OUR VICE CHANCELLOR

Our Vice Chancellor 

One of India’s most distinguished editors in recent decades, Shri Om Thanvi is the Vice Chancellor of Haridev Joshi University of Journalism and Mass Communication (HJU). A multi-faceted personality and a man of varied interests, Shri Thanvi did his Masters in Commerce (Business Administration) and started his career as a freelance journalist in the desert town of Bikaner in 1978. He soon joined the reputed Rajasthan Patrika Group at Jaipur in 1980 where he worked for about a decade editing its weekly ‘Itwari Patrika’ and the daily Bikaner edition of Rajasthan Patrika.

 

Shri Thanvi joined the Indian Express Group of newspapers in 1989 to edit the daily ‘Jansatta’ at Chandigarh. Later, he took charge of the paper in Delhi in 1999 and edited it for the next 16 years. As is well-known, ‘Jansatta’, founded by the renowned editor Prabhash Joshi, set high standards of ethics, language and style with it's social, political and cultural concerns. 

 

Besides writing and commenting extensively on current issues, Shri Thanvi has taught journalism at the Centre for Media Studies in Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi for a brief stint. He has keen interest in history and anthropology and has been writing from time to time on cinema, painting, architecture and language. He is a fellow of the Raza Foundation and is known for his social and cultural concerns besides being personally engaged in theatre, literature and environmental activities.

As a leading intellectual of the country, Shri Thanvi has been delivering lectures at different universities on Journalism, Arts, Environment and other subjects. Among the numerous universities where he has delivered lectures are JNU, New Delhi, Delhi University, Delhi, Makhanlal Chaturvedi University of Journalism and Communication, Bhopal, Kushabhau Thakre University of Journalism and Mass Communication, Raipur, Central University of Rajasthan, Ajmer, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, Tokyo University, Tokyo and the Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, New York. 

Shri Thanvi has also attended the Editors’ Conference organized by World Editors Forum and World Association of Newspapers at Hyderabad, Conference on Media, Public Interest and Issues of Regulation organized jointly by Asian College of Journalism, Panos South Asia and British Deputy High Commission in Chennai, Editors’ conferences organised by Panos South Asia at Nagarkot (Nepal), Bellagio (Italy), Istanbul and Brussels. He was also a leading voice at the South Asia Free Media Association conferences in Delhi, Dhaka, Kabul, Colombo, Kathmandu and Lahore. 

 

In other areas, Shri Thanvi has participated as a media person in numerous conferences on media, environment and arts at different reputed institutions. He covered United Nation’s first conference on environmental degradation, called Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992.  Later, he also attended other UN Climate Change and other conferences held at Copenhagen, Cancun, Durban, Doha, Qatar, Warsaw, Lima,  Tunis, Addis Ababa, Paris, Marrakech, Morocco, Bonn, Katowice etc. In social and cultural fields, his prominent participation has been in Social Change conferences organized by the World Social Forum in India and Europe. He has also actively participated in organisational capacity in World Hindi Conferences held in Bhopal, New York and Paramaribo, Surinam and a Cultural conference held in Havana, Cuba.

 

Besides his editorial experience and insightful journalism, Shri Thanvi has travelled extensively and has written a number of travelogues. His travelogue  Muanjodaro on the Indus Valley's great centre Mohen-jo-daro, now in Pakistan, has attracted wide literary acclaim. He also edited two volumes of memoirs on one of the doyens of Hindi literature and eminent editor, S.H.Vatsyayan 'Agyeya', on his birth centenary. 

The Vice Chancellor of HJU is the winner of the prestigious Shamsher Samman for his travelogue Muanjodaro, along with the SAARC Literary Award and Bihari Samman. Shri Thanvi was also awarded the Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Puraskar for his contribution to Hindi journalism by the President of India. Among several other awards, Shri Thanvi has also been a recipient of the Haldighati Award and the Madhavrao Sapre National Journalism Award. 

 

Shri Thanvi has been a member of the National Integration Council, headed by Prime Minister of India, the Secretary General of Editors Guild of India, the Vice President of South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) apart from being on the board of several social organisations and prominent journalism universities.