M. J. Akbar Biography 
Mobashar Jawed Akbar, shortly called M. J. Akbar is a noted Indian writer and journalist. Till October 2012, he served as the Editorial Director of India Today, India's leading weekly English news magazine. He launched "The Sunday Guardian", a weekly newspaper in 2010, where he serves as Editor-in-chief. He is also the founder and former editor-in-chief and managing director of ‘The Asian Age’. He has also served as the editor-in-chief of The Deccan Chronicle and has been associated with English news channel, Headlines Today. He has also authored many non-fiction books. A biography of Jawaharlal Nehru titled Nehru: The Making of India; Kashmir: Behind the Vale, Riot after Riot and India: The Siege Within; Byline and The Shade of Swords, a cohesive history of jihad are his noted works. "Tinderbox: The past and future of Pakistan" and ‘Blood Brothers” are his latest published books.
He was born on 11 January 1951. His grandfather was actually a Hindu who got converted to Islam and changed his name to Rehmatullah and married a Muslim girl. Akbar studied at Boy’s School, Kolkata and completed graduation from Presidency College. He completed graduation in English in the year 1970. He joined ‘The Times of India’ in 1971 as a trainee and later worked as a journalist and editor in various journals like - The Illustrated Weekly of India, Onlooker and Ananda Bazar Patrika. He worked as the editor of ‘Sunday’, a political weekly till 1982.
In 1982, after the success of The Sunday, Akbar launched India's first modern newspaper - The Telegraph. He conceived, designed and remained its editor also. This daily made a huge impact on Indian readers. In the late 1980’s, he had a brief stint in Indian politics though not successful. He served as Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's official spokesman and in 1991 Akbar joined the Government as an advisor in the Ministry of Human Resources. However he quit politics the following year and returned back to journalism and it was a big success indeed. Akbar is married to Mallika Joseph, his contemporary at ‘The Times of India’.
Published: N/A
Updated: March 07, 2014
