Teesta Setalvad Biography 
Teesta Setalvad is a journalist, activist and educationist. Teesta was born in 1962 as the daughter of Atul Setalvad, a Mumbai based lawyer. India's first Attorney General Motilal Chimanlal Setalvad was her grandfather and noted lawyer Sir Chimanlal Harilal Setalvad was her great grandfather. Her mother’s name is Sita Setalvad. She is married to noted journalist, and civil rights activist Javed Anand and the couple has two children. Indian government honoured her with Padma Shri in 2007 for "Public Affairs in Maharashtra". She is a social activist and has received numerous honours and awards for her social service.
Teesta graduated with a degree in Philosophy from Bombay University in 1983. After that she started her career as a journalist. She worked with The Daily (India) and The Indian Express newspapers, and then for Business India magazine in Mumbai. She got married to the journalist Javed Anand and the couple resigned their regular jobs to start Communalism Combat an advocacy magazine. They engaged with legal advocacy along with journalism. The couple were among the co-founders of Citizens for Justice and Peace, the NGO set up on on April 1, 2002. Alyque Padamsee, Anil Dharker, Father Cedric Prakash, Javed Akhtar, Rahul Bose and Vijay Tendulkar were other leading names. This NGO was instrumental in landmark judgment of "Best Bakery case" to be shifted to Maharashtra and that it be re-investigated.
Teesta testified at the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom on June 10, 2002 against the BJP-led Gujarat government's role in the post-Godhra communal violence. She is one of the founding members of ‘Journalists Against Communalism’. She is also an educationalist who leads the project “Khoj: Education for A pluralistic India”.
Published: N/A
Updated: February 17, 2014
