The Dismantling of India
TJS George with Sashi Kumar
TJS George
Bio
In October 1947, two months after Independence, T.J.S. George arrived in Bombay. He was nineteen years old, with a degree in English Literature. He sent out job applications-to the Air Force and to the city’s English-language newspapers. Only one organization cared to reply, the Free Press Journal. The editor was known to hire anyone who asked for a job, but most new hires were sacked in a fortnight. George was put on the news desk as a sub-editor and eventually became an assistant editor.
In Patna, as editor of The Searchlight, he was arrested by the chief minister for sedition. He spent three weeks in Hazaribagh Central Jail. In Hong Kong, he worked for the Far Eastern Economic Review as regional editor, in New York he was a writer for the United Nations population division; and, back in Hong Kong, in 1975, he founded Asiaweek. Six years later, he returned to India and settled in Bangalore. He began a column for the Indian Express that ran without a break for twenty-five years, until 2022.
Acclaimed for his widely historical, pan- Asian vision, George brings this far-flung experience to a compulsively readable new book, The Dismantling of India. It is the story of India told in 35 concise biographies, beginning with J.R.D. Tata and ending with Narendra Modi.
Sashi Kumar
Bio
Sashi Kumar is a print and broadcast journalist, filmmaker and media entrepreneur.
He founded andchairs the Media Development Foundation which administers the Asian College of Journalism.
He was among the earliest Newscasters in English on national television, Doordarshan, Middle East Correspondent of The Hindu and news anchor on Radio Bahrain in the 1980s.
He has anchored and produced numerous studio shows, documentaries and news features for national television in India.
In 1992 he founded and launched Asianet, India’s first satellite TV channel in a regional language (Malayalam), and the country’s first statewide cable TV network in Kerala.
In 2004 he scripted and directed ‘Kaya Taran’ an award winning Hindi feature film based on the 1984 anti- Sikh riots and the 2002 Gujarat riots. He has acted in a few Malayalam feature films.
His latest media venture, Asiaville Interactive launched in 2019 is a startup to “reimagine journalism” for the millennial generation and includes multimedia digital portals in Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam.
He is a regular commentator on topical issues, particularly relating to the media, and contributed a regular column titled ‘Unmediated’ in Frontline, which is also the title of the book comprising his essays and articles published by Tulika Books in 2013.
He has been conferred many awards for his work in the media.