Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor (born 9 March 1956)[1] is an Indian politician, writer and former international diplomat[2] who has been serving as Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He was formerly Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and contested for the post of Secretary-General in 2006.

Shashi Tharoor
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
Assumed office
31 May 2009
Preceded byPannyan Raveendran
ConstituencyThiruvananthapuram
Minister of State for Human Resource Development
In office
28 October 2012  26 May 2014
Prime MinisterManmohan Singh
Preceded byDaggubati Purandeswari
Succeeded byUpendra Kushwaha
Minister of State for External Affairs
In office
28 May 2009  18 April 2010
Prime MinisterManmohan Singh
Preceded byAnand Sharma
Succeeded byE. Ahamed
Under Secretary General of the United Nations for Communications and Public Information
In office
1 June 2002  9 February 2007
Secretary GeneralKofi Annan
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byKiyotaka Akasaka
Personal details
Born (1956-03-09) 9 March 1956
London, England, United Kingdom
CitizenshipIndian
NationalityIndian
Political partyIndian National Congress
Spouse(s)
  • Tilottama Mukherji
    (m. after 1981, divorced)
  • Christa Giles
    (m. 2007; div. 2010)
  • (m. 2010; died 2014)
Children2
Education
Alma mater
Profession
  • Writer
  • Diplomat
  • Politician
WebsiteOfficial website

He also serves as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology[3] and All India Professionals Congress.[4] He formerly served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs (2014 to 2019). In 2019, Shashi Tharoor received the Sahitya Academy Award for his book An Era of Darkness in a non-fiction category in English language.[5][6]

Born in London, UK, and raised in India, Tharoor graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi in 1975 and culminated his studies in 1978 with a doctorate in International Relations and Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. At the age of 22, he was the youngest person at the time to receive such an honour from the Fletcher School. From 1978 to 2007, Tharoor was a career official at the United Nations, rising to the rank of Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information in 2001. He announced his retirement after finishing second in the 2006 selection for U.N. Secretary-General to Ban Ki-moon.[7] In 2009, Tharoor began his political career by joining the Indian National Congress and successfully represented the party from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala by winning in the Lok Sabha elections and becoming a member of parliament. During the Congress-led UPA Government rule (2004–2014), Tharoor served as Minister of State for External Affairs[8] (2009–2010) and Minister of Human Resource Development (2012–2014).[8]

Tharoor is an acclaimed writer, having authored 19 bestselling works of fiction and non-fiction since 1981, which are centred on India and its history, culture, film, politics, society, foreign policy, and more related themes.[9][10] He is also the author of hundreds of columns and articles in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, Newsweek, and The Times of India. He was a contributing editor for Newsweek International for two years. From 2010 to 2012, he wrote a column in The Asian Age, Deccan Chronicle and, for most of 2012, until his appointment as Minister, a column in Mail Today; he also writes an internationally syndicated monthly column for Project Syndicate. He also wrote regular columns for The Indian Express (1991–93 and 1996–2001), The Hindu (2001–2008), and The Times of India (2007–2009).

Early life and education

Shashi Tharoor was born on 9 March 1956 in London, United Kingdom to Chandran Tharoor and Sulekha Menon, a Malayali couple hailing from Palakkad, Kerala.[11] Tharoor has two younger sisters, Shobha and Smitha.[12] His father, originally from Kerala, worked in various positions in London, Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi, including a 25-year career (culminating as group advertising manager) for The Statesman. His paternal uncle was Tharoor Parameshwaran, the founder of Reader's Digest in India. Tharoor's parents returned to India when he was 2 years old, where he joined the Montfort School, Yercaud, in 1962, subsequently moving to Bombay (now Mumbai) and studying at the Campion School (1963–68).[13] He spent his high school years at St. Xavier's Collegiate School in Kolkata (1969–71).

In 1975, Tharoor graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from St Stephen's College, University of Delhi, where he had been president of the student union and also founded the St. Stephen's Quiz Club.[14] Within the same year, Tharoor went to the United States to obtain an MA in International Relations at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University in Medford. After obtaining his M.A. in 1976, Tharoor further obtained his Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy in 1977 and his PhD in International Relations and Affairs in 1978.[15] While he was pursuing his doctorate, Tharoor was awarded the Robert B. Stewart Prize for best student and was also the first editor of the Fletcher Forum of International Affairs.[14] At the age of 22, he was the youngest person to receive a doctorate in the history of the Fletcher School.[16]

Diplomatic career

Beginning

Tharoor's career in the United Nations began in 1978 as a staff member of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. From 1981 until 1984 he was head of the UNHCR office in Singapore, during the boat people crisis, leading the organisation's rescue efforts at sea and succeeding in resettling a backlog of Vietnamese refugees. He also processed Polish and Acehnese refugee cases.[17] After a further stint at the UNHCR headquarters in Geneva, during which he became the first chairman of the staff elected by UNHCR personnel worldwide, Tharoor left UNHCR. In 1989 he was appointed special assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs, the unit that later became the Peacekeeping Operations Department in New York. Until 1996, he led the team responsible for peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia, spending considerable time on the ground during the civil war there.[18][19]

Assistant Secretary and Under Secretary-General at the UN

In 1996, Tharoor was appointed Director of Communications and Special Projects and Executive Assistant to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In January 2001, Tharoor was appointed as Interim Head[2] of the Department of Public Information (DPI) at the Assistant-Secretary-General level.[2] He was subsequently confirmed as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information (UNDPI) with effect from 1 June 2002.[2] In this capacity, he was responsible for the United Nations' communications strategy, enhancing the image and effectiveness of the organisation. In 2003 the Secretary-General gave him the additional responsibility of United Nations Coordinator for Multilingualism. During his tenure at the UNDPI, Tharoor reformed the department and undertook a number of initiatives, ranging from organizing and conducting the first-ever UN seminar on Antisemitism, the first-ever UN seminar on Islamophobia after the 11 September attacks, and launching an annual list of "Ten Under-Reported Stories the World Ought to Know about", which was last produced in 2008 by his successor.

On 9 February 2007, Tharoor resigned from the post of Under-Secretary-General and left the UN on 1 April 2007.[20][21][22]

Campaign for UN Secretary-General: 2006

In 2006, the government of India nominated Tharoor for the post of UN Secretary-General.[23] Had he won, the 50-year-old Shashi Tharoor would have become the second-youngest Secretary-General, after the 46-year-old Dag Hammarskjöld.[24] Although all previous Secretary-Generals had come from small countries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan felt that Tharoor's candidacy would demonstrate India's willingness to play a larger role at the United Nations.[25]

Tharoor finished second, behind Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, in each of the four straw polls conducted by the UN Security Council.[26] In the final round, Ban emerged as the only candidate not to be vetoed by one of the permanent members, while Tharoor received one veto from the United States. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton later revealed his instructions from Condoleezza Rice: "We don't want a strong Secretary-General." Tharoor was a protégé of the independently minded Kofi Annan,[27] and a senior American official told Tharoor that the US was determined to have "No more Kofis."[25] After the vote, Tharoor withdrew his candidacy and declined Ban Ki-moon's invitation to remain in service beyond the expiry of his term as Under-Secretary-General.

Post-UN career

External video
"Why nations should pursue soft power", TED talk, November 2009

In February 2007, amidst speculation about his post-UN future, the Indian press reported that Tharoor might be inducted into Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as Minister of State for External Affairs. In the same month, an American gossip blog reported that Tharoor was a finalist for the position of dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles, but he withdrew his name from consideration at the final stage.[28] Instead, Tharoor became chairman of Dubai-based Afras Ventures,[29] which established the Afras Academy for Business Communication (AABC) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, the city in which he would go on to win a record three parliamentary elections. He also spoke around the world about India and Kerala, where he spent increasing amounts of time before moving for good to India in October 2008.

Prior to embarking on his political career, Tharoor also served on the board of overseers of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the board of trustees of the Aspen Institute, and the advisory boards of the Indo-American Arts Council, the American India Foundation, the World Policy Journal, the Virtue Foundation, and the human rights organisation Breakthrough.[30] At the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1976, he founded and was the first chair of the editorial board of The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, a journal examining issues in international relations.[31] Tharoor was an international adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva from 2008 to 2011. He served on the advisory council of the Hague Institute for International Justice[32] and was elected Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities during 1995–96.[33] He also supported various educational causes, including as Patron of GEMS Modern Academy in Dubai.[34]

Political career in India

13th President of India Pranab Mukherjee administering the oath as Minister of State to Shashi Tharoor at a Swearing-in Ceremony, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on 2012.

Tharoor once said that when he began his political career he was approached by the Congress, the Communists, and the BJP. He chose Congress because he felt ideologically comfortable with it.[35] In March 2009 Tharoor contested the Indian General Elections as a candidate for the Congress Party in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. His opponents included P. Ramachandran Nair of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Neelalohitadasan Nadar of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), MP Gangadharan of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and PK Krishna Das of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Despite criticism that he was an "elite outsider",[36] Tharoor won the elections by a margin of 99,989. He was then selected as a Minister of State in the Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. On 28 May 2009, he was sworn in as Minister of State for External Affairs, in charge of Africa, Latin America, and the Gulf, including the Haj pilgrimage, and the Consular, Passports, and Visas services of the Ministry. As Minister of State for External Affairs, he re-established long-dormant diplomatic relationships with African nations, where his fluency in French made him popular with Francophone countries and their heads of state.

13th Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh with Shashi unveiling the commemoration plaque of the offsite Campus of Central University of Kerala at Thiruvananthapuram, in Kerala.

Tharoor was a pioneer in using social media as an instrument of political interaction. He was India's most-followed politician on Twitter until 2013, when he was overtaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Some of his Twitter posts have proved controversial in the past and were highlighted negatively by the opposition and press.

He was also the first Indian minister to visit Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. He reformed the arrangements relating to the conduct of the Haj pilgrimage. He initiated new policy-planning activities on the Indian Ocean and represented India at various global events during his 11-month tenure as minister. In April 2010, he resigned from the position, following allegations that he had misused his office to get shares in the IPL cricket franchise. Tharoor denied the charges and, during his resignation speech in Parliament, called for a full inquiry. In a 2014 rejoinder he defended his position: "I was never involved in a scam of any sort in the IPL- I was brought down because...[I had] antagonised some powerful political cricketing interests" and added that he had "cooperated extensively with the detailed investigation conducted by the Enforcement Directorate into the entire issue", and no wrongdoing had been found.

Between 2010 and 2012 Tharoor remained active in Parliament and was member-convenor of the Parliamentary Forum on Disaster Management, a member of the Standing Committee on External Affairs, of the Consultative Committee of Defence, the Public Accounts Committee, and the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Telecoms. He participated in several important debates of the 15th Lok Sabha, including on the Lokpal Bill, the demand for grants of the Ministry of External Affairs and of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the black money debate, and so on. In the special debate on the 60th anniversary of the Indian Parliament, Tharoor was one of four members of the Congress Party, including party President Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, to be invited to address the Lok Sabha.

In 2012 Tharoor was re-inducted into the Union Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the portfolio of minister of state for HRD. In this role he took special interest in the problems and challenges of adult education, distance education and enhancing high-quality research by academic institutions. He was responsible for the ministry's written answers to Parliament's questions and responded to oral questions on education during the Lok Sabha's Question Hour. He addressed forums and conferences on education, explained a vision of India's educational challenges in the context of the country's demographic opportunities, and stressed that education was not only a socioeconomic issue, but also a national security issue.

As Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor became the first elected representative in India to issue annual reports on his work as MP, including furnishing accounts of his MPLADS expenditure. In 2012 he published a half-term report followed in 2014 by a full-term report.

Shashi Tharoor at a march parade with NSUI President Hibi Eden and other Congress workers in Ernakulam, Kerala.

In May 2014 Tharoor won his re-election from Thiruvananthapuram, defeating O. Rajagopal of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a margin of around 15,700 votes, and became a member of the 16th Lok Sabha, sitting in Opposition. He was named Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs. Shashi Tharoor was dropped from the post of Congress spokesperson on 13 October 2014 after he praised statements of his party's opponent, Prime Minister Modi.[37]

In regards to Tharoor's removal from the post of congress spokesperson, Kolkata's The Telegraph opined, "For an Opposition MP to have and to exercise the freedom to appreciate a good thing done by the government and for a ruling party MP to speak and vote against the party line is not just legitimate parliamentary practice, it is the very essence of parliamentary democracy. Shashi Tharoor, from the ranks of the Congress has tried to do that; there is not one BJP MP who has matched him. Blind conformism is not loyalty, nor independent thinking, dissent."[38]

After the BJP victory of 2014, Tharoor was asked to help the treasury benches draft a statement condemning Pakistan for freeing Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the Lashkar-e-Toiba commander, who masterminded the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. In January 2015, Tharoor asked not to debunk genuine accomplishments of Ancient Indian Science due to exaggerations of the Hindutva brigade,[39][40][41] amid 2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy.[42][43]

In March 2017, Tharoor called for the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata to be converted into a museum on atrocities by the United Kingdom during its rule in India. He wrote in an Al Jazeera column that British Empire "conquered one of the richest countries in the world (27 per cent of global gross domestic product in 1700) and reduced it to, after over two centuries of looting and exploitation, one of the poorest, most diseased and most illiterate countries on Earth by the time they left in 1947. ...Nor is there any memorial to the massacres of the Raj, from Delhi in 1857 to Amritsar in 1919, the deaths of 35 million Indians in totally unnecessary famines caused by British policy."[44]

Although many people wanted him to contest as the Prime Minister candidate in 2019 General Elections, he has disowned, downplayed, and humbly distanced himself from any such online campaigns run by his large number of followers.[45][46]

Tharoor has also tried to introduce a number of Private Members Bills in the Parliament. Notably, his efforts to amend Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code were voted out by the majority of parliamentarians on two occasions. Interestingly, the Apex court of India later ruled in favor of amending the controversial article in 2018, vindicating the views upheld by Tharoor, thereby.[47][48]

Speeches

Tharoor is notable for his eloquence while speaking, as demonstrated by the popularity of his speeches on online platforms[49] such as YouTube. For instance, his speech decrying British Colonialism, delivered at the Oxford Union in 2015, has amassed over 7 million views on one site alone, while simultaneously being praised as ground-breaking in various educational institutions in India. Further speeches such as those explaining the importance of "soft power" and analyzing the impacts of education in India have garnered over one million and two million views respectively.[50][51]

Additionally, Tharoor is known for his views on a number of topics including economics, history, governance, and geopolitics due to both his well-regarded educational attainment and his broad experience while at the United Nations. He is an outspoken supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reformation of the United Nations, arguing that "United Nations needs to open its doors to elected representatives"[52] Many note that it is his combination of wit, charm, wry humor, and intelligence that make him accessible and held in high esteem, both in India and abroad.[53]

Tharoor did a one-off stand up act in Amazon Prime Video series One Mic Stand.[54]

Literary career

Tharoor has written nineteen books in English.[55]

Tharoor has been a columnist in each of India's three best-known English-language newspapers,[56] most recently for The Hindu (2001–2008) and in a weekly column, "Shashi on Sunday," in the Times of India (January 2007 – December 2008). Following his resignation as Minister of State for External Affairs, he began a fortnightly column on foreign policy issues in the Deccan Chronicle. Previously he was a columnist for the Gentleman magazine and the Indian Express newspaper, as well as a frequent contributor to Newsweek International and the International Herald Tribune. His op-eds and book reviews have appeared in the Washington Post,[57] the New York Times[58] and the Los Angeles Times,[59] amongst other papers. His monthly column, "India Reawakening", distributed by Project Syndicate, appears in 80 newspapers around the world.[60]

Tharoor began writing at the age of 6,[61] and his first published story appeared in the Sunday edition of The Free Press Journal, in Mumbai at age 10.[62] His World War II adventure novel Operation Bellows, inspired by the Biggles books, was serialised in the Junior Statesman starting a week before his 11th birthday. Each of his books has been a bestseller in India. The Great Indian Novel had had 43 reprints as of October 2014, and a Silver Jubilee special edition was issued on the book's 25th anniversary in October 2014, by Viking Penguin India.The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone has also undergone several hardback re-prints.[63][64] President Bill Clinton cited Shashi Tharoor's book India From Midnight to the Millennium in his speech to the Indian parliament in 2000.[65]

Tharoor has lectured widely on India,[66] and is often quoted for his observations, including, "India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay."[67] He also coined a comparison of India's "thali" to the American "melting pot": "If America is a melting pot, then to me India is a thali – a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes different, and does not necessarily mix with the next, but they belong together on the same plate, and they complement each other in making the meal a satisfying repast".[68]

Shashi Tharoor's non-fiction work An Era of Darkness, published later in the UK as Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India, arose out of a widely acclaimed speech[69] he made at the Oxford Union, was published in 2016. It has sold over 100,000 copies in hardback reprints and continues to be a bestseller in the country. The UK edition rose to Number 1 in the London Evening Standard bestseller lists. Since then, he has published two other non-fiction books: Why I Am A Hindu (2018) and The Paradoxical Prime Minister (2018), both of which have been published in the Indian subcontinent by Aleph Book Company.[70][71] The two books, both mega-bestsellers in India, raised very important questions. Why I Am a Hindu makes the point that it is precisely because Hindus form the majority that India has survived as a plural, secular democracy, a status that come under threat in the present world. The Paradoxical Prime Minister was a critical study of the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the effect he has had on India, along with other questions about a leader who is reviled and worshipped in equal measure.

Victor Mallet in the Financial Times said Tharoor "wants us to understand the origins of the difficulties that confronted India after 1947", attributing most of that to colonialism.[72] New Statesman said it was especially important to read as sardonic talk of "Empire 2.0" came up post-Brexit.[73] Tharoor has called for Britain to pay reparations to India for the lasting toll that colonial rule exacted on the country.[74]

In September 2019, he published a new book, The Hindu Way: An Introduction, in line with his research into Hindu culture and ways of life of late.[75] His latest book, The New Word Disorder And the Indian Imperative, co-authored with Samir Saran, President of Observer Research Foundation (ORF), one of Asia's most influential think tanks, is a crucial study on the current state of chaos in international politics and identifies India's imminent role, as a non-hegemonic global power, in scripting an equitable ethic for a new international order.[76]

Personal life

Tharoor's first wife was Tilottama Mukherji, a half-Bengali and half-Kashmiri academic,[77] and the granddaughter of politician Kailash Nath Katju.[78] Tharoor and Tilottama had been college sweethearts[79] and were married in 1981. After their marriage, Tilottama took her husband's last name and began teaching English at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic university and also worked as a freelance writer.[80] Their twin sons,[81] Kanishk and Ishaan, were born prematurely in 1984 at the KK Hospital in Singapore.[82][83] Ishaan is a former senior editor at Time magazine, and now writes on foreign affairs for The Washington Post.[84] Kanishk is a former editor at Open Democracy and is the author of the highly praised short story collection Swimmer Among The Stars.[85][86] Tilottama is currently a professor of humanities at New York University.[87]

Following his split with Tilottama, Tharoor married Christa Giles, a Canadian diplomat working at the United Nations in 2007.[88] After their subsequent divorce soon after his return to India, Tharoor married businesswoman Sunanda Pushkar in his ancestral home in Elavanchery village in Kerala's Palakkad district on 22 August 2010. On 17 January 2014, Pushkar (aged 51) died at The Leela Hotel in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, under mysterious circumstances.[89]

Tharoor is a vegetarian and he "abhors the idea of consuming the corpses of animals," although he claimed that he does not have a problem with those who do. He has stated that he is "very proud of being a Hindu" and that he's a "worshipping" and "believing Hindu". Tharoor also claims to have read a "fair amount" of the Upanishads.[90]

In April 2019, Tharoor had an accident when praying during a Thulabharam ritual at a temple in Thiruvananthapuram . After being discharged, he sought a probe by the government into the incident.[91]

Service and Philanthropy

Shashi Tharoor was one of the first nine celebrities nominated in 2014 by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spread awareness regarding cleanliness, hygiene and good sanitation and make Swachh Bharat Mission a people's movement.[92] He responded by cleaning the Vizhinjam port on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram.[93][94]

Honours and awards

Ambassador of Spain to India Gustavo de Aristégui conferring Civilian Honour by Government of Spain on the occasion of the National Day of Spain to Tharoor and Farooq Abdullah.
  • 1976 – Rajika Kripalani Young Journalist Award for the Best Indian Journalist under 30.[95]
  • 1990 – Federation of Indian Publishers' Hindustan Times Literary Award for the Best Book of the Year for The Great Indian Novel.[96]
  • 1991 – Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Best Book of the Year in the Eurasian Region, for The Great Indian Novel[95]
  • 1998 – Excelsior Award for excellence in literature, Association of Indians in America (AIA) and the Network of Indian Professionals (NetIP).[95]
  • 1998 – Global Leader of Tomorrow, World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland[97]
  • 2004 – Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India's highest honour for non-resident Indians (accepted 2007[98])
  • 2009 – Zakir Hussain Memorial "Pride of India" Award.[99]
  • 2009 – Inspiration of the Year Award at GQ's Man of the Year Awards.[100]
  • 2009 – Hakim Khan Sur Award for National Integration, Maharana of Udaipur.[101]
  • 2010 – Sarva Deshiya Prathibha Award, Pazhassiraja Charitable Trust, Kozhikode.[102]
  • 2010 – "New Age Politician of the Year" Award, at NDTV's Indian of the Year awards.[103]
  • 2010 – Fifth IILM Distinguished Global Thinker Award, New Delhi.[104]
  • 2010 – Digital person of the year, Indian Digital Media Awards (IDMA), for popularising the digital medium in India.[105]
  • 2012 –  Spain : Commander of the Order of Charles III by King of Spain
  • 2013 – First Sree Narayan Guru Global Secular and Peace Award at Thiruvananthapuram.
  • 2013 – PETA's "Person of the Year".[106]
  • 2019 – Sahitya Akademi Award for his book, An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India.[107]

Honorary degrees

Bibliography

Fiction

Non-fiction

  • Reasons of State (1985)[113]
  • India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997)[114]
  • Nehru: The Invention of India.[115] Arcade Publishing (2003). New York. First edition. ISBN 9781559706971[116]
  • Bookless in Baghdad (2005)[117]
  • The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India – The Emerging 21st-Century Power (2007)[118]
  • Shadows Across the Playing Field: Sixty Years of India-Pakistan Cricket (2009) (with Shaharyar Khan)[119]
  • Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century (2012)[120]
  • India: the Future is Now (Editor)(2013)
  • India Shastra: Reflections on the Nation in our Time (2015)
  • Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India (2017),[121] first published in India as An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India (2016).[122]
  • Why I Am A Hindu (2018)[123]
  • The Paradoxical Prime Minister (2018)
  • The Hindu Way (2019)
  • The New World Disorder and the Indian Imperative (2020), co-authored with Samir Saran.[124]
  • The Battle of Belonging (2020) [125]

Illustrated books

See also

References

  1. "Detailed Profile: Dr. Shashi Tharoor". Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  2. "Appointment of Shashi Tharoor as Under Secretary General for Communications and Public Information confirmed by Secretary General". United Nations. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  3. Alawadhi, Neha (14 September 2019). "Govt forms IT Standing Committee, names Shashi Tharoor as chairperson". Business Standard. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  4. "All India Professionals Congress – Indian National Congress". Indian National Congress. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  5. "Departmentally Related Standing Committees for External Affairs – Lok Sabha". Lok Sabha. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  6. "Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees (LS)". Rajya Sabha. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  7. Shukla, Saurabh (16 October 2006). "UN top job: Why India's candidate Shashi Tharoor had to drop out of the race". India Today. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  8. "Dr Shashi Tharoor takes Charge in Ministry of Human Resource Development, says Education can Channelise Youth Energy". Press Information Bureau. 2 November 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  9. "The 29-Letter Word That Shashi Tharoor Used To Announce His Book on PM". NDTV.com.
  10. "Hindi not our natural, national language: Shashi Tharoor in The Paradoxical Prime Minister". The Telegraph. Kolkota.
  11. "Why Caste Won't Disappear From India". HuffPost. 8 December 2014.
  12. https://youtube.com/QbkZItEJv6c
  13. "Shashi Tharoor". Old Campionite's Association. 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  14. "Shashi Tharoor". Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  15. "Public Service and Education, S – T". Tufts Alumni. Archived from the original on 23 January 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  16. "Shashi Tharoor's controversial political stint | India News". The Times of India. 18 April 2010. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  17. "Shashi Tharoor". United Nations. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  18. "A look at life after the UN: Shashi Tharoor F'78". Tufts Fletcher School. 25 January 2008. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  19. "Shashi Tharoor biography". United Nations. Archived from the original on 13 April 2012.
  20. "UN Under Secy General Shashi Tharoor resigns". Rediff. 9 February 2007. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  21. "Ten Stories The World Should Hear More About". United Nations. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  22. Gupte, Pranay (9 May 2006). "Shashi Tharoor: Inside Man". The New York Sun. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  23. "India names Shashi Tharoor for UN secy-general's post". The Financial Express. Archived from the original on 7 December 2013.
  24. "Biography – Dag Hammarskjöld". Nobel Foundation.
  25. Tharoor, Shashi (21 October 2016). "The inside Story of How I Lost the Race for the UN Secretary-General's Job in 2006". OPEN Magazine.
  26. "Ban Ki-moon wins". UNSG.org. 2 October 2006. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2006.
  27. Guha, Seema (4 October 2006). "US veto ends Shashi Tharoor's run for top job at the UN". DNA India.
  28. Sternberg, Andy (20 February 2007). "Top 5 Candidates for USC Annenberg Dean". LAist. Archived from the original on 3 April 2007. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  29. Haniffa, Aziz (10 May 2007). "Shashi Tharoor joins the corporate world". Rediff News.
  30. "Shashi Tharoor Biographical note" (PDF). UNESCO. 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  31. "In cooperation with UNU-P&G, United States Institute of Peace, and Cambridge University Press". United Nations University Office at the United Nations. Archived from the original on 9 June 2007. Retrieved 10 May 2007.
  32. "Shashi Tharoor now a member of the THIGJ Advisory Council". The Hague Institute for Global Justice. 17 October 2012.
  33. Ray, Mohit K., ed. (1 September 2007). The Atlantic Companion to Literature in English. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. p. 524. ISBN 9788126908325.
  34. "Shashi Tharoor to be inducted in government?". Daily News and Analysis. 16 February 2007. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  35. "In his Image – The Importance of being Shashi Tharoor". The Telegraph. 14 May 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  36. "Shashi Tharoor – The Elite Outsider". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  37. "Shashi Tharoor removed as Congress spokesperson". India Today. 13 October 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  38. "Silence Is Not Golden- The Importance of being Shashi Tharoor MP". The Telegraph. 4 October 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  39. "Don't Debunk Genuine Accomplishments of Ancient Indian Science, says Shashi Tharoor". NDTV.com.
  40. "Why Indian science scores". The Hindu. 8 June 2003.
  41. "Shashi Tharoor supports Vardhan, says don't debunk ancient science | India News". The Times of India.
  42. "Opinion: Tharoor Explains His Tweets on Ancient Indian Science". NDTV.com.
  43. Rathi, Akshat (1 August 2015). "Separating fact from ancient Indian science fiction". Mint.
  44. "Britain is responsible for deaths of 35 million Indians, says acclaimed author Shashi Tharoor". The Independent. 13 March 2017.
  45. JEHERANIUM (27 February 2018), What If Shashi Tharoor Became Prime Minister of India : Aisa Ho To Kaisa Hoga : JM, retrieved 19 September 2018
  46. "Shashi Tharoor responds to online petition wanting him as UPA PM contender in 2019". The Indian Express. 17 March 2017. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  47. "Bill to decriminalise gay sex rejected". BBC News. 18 December 2015.
  48. "SC verdict on Section 377 – A timeline of the case". The Indian Express. 8 January 2018.
  49. Top Indian Speaker at ISB "Indian Speaker Beureau
  50. "Five lessons we learned about India from Shashi Tharoor's Oxford speech". FirstPost. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  51. "Shashi Tharoor's Scalding Oxford Union Speech Against Colonial Britain". International Business Times. 24 July 2015.
  52. "Statements". Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  53. "India's Best Orators". Outlook India. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  54. Duggal, Deepansh. "Shashi Tharoor | 'One Mic Stand': Shashi Tharoor calls out PM Modi, speaks millennial lingo; his stand-up act becomes a massive hit". The Economic Times. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  55. "About Shashi". Shashi Tharoor. 31 March 2007. Archived from the original on 1 July 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  56. Newspaper Circulation
  57. Tharoor, Shashi (10 October 2012). "Book review: 'Behind the Beautiful Forevers,' by Katherine Boo". The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  58. Tharoor, Shashi (8 August 1997). "Opinion | India's Odd, Enduring Patchwork". The New York Times.
  59. Tharoor, Shashi (24 October 2004). "No great sheiks". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  60. "Shashi Tharoor". Project Syndicate.
  61. "The Shastra of Writing". The Hindu.
  62. "Shashi Tharoor". India Today.
  63. "Shashi Tharoor's The Great Indian novel has completed 25 years in print, the silver jubilee was celebrated over satire & sips". The Telegraph. Kolkota.
  64. "Shashi Tharoor: A ready-reckoner". India Today.
  65. "A man who courts controversy". Gulf News.
  66. Chamberlin, Kyle (10 April 2007). "Former UN diplomat Tharoor to deliver Hesburgh Lectures". University of Notre Dame.
  67. The Great Indian Novel, Viking: London, 1989, p.18.
  68. The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone, Viking: New Delhi, 2007, p.62.
  69. Dr Shashi Tharoor MP - Britain Does Owe Reparations, retrieved 14 April 2020
  70. "Why I am a Hindu". Aleph Book Company. 28 December 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  71. "The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and His India". Aleph Book Company. 22 October 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  72. "Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor – the rapacious Raj". Financial Times. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  73. "Why Brexiteers need to update their reading of colonial history". New Statesman. 17 March 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  74. Stacey, Kiran (22 March 2018). "Shashi Tharoor: the writer who believes Britain should pay colonial reparations". Financial Times. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  75. Tharoor, Shashi. "Does Shashi Tharoor believe in reincarnation and karma? His new book has an answer". Scroll.in. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  76. Tharoor, Shashi; Saran, Samir (1 January 2020). THE NEW WORLD DISORDER AND THE INDIAN IMPERATIVE. Aleph Book Company.
  77. "Shashi Tharoor and his ladies". m.abplive.in. 10 January 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  78. "Shashi Tharoor to marry third time". The Times of India. 13 April 2010. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012.
  79. Ganapathy, Nirmala (21 January 2014). "End of the road for Minister Twitter?". AsiaOne. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  80. "The women in Shashi Tharoor's life". AsiaOne. 21 January 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  81. "Shashi Tharoor's son gets married". 17 August 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  82. Kumar, V.K. Santosh. "KK Hospital saved his premature twins". tabla.com.sg. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  83. "'Welcome to the family, Mother', Tharoor's sons welcome Sunanda Pushkar". Mid-Day.com. 23 August 2010.
  84. "Ishaan Tharoor". Washington Post. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  85. Kanishk, Tharoor. "Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories". Goodreads.
  86. "Ishaan Tharoor". Time.
  87. "Tharoor & the tale of ex and estranged spouses, Neha Tara Mehta". India Today. 14 April 2010.
  88. "Shashi Tharoor". Ekikrat. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
  89. "Sunanda Pushkar died an unnatural sudden death say AIIMS doctors; body cremated". Hindustan Times. 18 January 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  90. Ramesh, M. (8 February 2016). "I am very proud of being a Hindu". Business Line. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  91. "Out of hospital, Shashi Tharoor seeks probe into temple accident". Hindustan Times. 16 April 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  92. "PM launches Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan". 2 October 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  93. "Swachh Bharat: PM Modi ropes in celebrities for his 'Swachh Bharat' challenge | India News - Times of India". The Times of India. 2 October 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  94. "Tharoor joins PM's 'Swachh Bharat' campaign". Hindustan Times. 25 October 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  95. Rajan, Gita (2003). Sanga, Jaina C. (ed.). South Asian Novelists in English: An A-To-Z Guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 308. ISBN 0-313-31885-9.
  96. "Shashi Tharoor". India's first election website.
  97. "Appointment of Shashi Tharoor as under-secretary-general for communications and public information confirmed by secretary-general". United Nations.
  98. "Tharoor honoured with Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award". Hindustan Times. 9 May 2007. Retrieved 10 May 2007.
  99. "Shashi Tharoor biographical note" (PDF). UNESCO.
  100. "Gallery: GQ India's Men of the Year Awards 2009". GQ. CNN. 11 October 2009. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  101. "Dr. Shashi Tharoor". Meridian news.
  102. "Pazhassi awards announced". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 1 December 2009.
  103. "Shashi Tharoor". The Times of India. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  104. "Dr Shashi Tharoor receives the Fifth IILM Distinguished Global Thinker Award, 2010". India PR Wire.
  105. "IDMA 2010: G2 Direct & Digital, Tata Tea, Anil Ambani, Shashi Tharoor among host of winners". exchange4media Mumbai Bureau.
  106. "Shashi Tharoor PETA's 'person of the year'". The Economic Times. 27 December 2013.
  107. https://www.indiatoday.in/lifestyle/people/story/shashi-tharoor-wins-sahitya-akademi-award-2019-for-an-era-of-darkness-1629374-2019-12-18
  108. "MP Track: Shashi Tharoor". PRS Legislative Research. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  109. Tharoor, Shashi (1993). The Great Indian Novel. Arcade Publishing. p. 423. ISBN 1-55970-194-3.
  110. Tharoor, Shashi (1993). The Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories. Arcade Pub. p. 175. ISBN 1-55970-225-7.
  111. Tharoor, Shashi (18 April 2011). Show Business. Skyhorse Publishing Inc. p. 320. ISBN 978-1-61145-407-9.
  112. Tharoor, Shashi (2001). Riot. Arcade Publishing. p. 272. ISBN 1-55970-605-8.
  113. Tharoor, Shashi (1982). Reasons of state: political development and India's foreign policy under Indira Gandhi. Vikas Pub. House. p. 438. ISBN 0-7069-1275-6.
  114. Tharoor, Shashi (2006). India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond. Arcade Publishing. p. 420. ISBN 1-55970-803-4.
  115. https://archive.org/details/nehruinventionof00thar
  116. Tharoor, Shashi (2003). Nehru: The Invention of India. Arcade Publishing. p. 282. ISBN 1-55970-697-X.
  117. Tharoor, Shashi (April 2012). Bookless in Baghdad: Reflections on Writing and Writers. Skyhorse Publishing Inc. p. 288. ISBN 978-1-61145-408-6.
  118. Tharoor, Shashi (2007). The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India – The Emerging 21st-Century Power. W W Norton & Company Incorporated. p. 512. ISBN 978-1-61145-393-5.
  119. Tharoor, Shaharyar Mohammed Khan, Shashi (2009). Shadows Across the Playing Field: 60 Years of India-Pakistan Cricket. Roli Books. p. 189. ISBN 978-81-7436-718-1.
  120. Tharoor, Shashi (2012). Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century. Penguin Books India. p. 456. ISBN 9780670085743.
  121. Singh, kanwal (3 March 2017). "New release: Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor".
  122. Sheikh, Aminah (23 October 2016). "New release: An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India by Shashi Tharoor".
  123. "Why I am a Hindu". 28 December 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  124. Haidar, Suhasini (25 February 2020). "Book review: The New World Disorder and the Indian Imperative by Shashi Tharoor and Samir Saran". The Hindu.
  125. Ayoob, Mohammed (8 November 2020). "'The Battle of Belonging' review: 'Idea of India' in peril". thehindu.com. The Hindu. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  126. Tharoor, Maqbul Fida Husain, Shashi (January 2003). Kerala, God's own country. Books Today. p. 57. ISBN 81-87478-43-8.
Lok Sabha
Preceded by
Pannyan Raveendran
Member of Parliament
for Thiruvananthapuram

2009
Incumbent
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Not sure
Under Secretary General of the United Nations for Communications and Public Information
2001–2007
Succeeded by
Kiyotaka Akasaka
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.