Kuldip Nayar, who has died aged 95, was one of the last of a generation of remarkable Indian journalists who started their careers just after the partition of the sub-continent. As editor of the Indian Express, and then through his syndicated columns, which were published in 14 languages in about 80 papers, Kuldip was a courageous spokesperson for press freedom as well as an important promoter of India’s secular tradition.
He earned his reputation for courage in the 1970s when he was jailed for opposing the state of emergency declared by the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi.
He also spoke out against the current Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) policies of Narendra Modi’s government and what he saw as the “soft Hindutva” of today’s Indian media. The day after he died, an article he had just written was published, saying: “It is paramount that the centre [central government] should concentrate more on good governance rather than imposing its Hindutva policies.”
He worked throughout his life to improve relations between Pakistan and India, and established the vigil that is still held on the Wagah-Attari border near Amritsar at midnight on 14/15 August, the hour that marks the end of Pakistan’s independence day (and Kuldip’s birthday) and the beginning of India’s.
Kuldip was born in the Punjab city of Sialkot, which is now in Pakistan, the son of Puran Devi and Gurbaksh Singh, a doctor who, Kuldip said, “blended the traditions of Sikhism and Hinduism”. Kuldip studied at Forman Christian College then the Law College in Lahore, obtaining a law degree. When violence broke out at partition in 1947, the family migrated to India. Kuldip, who had dropped the Singh from his name, settled in Delhi.
He began his career on an Urdu newspaper, Anjam, in 1948. Although he loved the language and its poetry he was told there was no future in Urdu journalism because it was now the national language of Pakistan. So, to work in English, in 1952 he joined the United States Information Services, which enabled him to go to the US and earn a degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.
He then joined the Indian Information Service, where he became spokesman for the home minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who went on to be the second prime minister of India. Kuldip’s close association with Shastri and other members of the cabinet was an invaluable education in politics, which made him one of the best informed journalists when he joined UNI (United News of India), India’s second news agency.
He was first with the news that Shastri had died at Tashkent, the day after signing the 1966 peace agreement with the president of Pakistan, Mohammad Ayub Khan, after the 1965 war between the two countries.
In 1977 Kuldip broke the news that Indira Gandhi intended to call an early election, following her 1975 declaration of a draconian state of emergency, suspending fundamental rights and censoring the press. It was widely believed that Gandhi intended to retain the emergency much longer. The head of the government’s information service knew nothing of the election and threatened to arrest Kuldip if he did not withdraw the story. He would not, and Gandhi did call the election.
By then Kuldip had already been editor of the Delhi edition of the Statesman and had moved on to edit the Indian Express. Most editors and journalists accepted censorship without protest but Kuldip persuaded about 100 journalists to sign a protest and send it to Gandhi. He spent three months in jail as a result and was released only because the government learned that the judge hearing his appeal was likely to find in his favour.
Gandhi was defeated in the election she called but before long, in 1980, she returned to power. The owner of the Indian Express who had supported his editor during the emergency asked Kuldip to mend fences with her. He refused and resigned.
That was the beginning of his long career as a freelance journalist and columnist. He used to say he was thankful to the owner of the Indian Express because he made much more money syndicating his weekly column, Between the Lines, throughout south Asia. In addition to his journalism he wrote 15 books, including a lengthy autobiography, Beyond the Lines (2012), which took him 22 years to write.
Kuldip was close to many secular politicians but he never allowed them to influence his journalism. In the 1990s he was appointed high commissioner in London for a short time, and was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, for one term in 1997.
Establishing peaceful relations between India and Pakistan was one of Kuldip’s life-long ambitions, never giving up hope no matter how low relations between the two countries sank. He took part in backchannel negotiations, and retained contact with many leading Pakistanis as well as establishing the candlelit border vigil.
Kuldip was much admired for his courage and commitment and much liked for his openness and friendliness. He was a popular editor. Until the end of his life he had regular lunches with his former colleagues from the Indian Express. He became the father of the journalist community. They turned to him to lead the campaign against a stringent defamation law seen as limiting media freedom in the 80s. Recently, when tax officials were threatening Prannoy Roy, the founder of the most independent television channel, NDTV, journalists again asked Kuldip for his support, which he gave.
In 2015, he was honoured with one of Indian journalism’s most prestigious awards, the Ramnath Goenka lifetime achievement award.
Kuldip is survived by his wife Bharti, whom he married in 1949, two sons, Sudhir and Rajiv, three grandchildren, Kanika, Mandira and Kartik, and three great-grandchildren.
• Kuldip Nayar, journalist, author and politician, born 14 August 1923; died 23 August 2018
