Chandan Mitra ( bn, চন্দন মিত্র; 12 December 1954 – 1 September 2021) was an Indian journalist and politician who was the editor and managing director of ''
The Pioneer'' newspaper in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...
. He was also a two-term member of the
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...
, the upper house of the Indian parliament, serving between 2003 and 2009 as a nominated member from the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and between 2003 and 2009 as an elected member from the state of
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
, again from the BJP. He quit the BJP and joined the
All India Trinamool Congress in 2018.
Early life and education
Mitra was born on 12 December 1955 in
Howrah, in the Indian state of
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
, to Dipali Mitra and Monindra Nath Mitra. He studied at
La Martiniere Calcutta
''La Martiniere ''(informally known as LMC) is an elite, independent private day school located in Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal. It comprises two single-gender boys and girls schools. It was established in 1836 in accordance with the will of ...
, where he was awarded the Founder's Gold Medal 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
Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...
, together. At St. Stephen's, Mitra and
Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor (; ; born 9 March 1956 in London, England ) is an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer and public intellectual who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, ...
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. He later went on to become the President of the student union himself.
Mitra received an MA and M.Phil in History at Delhi University as well. He also taught at
Hansraj College
Hansraj College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi, in Delhi, India. The departments of Hansraj college includes science, liberal arts and commerce.
History
The was founded on 26 July 1948 in memory of the prominent Indian ...
.
In 1984, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy from
Magdalen College, Oxford, completing 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
Tapan Raychaudhuri
Tapan Raychaudhuri (8 May 1926 – 26 November 2014) was a British-Indian historian specialising in British Indian history, Indian economic history and the History of Bengal.
Early life and education
He was the son of Prativa and Amiya Kuma ...
.
Career
Mitra started his career in journalism as an Assistant Editor with ''
The Statesman
A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level.
Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to:
Newspapers United States
* ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...
'' in
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
before moving on to ''
The Times of India
''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...
'' in Delhi and later to ''
The Sunday Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'' where he went on to become the Editor of the newspaper. He later moved to the ''
Hindustan Times
''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia.
It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...
'' as an 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 exit the business. He headed the newspaper for 24 years before stepping down in June 2021.
During his time as an editor he focused his attention on topics including climate change, education, cultural heritage, as well as rural and urban development. He was also an advocate for the soft power of
Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
, the Indian film industry, and was amongst the first to dedicate space to discussions linked to the industry in a mainstream newspaper.
Mitra was a supporter of
left-wing politics
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soc ...
in his student years. However, he shifted his interests to
right-leaning ideologies later in his life. He was considered close to
L. K. Advani
Lal Krishna Advani (born 8 November 1927) is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. Advani is one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is a longtime memb ...
, former Indian Deputy Prime Minister, from the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was nominated to
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...
, the upper house of the Indian parliament, from the BJP in 2003 and served his first term through 2009. He was elected for his second term to the Rajya Sabha as a member from the Indian state of
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
in 2010 and served the term through 2016.
During his stint as a member of the parliament, some of the topics raised by Mitra included the creation of wildlife corridors while consideration of highway construction projects through national parks, specifically tiger and elephant reserves. He quit the
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...
in 2018 and joined the
All India Trinamool Congress, the ruling party of the Indian state of
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
.
Personal life
Mitra was married to Shobori Ganguly. He had two sons Kushan and Shakya from an earlier marriage. He was an avid food-lover and was considered an authority on Indian film music and of
Rabindra Sangeet
''Rabindra Sangeet'' ( bn, রবীন্দ্র সঙ্গীত; ), also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in ...
.
Mitra died on 1 September 2021 at the age of 66 at his home in
Sainik Farm
Sainik Farm is an affluent settlement in New Delhi where prominent people reside. The area has been embroiled in legal trouble over its legitimacy. It is situated south of Saket beyond the Mehrauli-Badarpur Road in the southernmost part of ...
, in Delhi.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitra, Chandan
1955 births
2021 deaths
20th-century Bengalis
20th-century Indian journalists
Bengali Hindus
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Journalists from West Bengal
Indian newspaper journalists
Indian editors
Indian newspaper editors
La Martiniere Calcutta alumni
Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha
St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni
Delhi University alumni
Rajya Sabha members from Madhya Pradesh
Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from West Bengal
Trinamool Congress politicians
Indian journalists
21st-century Indian journalists
Indian male journalists
People from Howrah
Indian columnists