Rajesh Talwar


Rajesh Talwar is a lawyer and writer from India. He has written several books on the topics of law and human rights.

Early life

Talwar studied Economics at HIndu College at the University of Delhi. Subsequently he went to the University of Nottingham after going to the UK on a British Chevening scholarship in 1996. He received his LL.M in Human Rights Law. He has also participated in a programme on Negotiation at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government studied Forced Migration at the University of Oxford and been awarded a Post Graduate Diploma from the London School of Journalism. He began working for the United Nations in various capacities. His work with the U.N. took him to places such as Kosovo, Afghanistan, Timor-Leste,Somalia and Liberia.

Career

Talwar is both a practitioner and professor of law. He has previously taught LL.B students at both Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia.
Talwar's career in writing includes writing on different subjects for major media outlets including The Guardian, The Economic Times, The Sunday Mail, and The Pioneer. He has also published books on the topic of law, addressing law reform as well as trying to demystify the subject such as in 'How to Choose a Lawyer - and Win Your Case.'
Talwar's novels include An Afghan Winter and The Sentimental Terrorist, both based in Afghanistan, where he spent many years as a UN staffer. Kirkus Reviews describes the latter novel as 'a compelling narrative' that 'will haunt the readers long after the last page.' His children's books include The Three Greens and The Bearded Prince. According to Mark Mclaughlin, writing for Foreword Reviews, in the latter story, 'without including magic, witches, curses, violence, or villains of any sort,' the author 'has lovingly crafted a short but big-hearted tale of a princess choosing a suitor.' His novels also include Inglistan, which a reviewer for The Hindu called "sometimes tedious but readable", while a reviewer for the Book Review Literary Trust said it was "a autobiographical sounding and rather uninteresting personal account, with all the signs of an amateurish self-expiation". Talwar has also written plays, including High Fidelity Transmission on discriminatory policies and illegal testing of AIDS vaccines in India and the 2001 satire Inside Gayland that depicted an Indian heterosexual man who visited a planet where heterosexuality is against the law as immoral and unnatural. His most recent non-fiction publication Courting Injustice: The Nirbhaya Case and Its Aftermath is based on the December 2012 Delhi gang rape case. In fiction he has most recently published 'How to Kill a Billionaire'