Gauri Shankar Kalita

Who was Gauri Shankar Kalita?

Gauri Shankar Kalita was an Indian journalist.

Kalita was one of the most popular journalists in the north-eastern state of Assam. Born in a kshatriya family, he graduated from the Cotton College of Guwahati.

In his youth he studied Marxism and in 1978 was the only Indian representative at the International Youth Conference in Ulaanbaatar, with his speech broadcast on Soviet television.

An expert on Assame, and of north-east Indian problems, his mother tongue was Assamese though he had a deep knowledge of English. Kalita worked for one of the main daily newspapers of the north-eastern region, The Sentinel, where he started his career, and was the editor of the Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya editions. He also was the Editor of The North East Times and of the main Assamese-language newspaper Janasadharan.

He died in Guwahati on 9 June 2010 after a cardiac arrest.

Tarun Kumar Gogoi, the Assamese Chief Minister, said that "Kalita had an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the problems plaguing the State and the region and created public opinion through his writings. The void created by his death will be hard to fill".

His widow, Garima Kalita, is a lecturer at the Udalguri College, in Assam.