases us and makes us wary—distrustful of shapely ideas, including the author’s own."
''The True American'' (2014)
In 2014,
W. W. Norton and Company
W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly ''The Norton Ant ...
published Giridharadas's ''The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas''. The book centers on executed murderer
Mark Stroman
Mark Anthony Stroman (October 13, 1969 – July 20, 2011) was an American white supremacist and spree killer who was convicted and executed for a shooting spree in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. During the shooting spree in 2001, Stro ...
and a survivor of one of his shootings,
Rais Bhuiyan
Raisuddin "Rais" Bhuiyan ( bn, রইস ভূঁইয়া) (born September 1973) is a Bangladeshi American working as a technology professional in Dallas. He was an officer in the Bangladesh Air Force. He was a student of Sylhet Cadet Colle ...
. It explores Bhuiyan's forgiveness of Stroman and his campaign to save Stroman from capital punishment. At the time of the shootings, Stroman thought he was exacting revenge for the
September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
attacks, but his victims were immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
In his review for ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'',
Eboo Patel
Eboo Patel is an American Ismaili of Gujarati Indian heritage and founder and president of Interfaith America (previously known as Interfaith Youth Core), a Chicago-based international nonprofit that aims to promote interfaith cooperation. Pate ...
wrote that the book "zooms out and illuminates the broader social context of the lives at the center"
but that "while plumbing the depths of Bhuiyan’s Muslim heart,
iridharadasmisses a wide-open opportunity to get to the heart of Islam."
In ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'',
Stephen Harrigan
Stephen Harrigan (born 1948) is an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of the bestselling ''The Gates of the Alamo'', for other novels such as ''Remember Ben Clayton'' and ''A Friend of Mr. Lincoln,'' ...
wrote that Giridharadas is "an enterprising and clear-eyed reporter and a generally smooth writer, though every 20 pages or so there appears a glistening chunk of linguistic gristle... But occasional maladroit phrases do no serious harm to his commanding narrative."
''Winners Take All'' (2018)
In 2018, Giridharadas published ''
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World'' in which he argues that members of the global elite, though sometimes engaged in philanthropy, use their wealth and influence to preserve systems that concentrate wealth at the top at the expense of societal progress. Writing for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', economist
Joseph Stiglitz
Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, and a full professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the Joh ...
praised the book, writing that Giridharadas "writes on two levels — seemingly tactful and subtle — but ultimately he presents a devastating portrait of a whole class, one easier to satirize than to reform."
''The Persuaders'' (2022)
In 2022, Giridharadas published ''The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy''. Amazon described the book as "An insider account of activists, politicians, educators, and everyday citizens working to change minds, bridge divisions, and fight for democracy—from
disinformation
Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate.
The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the L ...
fighters to a leader of
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
to
Bernie Sanders
Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...
and
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of th ...
and more".
Personal life
Giridharadas lives in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, with his wife, author
Priya B. Parker, and their two children.
Anand Giridharadas biography
Anand.ly. Accessed March 8, 2013.
Works
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References
External links
*
* ttp://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-24-2011/anand-giridharadas "Daily Show" appearance
"Anything to Declare at Immigration?" ''The Indian Express Limited''. February 19, 2011.
*
** (TED2015)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giridharadas, Anand
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American male writers of Indian descent
American columnists
The New York Times columnists
University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford
Writers from Shaker Heights, Ohio
Journalists from Ohio
American male non-fiction writers
Henry Crown Fellows
Sidwell Friends School alumni
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American political commentators
American television talk show hosts
21st-century American male writers