Riot After Riot

M.J. Akbar, one of India’s finest editors and the author of four books, was born in January 1951. An Indian Muslim, his father Sheikh Akbar Ali was from Bihar, while his mother, Imtiaz, was a Kashmiri. He studied at St Joseph’s Convent, Chandannagar and the Calcutta Boys’ School before graduating from the Presidency College, Kolkata. He joined The Times of India Group, and then The Illustrated Weekly of India in 1971 where he worked as sub-editor and features writer. Five years later, he moved to the Ananda Bazaar Patrika Group and launched a weekly newsmagazine, Sunday, which soon established itself as a leading journal of the country. In 1982, Akbar conceived, designed and edited The Telegraph, India’s most successful newspaper in the past few decades. He took a short break from journalism when he joined politics in 1989 and was elected to parliament. In 1994, Akbar launched The Asian Age, India’s first international newspaper. His books include India: The Siege Within, Nehru: The Making of India, The Shade of Swords: Jihad and the Conflict between Islam and Christianity, and Kashmir: Behind the Vale.