On April 10, 1965, a boy was born in New York City, USA. His father, Muthusamy Varadarajan, was a distinguished officer of the Indian Administrative Service, and his mother, Usha, was the pillar of the family. The boy’s name was Siddharth Varadarajan. Because of his father’s frequent transfers, his childhood was spent across many cities, from La Martiniere School in Lucknow to Mayo College in Ajmer. But this wandering gave him a priceless gift: a deep, intimate understanding of India’s diverse society, its sorrows, and its richness.
In 1978, Siddharth arrived in England and enrolled at Brockley County State School. Thereafter, the London School of Economics transformed the direction of his life. While studying economics in those classrooms, he came to know that it was at this very institution that Dr. B. R. Ambedkar had once studied. When that awareness struck him, he picked up Ambedkar’s writings, and as he turned each page, the person within him slowly began to change. He began to feel the pain of hundreds of millions of people crushed in the iron grip of the caste system, and within him arose a deep, ever-deepening compassion for the oppressed—a pull that remained with him for the rest of his life. He later completed his postgraduate studies at Columbia University and returned to India as a mature, thoughtful man.
The moment he set foot in India, what he witnessed was heart-wrenching. After the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, rivers of Sikh blood flowed through the lanes and bylanes of Delhi. Innocent people were burned and killed simply because of their faith. Witnessing this, the journalist within Siddharth awoke permanently. Alongside senior journalist Praful Bidwai, he wielded his pen relentlessly against casteism and communalism, against sectarian politics, and against the nuclear arms race. What he wrote in the pages of Frontline and The Times of India was not merely news—it was the anguish of a conscious citizen for his country.
In time, he was entrusted with the editorship of The Hindu, one of India’s most respected English dailies. In that role, he did not yield to political pressure, nor did he bend his pen at the direction of advertisers. During this period, in 2003, he authored Gujarat: The Making of a Tragedy, published by Penguin India. This documented, evidence-based account of the 2002 Gujarat riots challenged those in power and resisted attempts to erase the events from public memory. Later, in Non-Alignment 2.0: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the 21st Century, also published by Penguin, he contributed to a framework for India’s foreign policy that continues to be discussed.
The world took note of his journalism. In March 2006, Chile conferred upon him its highest civilian honour, the Bernardo O’Higgins Order. In November 2005, the United Nations Correspondents Association honoured him with the Silver Medal Memorial Award. In India, he received the Ramnath Goenka Award in 2010, and in 2017, the Soren Stein Journalism Award for contributions to independent journalism in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2009, he became media adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In 2007, he served as a visiting professor at the UC Berkeley School of Journalism, and in 2009 as a Poynter Fellow at Yale University, where he engaged with students of journalism.
Varadarajan’s most significant institutional contribution came in 2015. At a time when concerns were being raised about corporate influence in the media, he, along with Siddharth Bhatia and M. K. Venu, launched The Wire, a digital news platform. Established without backing from major industrial houses or political parties, it sought to provide independent journalism. Over time, The Wire has emerged as a widely read digital platform, carrying reports on a range of social and political issues, including those affecting marginalized communities.
His career has also involved controversy and legal challenges. In 2014, after critical writing on Narendra Modi, an incident involving a person working at his home was reported as a warning. In April 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, he posted a tweet about Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath that contained an incorrect quotation; he later issued a clarification. Subsequently, FIRs were filed in Faizabad under Sections 505(2) and 188 of the Indian Penal Code, prompting responses from journalist bodies.
Further legal scrutiny followed in 2025. After the Pahalgam attack and heightened India-Pakistan tensions, The Wire published a report based on remarks attributed to India’s defence attaché in Indonesia regarding aircraft losses. A complaint led to an FIR by Assam Police in Morigaon on July 11, 2025, while an earlier case had been registered on May 9 by the Guwahati Crime Branch concerning multiple reports on the conflict.
On August 12, 2025, the Supreme Court, in a bench comprising Justices Suryakant and Joymalya Bagchi, granted interim protection from arrest to Varadarajan and other journalists of The Wire. On the same day, Assam Police issued fresh summons to Varadarajan and senior journalist Karan Thapar to appear in Guwahati, without providing full details of the allegations. On August 22, the Supreme Court extended protection in the second case and adjourned the matter. International and domestic press bodies, including the International Press Institute, the Press Club of India, Reporters Without Borders, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, expressed concern over these developments.
Looking at the life of Siddharth Varadarajan, one consistent feature stands out: he has maintained a distance from centres of power and focused on issues he considers significant. From New York to London, and from London to Delhi, his journey reflects an engagement with questions of justice, policy, and public accountability. Legal challenges, criticism, and pressure have been part of this trajectory, but his work in journalism has continued across platforms, particularly through The Wire, where he remains a prominent editorial voice.
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*Independent writer
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