Praful Bidwai (b.1949-d.2015) was a brilliant journalist, erudite social science researcher and veteran peace activist. He was founder member of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) and co-founder of the Movement in India for Disarmament (MIND). He held many academic positions both at home and abroad. He was a Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Social Development, and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi; a member of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, Central Advisory Board on Education, National Book Trust, New Delhi, and the International Network of Engineers and Scientists against Proliferation (INESAP). He was an Associate Editor of Security Dialogue published by Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), and a Visiting Professor at the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi.

He served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Uppsala, and the ETC Group, Ottawa. He was a long-time Fellow of the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam based organisation of international scholar activists. He was awarded the Sean MacBride International Peace Prize, 2000 from the International Peace Bureau, Geneva and London.

He has authored and co-authored several books including: Testing Times: The Global Stake in a Nuclear Test Ban (1996); Religion, Religiosity and Communalism (1996) and The Politics of Climate Change and the Global Crisis: Mortgaging Our Future (2012).

About the Collection: The papers of Praful Bidwai are of immense importance for the study of environment, human rights, disarmament, global justice, peace and security. The collection consists of research papers, articles, reports and documents which touch upon themes such as political economy, science and technology, ethnicity, politics and social conflict, and communalism in India.