Anil Ramdas

Anil Ramdas (Paramaribo, 16 February 1958 – Loenen aan de Vecht, 16 February 2012) was a Dutch-Surinamese columnist, correspondent, essayist, journalist, and TV and radio host. He was generally considered the V.S. Naipaul specialist of The Netherlands.

His work has been extensively studied by the author Karin Amatmoekrim.

In 1997 he was awarded the E. du Perron prize for all of his works.

In 2017, five years after his death, political magazine De Groene Amsterdammer, cultural centre De Balie and the family of Ramdas initiated the Anil Ramdas Essay Prize. The fourth edition of the prize took place in 2025.

Biography

Ramdas was the third child of radio producer Kamla Sukul and teacher Haripersad Ramdas. and in the capital city of Paramaribo. In 1977, he moved to Amsterdam to study human geography. During his studies, he stayed in places including Mumbai and Curaçao. In Curaçao, he conducted oral history research into the influence of the Catholic Church and big business (Shell) on gender relations. In 1986, he graduated cum laude with a theoretical thesis on the ways people incorporate dominant ideologies into their life stories.

Doctoral research

Ramdas subsequently conducted research for the University of Amsterdam on the ways asylum seekers’ refugee narratives were constructed by immigration authorities. The publication of his first findings in 1987 in a research report for Amnesty International led to a preliminary injunction filed by the Dutch Ministry of Justice, which argued that the data he had collected was confidential. The ministry lost the case, but on appeal demanded “absolute anonymisation” in his forthcoming dissertation: none of the five hundred refugee narratives collected from asylum seekers could be traceable to the thirteen immigration judges (members of the former Aliens Commission). The court upheld this demand, after which Ramdas prematurely ended his doctoral research.

Journalistic career

In 1989, he became an editor at De Groene Amsterdammer, and in 1990 and 1991 he and Stephan Sanders were responsible for the fortnightly essay supplement, which aimed to develop a new form of essay writing in the Netherlands combining personal, journalistic, and academic observation.

In 1992, Ramdas became a columnist, essayist, and travel reporter for NRC Handelsblad. That same year, on 21 June, he appeared as a guest on the VPRO television programme Zomergasten,

Works Fiction Anil Ramdas published his autobiographical novel Badal in February 2011. In the article "A Matter of Identity: Anil Ramdas and His Autobiographical Novel Badal", Kees Snoek writes :

Death Ramdas committed suicide on 16 February 2012. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte expressed his regret about Ramdas' death in his weekly press conference.