Gentleman of the Indian Press

"Kuldip Nayar was an intellectual giant of our times. Frank and fearless in his views, his work spanned across many decades. His strong stand against the Emergency, public service and commitment to a better India will always be remembered." - Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The journalist who never gave in; Image Source: WikiBio

We live in a country where journalists are looked down upon as carriers of fake news. This reputation has been built up only recently when more and more people have begun releasing media personnel tend to add in their own biases. What’s real cannot be differentiated from what’s unreal anymore.

Long before such a time came Kuldip Nayar, a man who didn’t even fear going to jail just to state the truth, was a journalist. Most remember him for his reporting during the Emergency period and how he was hurled away to jail right after. But, there’s more to the life of this legend.

Sialkot in Punjab saw the birth of this personality on August 14th, 1923. Growing up, Journalism was not always his passion. Only after he pursued his B.A. (Hons) and B.A. LLB, he went on to study journalism at Northwestern University. A passionate speaker and fired-up youth, Kuldip returned to India and implemented his learnings here.

In the field of journalism, he had a glorious career as an Urdu and English reporter. Kuldip had only worked with the best like The Statesman, Deccan Herald, The Daily Star, The Sunday Guardian, The News, The Express Tribune, and many more. He was extremely well known for his expert and unbiased journalism.

However, his role as a political commentator and an author is undeniably superior as well. Kuldip was the one who extensively covered the movement started by Anna Hazare and rebuked the Pakistani government for allowing the easy smuggling of drugs.  Although not completely clean of being involved in Anti-Indian conspiracies, he was still a source of much inspiration compared to the journalists today.

As a peacenik, Kuldip believed in the ideology of Indo-Pak unity, He felt that both the countries could only progress if they let the other to. For the rest of his life, he advocated for this cause. A Pakistani Politician who migrated in 1947 from India, also aggravated his cause for a while.

Apart from this, he had been working to free Indian prisoners in Pakistan and Pakistani prisoners in India, who had completed their sentences but had not been set free yet. For this Kuldip encouraged the lighting of candles across the border. 10 days before his demise, he marched to Delhi in order to establish Indo-Pak peace. This was, unfortunately, his last public appearance.

Around 12:30 AM on a bitter day in 2018, Kuldip Nayar succumbed to pneumonia. However, he did live a fruitful life till the age of 95. He’s the epitome of the journalism standards India withheld, once upon a time.