Radha Kumar
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Radha Kumar is an Indian feminist, academic and author. Her work focuses on ethnic conflicts and peace processes from a strongly feminist perspective.


Early life

Kumar is the daughter of
Lovraj Kumar Lovraj Kumar (1926–1994) was an Indian Civil Service, Indian civil servant who had a role in forming Indian economic policies from the late 1950s until the early 1980s. Kumar was born in Nainital in 1926, and attended The Doon School, Dehradun. ...
, a former bureaucrat and member of the elite
Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...
, and the economic historian Dr
Dharma Kumar Dharma Kumar (1928 – 19 October 2001) was an Indian economic historian, noted for her work on the agrarian history of India. Her Ph.D at Cambridge on the agrarian history of South India was awarded the Ellen MacArthur Prize, and was publ ...
. While Lovraj Kumar belongs to
Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...
, Dharma hails from a
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...
Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
family from
south India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...
. Radha Kumar grew up 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 w ...
and studied in
Modern School (New Delhi) Modern School is a co-educational, private school in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1920 by Lala Raghubir Singh, a prominent Delhi-based businessman and philanthropist, who desired an institution that combined the "best of ancient Indian tr ...
. She studied for her master's degree in English Literature at
Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sid ...
, (the college at which her mother had previously studied), before taking her PhD at
Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...
.


Career

Kumar has written several books on a wide range of subjects, mostly dealing with gender issues in a conflict situation. Usually, the conflicts that she has chosen to address in this manner have involved a
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
party or a
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
party or both of these. Kumar has been a director at the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution at
Jamia Milia Islamia Jamia Millia Islamia () is a central university located in New Delhi, India. Originally established at Aligarh, United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India) during the British Raj in 1920, it moved to its current location in Okhla in ...
, a Muslim minority institution located in Delhi. She is also co-founder and Director-General of the ''Delhi Policy Group'', a think-tank which has received generous funding from US-based agencies including the Ford Foundation. Kumar, along with over 40 historians, economists, academics, activists, artists, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and media personalities from 13 countries will speak at the South Asia Union Summit Led by Women which will be held virtually from October 2–3, 2021. This goal of the summit is to discuss solutions for peace, social justice and gender equality.


Kashmir interlocutor panel

In October 2010, Kumar was appointed as one of the three interlocutors for Jammu and Kashmir appointed by the
Cabinet Committee on Security The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) of the Government of India discusses, debates and is the final decision-making body on senior appointments in the national security apparatus, defence policy and expenditure, and generally all matters of Ind ...
(CCS) of the Central Government of India. The panel was headed by Dilip Padgaonkar, former editor of the
Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, t ...
. and the other member was M.M. Ansari, a former Election Commissioner of India. Within a few weeks of the panel's constitution, and after private hints had failed, a public reprimand was issued to the panel by
P. Chidambaram Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee ...
, home minister of India, for speaking too freely and too frequently to the press; and also for pushing various schemes and solutions, when the assigned job of the panel was to gauge and summarize the views and ideas of Kashmiri society. All of these criticisms pertained to actions taken by Kumar. Her reaction to the reprimand was to tell the press that the home minister (who had appointed the panel) had no business to tell the interlocutors what they should do.


Published works

*''Divide and Fall?: Bosnia in the Annals of Partition'' *''Negotiating Peace in Deeply Divided Societies: A Set of Simulations'' *''Making Peace with Partition'' *'' The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women's Rights and Feminism in India 1800–1990'' *''Bosnia-Herzegovina: Between War and Peace''(Co editor) *''Frameworks For A Kashmir Settlement'' *''Paradise at war: A political history of Kashmir ''


References


External links


Radha Kumar articles
Foreign Affairs {{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Radha Indian women non-fiction writers Living people Jamia Millia Islamia Indian social sciences writers Year of birth missing (living people)