M. V. Kamath

Madhav Vittal Kamath (7 September 1921 – 9 October 2014)^[2] was an Indian journalist and broadcasting executive, and the chairman of Prasar Bharati.^[3] He worked as the editor of The Sunday Times for two years from 1967 to 1969, as Washington correspondent for The Times of India^[4] from 1969 to 1978 and also as editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India.^[5] He had also written numerous books^[6][7][8][9] and was conferred with the Padma Bhushan award in 2004.^[10][11]He was born in a brahmin family^[12]

M. V. Kamath
Born	(1921-09-07)7 September 1921^[1] Udupi, Madras Presidency, British India
Died	9 October 2014(2014-10-09) (aged 93) Manipal, Karnataka, India
Nationality	Indian
Occupation(s)	Journalist, broadcasting executive, academic administrator
Years active	1940-2014
Awards	Padma Bhushan

In 2009, Mr. Kamath co-authored a biographical sketch of Narendra Modi book titled Narendra Modi: The Architect of a Modern State, at a time when Modi's reputation was considerably affected as a result of the 2002 Gujarat riots; post his ascent into national politics, a newer version of the book was published as The Man of the Moment: Narendra Modi.^[13][14] Kamath was a board-member of Manipal Academy of Higher Education and was also the Honorary Director of the School of Communication, since its inception in 1997.^[15]

He died on the morning of October 9 2014, from a cardiac arrest at Kasturba Hospital;^[13] he was hospitalized since a few days back due to geriatric ailments.^[2][16]

Malini Parthasarathy notes him to have longstanding sympathies with Hindutva -- one of his columns following the murder of Graham Staines by Hindutva extremists sought to justify the incident as a spontaneous repercussion against conversions, if the government were not willing to step in -- in what she deems that as a blatant incitement of hate crimes.^[17] Others have shared similar views^[18] and he has also extensively written in the official mouthpiece of RSS - Organiser.^[19][20] Kamath has been noted to be an astute journalist, whose opinions swayed with the tune of the majority; his stance on the Babri Masjid demolition was quite negative in the immediate aftermath but after about a decade, he deemed that as an act of valiance that restored the self-respect of Hindus and rejoiced about how the state, of Hindu India being under continual siege since the first Islamic invasions, was reversed for the first time.^[21][22][18] In the immediate aftermaths of the enactment of Mandal Commission recommendations, when RSS increasingly leaned towards a hardcore Brahmanical approach, Kamath had written of the need to maintain Hindu unity and negate the fall-outs of an impending Shudra revolution.^[23] Alexander Evans had noted his efforts in racist communalisation of the Kashmir conflict; Kamath deemed the region to belong solely to the Pandits and not to the Muslims, who were allegedly alone-responsible for the decline of their culture.^[24] Rajmohan Gandhi notes him to be a staunch Hindu.^[25]

Bibliography

• On Media, Politics and Literature (2009), Prabal Publishing, Bangalore.
• Narendra Modi – The Architect of a Modern State (2009) Co-author Kalindi Randeri, Rupa & Co., New Delhi.
• Gandhi – A Spiritual Journey (2007), Indus Source Books, Mumbai.
• Reporter at Large (2002), Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai.^[26]
• The Pursuit of Excellence (1982), Rupa & Co., New Delhi.^[27]
• The United States and India, 1776-1996: The Bridge over the River Time (1998), ICCR, New Delhi
• Corruption & the Lokpal Bill (2012) : Written & Edited with Gayatri Pagdi, Indus Source Books, Mumbai

References

1. "Veteran journalist MV Kamath dies at 93". The Times of India. 9 October 2014. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
2. "Veteran journalist MV Kamath dies at 93". India Today. 9 October 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
3. Govind, Nikhil (3 August 2013). "An independent voice". The Hindu.
4. Nireekshak (1969). "Nodding Editors". Economic and Political Weekly. 4 (25): 990–991. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 40740097.
5. Gohain, Hiren (1980). "Cudgel of Chauvinism". Economic and Political Weekly. 15 (8): 418–420. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4368393.
6. Jason, Heda; Tcherniak, Alexander (2004). "Review of Indian Names: From Classical to Contemporary (For People, Places and Products)". Asian Folklore Studies. 63 (1): 159–161. ISSN 0385-2342. JSTOR 30030327.
7. Mankekar, D.R. (1987). "Review of Behind the By-line—A Journalist's Memoirs". India Quarterly. 43 (1): 75–77. ISSN 0974-9284. JSTOR 45072199.
8. Kanitkar, Ajit (11 August 2016). "Book Reviews : M.V. Kamath, Points and Lines—Charat Ram: A Biography, New Delhi: UBS Publishers' Distributors Ltd., 1994, pp. 272". The Journal of Entrepreneurship. 4: 120–122. doi:10.1177/097135579500400112. S2CID 154036886.
9. Narayan, Shyamala A. (26 July 2016). "India". The Journal of Commonwealth Literature. 28 (3): 45–68. doi:10.1177/002198949302800302. S2CID 220807327.
10. "Shri Madhav Vittal Kamath : Padma Bhusan". Government of India. Retrieved 22 March 2010.
11. Ninan, Sevanti (2 February 2003). . The Hindu. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2010.
12. Ashraf, Syed Firdaus. "'Only Brahmins can defeat Brahminism'". Rediff. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
13. Prabhu, Ganesh; Reddy, B. Muralidhar (9 October 2014). "Veteran journalist MV Kamath". The Hindu. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
14. Jaffrelot, Christophe (2017), "From Holy Sites to Web Sites: Hindu Nationalism, from Sacred Territory to Diasporic Ethnicity", in Michel, Patrick; Possamai, Adam; Turner, Bryan S. (eds.), Religions, Nations, and Transnationalism in Multiple Modernities, Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 153–174, doi:10.1057/978-1-137-58011-5_8, ISBN 9781137580115
15. "Veteran journalist MV Kamath dies at 93". The Times of India. 9 October 2014. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
16. Ninan, Sevanti (2 February 2003). . The Hindu. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2010.
17. Parthasarathy, Malini (6 March 2015). "Legitimating Majoritarian Chauvinism:The Indian Media and the Hindutva Campaign". In Nussbaum, Martha; Doniger, Wendy (eds.). Pluralism and Democracy in India: Debating the Hindu Right. Oxford University Press. p. 100. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394825.001.0001. ISBN 9780199380947.
18. Nanda, Meera (October 2011). The God Market: How Globalization is Making India More Hindu. NYU Press. p. 1. ISBN 9781583672501.
19. YADAV, YOGENDRA; PALSHIKAR, SUHAS (2009). "Between Fortuna and Virtu: Explaining the Congress' Ambiguous Victory in 2009". Economic and Political Weekly. 44 (39): 33–46. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 25663593.
20. Maclean, Kama Kellie (1 December 1999). "Embracing the untouchables: the BJP and scheduled caste votes". Asian Studies Review. 23 (4): 488–509. doi:10.1080/10357829908713252. ISSN 1035-7823.
21. Flåten, Lars Tore (1 September 2012). "Hindu Nationalist Conceptions of History: Constructing a Hindu–Muslim Dichotomy". South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 35 (3): 624–647. doi:10.1080/00856401.2011.642794. ISSN 0085-6401. S2CID 144969016.
22. Layton, R.; Stone, P.; Thomas, J. (2 September 2003). "Ayodhya, Print Media and Communalism". Destruction and Conservation of Cultural Property. Routledge. pp. 151–152. ISBN 9781134604982.
23. Ray, Raka; Katzenstein, Mary Fainsod (2005). "Problems of Social Power". Social Movements in India: Poverty, Power, and Politics. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 73. ISBN 9780742538436.
24. Evans, Alexander (1 March 2002). "A departure from history: Kashmiri Pandits, 1990-2001". Contemporary South Asia. 11 (1): 19–37. doi:10.1080/0958493022000000341. ISSN 0958-4935. S2CID 145573161.
25. Gandhi, Rajmohan (14 October 2000). Understanding the Muslim Mind. Penguin Books India. ISBN 9780140299052.
26. M. V. Kamath (2006). M.V. Kamath, a Journalist at Large. Jaico Publishing House. ISBN 978-81-7992-577-5.
27. . Bhavan's Book University. Archived from the original on 14 December 2010.

External links

• M. V. Kamath at Rupa Publications
• M V KAMATH : The Coastal Boy Who Made Big in Journalism, Daijiworld