Madhav Das Nalapat

Madhav Das Nalapat (b. 1950) is the UNESCO Peace Chair at Manipal University, and Director of the Department of Geopolitics & International Relations. Nalapat has written columns for the Pakistan Observer, United Press International, China Daily, The Diplomat, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Economic and Political Weekly, and Rediff.

Nalapat's family heritage is literary, his maternal grandfather VM Nair was Chairman of The Press Trust of India (7). His paternal grandfather Subramania Iyer edited the Malabar Quaterly Review (8); Aubrey Menen (9), the Irish-Malayali satirist, critic and novelist, and Nalapat Narayana Menon (10) the philosopher and founder of Rationalism in Kerala were his great uncles. Poetess Laureate of Kerala Balamani Amma was his grandmother He is the eldest of three sons to Kamala and Kalipurayeth Madhav Das. His mother, the poet and writer Kamala Das (11) was also known as Madhavikutty, and Kamala Surayya after her conversion to Islam (24). K. Madhav Das was Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India, and helped plan India's agriculture reforms in 1960 (21a-21b). Nalapat is married to Lakshmi Bayi (12), Princess XII of Travancore, the erstwhile princely state that encompassed parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu until 1948, the year after independence when Travancore formally became part of the Republic of India.

Nalapat was educated at Campion School,Bombay, St Thomas Boys School, Calcutta, Frank Anthony Public School Delhi and Bombay University (where he won the Gold Medal in Economics. He began his teaching career as fellow of the Centre for Political Research in 1974, which was set up in Kerala for the purpose of training politicians to be better able to meet the aspirations of their constituents. In 1977 he was appointed to the Board of the Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Company Limited and the next year, he moved to business management, taking over as Executive Director of the Mathrubhumi , where he implemented the Thiruvananthapuram edition project in the record time of twenty-seven months. The Malayalam word "Mathrubhumi" translates to "mother land" in English. The newspaper was founded as part of the freedom movement In 1984 he switched to the editorial side, taking over as Editor of the Mathrubhumi Daily and the Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly. Between 1984-1988 ABC figures showed the exponential growth of circulation. As Editor, he gave prominence to the war against corruption and against social injustices such as discrimination on the basis of caste and against women, as well as the socially disadvantaged.These themes have been consistent ever in his writings. In 1989 Nalapat switched from Malayalam to English language journalism when he joined as resident Editor of The Times of India in Bangalore, in 1994 he was transferred to Delhi to become the Resident Editor, and during his tenure, circulation again increased exponentially.He later became Chief of Bureau and thereafter Coordinating Editor and briefly Editor of the newspaper In 1998 Nalapat switched from media to academia at Manipal University, when Dr Ramdas Pai was Chancellor and Dr M S Valiathan the Vice-Chancellor (13), later establishing the department of Geopolitics and International Relations, where he still teaches. In 1999 Nalapat published Indutva (15), sometimes called the workbook of a secular Nationalist, his theory that Indians are a composite of all the cultures in the history of India and share a common cultural DNA, that if differences are accepted and faiths are different but equal, a pragmatic way out of poverty into social harmony can be achieved. Promoting pathways to religious tolerance and societal progress are still key themes in his work. He has written 7 books, the latest in 2014 being The Practice of Geopolitics which contains his writings over the years on various important themes of International Relations (16). Prof. MD Nalapat has worked exhaustively for the betterment of India-US relations recognizing the importance of a robust partnership between the US and India in matters of global strategy and security. Nalapat was the first to define the Indo-Pacific as stretching from the Horn of Africa, to Vladivostok, Alaska and Chile. In 2001 and again in 2003 he pitched a concept in Washington for an Asian NATO (17) that has since evolved into the Quadrilateral Alliance. In 2020 he introduced the concept of The Indo-Pacific Charter to protect democracy and preserve peace in the Indo Pacific region. Since 1980's Nalapat worked to improve Sino-Indian relations (20), visiting the country, lecturing and writing in Chinese publications and talking on CGTN, repeatedly pointing to the complementarities between India and China. He has several times warned against allowing the PLA to set policy towards India, given its linkages with the military in Pakistan

He has fostered India Taiwan ties in the interests of scientific and economic cooperation. In 1992 Nalapat was among the few who advised Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao to set up representative offices in Delhi and Taipei. Also in 1992, Nalapat argued for the full recognition of Israel by opening of embassies in each other's capital. In 2003, together with JINSA, Nalapat organised the first ever India-Israel-US trilateral dialogue in New Delhi.

In 1999 Nalapat was appointed UNESCO Peace Chair (1) at Manipal University for higher education to promote an integrated system of research, training, information and documentation activities in the field of peace, human rights, democracy, tolerance, non-violence and international understanding. Nalapat's writing has been published on four continents. His analysis stretches from Europe, to the Indian Ocean, to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; he is known for his advocacy of free speech and freedom of press, transparency of governance and bureaucracy, defence of democracy and creating a 21st education policy and systems in India that include India's entire recorded civilisational history. MDN has been the President of the International Interfaith Dialogue India (15). His vision for a stable world is reflected in his peacebuilding efforts, some examples being associations with concepts such as BRICS, RIC, the Quadrilateral Alliance and the modern Anglosphere, Apart from other work, he has played a key role in the literacy movement in Kerala, as the first honorary coordinator of the Kerala Association for Non-formal Education and Development. He was also the honorary secretary of the Kerala Children's Film Society, which screened educational films for children. He was active in environmental issues as honorary secretary of the Kerala Forestry Board. Recently Nalapat has been actively associated with those working for "Swachh Bharat" (Clean India). He has been active, in helping set up Water ATMs, where for a rupee a litre of drinking water can be accessed by the citizen. To take recent examples, Nalapat has also given talks at literary festivals and at India Narrative - Sangam - M.A.S.T. - Foreign Correspondents Club Hong Kong - National Maritime Foundation - Rotary Club Bombay and the Indian Institure of Mass Communication.