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‘Panikkar was ambitious, brave and tried it all — a real Renaissance man’

Born in Travancore in 1895, Kavalam Madhava Panikkar was the first editor of the Hindustan Times

Updated on: Jul 19, 2025, 07:39:38 IST
By Somya Lakhani
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Born in Travancore in 1895, Kavalam Madhava Panikkar was the first editor of the Hindustan Times. In an interview with Somya Lakhani, Narayani Basu, the author of the recent book, A Man For All Seasons: The Life Of K.M. Panikkar, sheds light on the academic, politician, diplomat, author and administrator. Edited excerpts:

PREMIUMKM Panikkar (right) with Mao Zedong when he was Indian Ambassador to China, in Beijing. (HT Archives)
KM Panikkar (right) with Mao Zedong when he was Indian Ambassador to China, in Beijing. (HT Archives)

Tell us about KM Panikkar’s journey as he became the first editor of HT in 1924.

In 1924, a 30-year-old Panikkar landed up in Bombay to check

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Somya Lakhani

Somya Lakhani is the Metro Editor at Hindustan Times based in New Delhi, with over a decade of experience reporting on crime, gender, labour, politics, and heritage. She heads a team of reporters who cover governance, law and order, the environment, civic agencies, culture, and education, while also leading coverage of some of India's most significant public-interest stories. She started her career at The Indian Express in 2010, where she worked till 2021. She began her career as a features writer before switching to crime reporting. After that, she joined online news portal The Quint as the Current Affairs Editor and headed a team of reporters who worked on long format stories, videos, and immersives. In 2023, she returned to the print newsroom and joined Hindustan Times, where she co-wrote a coffee table book on the history of the newspaper as the voice of the nation for its centennial celebrations. In January 2025, she started her stint as HT’s Metro Editor. She studied history at Delhi University’s Miranda House, and then completed a diploma in journalism from Indian Express’s Express Institute of Media Studies (EXIMS) in 2010.

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