Send Kaushik To Columbia University

A Call for Support: Amplifying Impact In South Asia Through Journalism

Hi,

I am Kaushik Raj, an award-winning freelance journalist based in India. Having witnessed inequality and poverty after being born and brought up in rural Bihar in Eastern India, I realised journalism is not just a profession, it is a means to bring marginalised voices into the mainstream.

I am the first one in my family to get admission to the prestigious Ivy League Columbia University. I'm reaching out for your support to further my education and amplify my impact. Please spare two minutes to read my story:

My Journey in Journalism

I have been covering hate crimes against religious minorities in India for more than four years and my stories have led to the arrests of several religious supremacists in India. My stories have been published in The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Vice News, as well as in several reputed Indian platforms such as Article 14 and The Wire.

Witnessing the increasing frequency of attacks against Muslim and Christian minorities and the lack of coverage about it in the Indian media made me switch from engineering to journalism.

My ground reports have raised public awareness on the biases against religious minorities in India’s criminal justice system and have been cited by several researchers, including former judges of the Supreme Court of India. My story on a state government's discriminatory order asking Muslim shopkeepers to display their names in their shops was cited in a petition in the Supreme Court and eventually led to the court scrapping the order.

I have been nominated for awards by Human Rights and Religious Freedom Journalism Awards and Free Press Unlimited, Netherlands for reporting on an event where calls for genocide were given against India’s Muslim minority community. The event organizers were also arrested based on my story.

Why Columbia University?

Currently, my work demands a rigorous process of manually tracking a number of extremist pages every week.

The skills that I will learn in the Data Journalism program can empower me to make AI-powered tools that can automatically track hate speech in multiple languages on social media. That would take my reporting skills far beyond what I can do now.

These tools—customized by region and language—would enable human rights groups, journalists, and legal teams to monitor rising hate rhetoric and intervene early to prevent offline violence. This is especially relevant in today’s South Asia, where minorities—Muslims in India, Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan, and Hindus in Bangladesh—face increasing threats.

After graduating, I intend to bring together a team of journalists from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to collaboratively build and deploy these tools. The goal is to protect vulnerable communities and restore a measure of safety and accountability to the digital space.

How Will Your Donations Be Used?

Last year, I was offered a $50,000 scholarship from Columbia University and could not attend because of financial constraints. This year, the university increased the award to $100,000—a generous gesture that reaffirms their faith in my potential. However, with the total tuition at $133,269, I still face a $33,269 shortfall.

As someone who has worked as a freelance journalist for the last four years with an annual income of approximately $5,500, covering this remaining amount is difficult. Your valuable contributions will be used to cover this amount.

Why Your Support Matters?

As hate crimes against religious minorities escalate in South Asia, it's clear that this intolerance is interconnected and often fuels further violence across borders. For instance, hate incidents against minorities in one country are frequently cited by majoritarian groups in another country to justify similar violence, creating a vicious cycle.

To safeguard vulnerable groups and establish peace in the region, it's essential to tackle this issue collectively. However, mainstream media in South Asia often amplifies the problem instead of solving it. That's why journalists like me must take on a more significant role. Your support will enable me to acquire the skills needed to make a meaningful impact, bringing us closer to a just, equal, and peaceful society. Please consider contributing to my education.

You can read my latest work from a remote Himalayan town in Uttarakhand. This is a feature on a Muslim man who refused to leave when religious supremacists evicted all other Muslims from the town. This is a story of his resilience: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/4/12/i-didnt-go-the-last-muslim-man-in-indian-town-hit-by-religious-strife

You can read some of my stories here: https://article-14.com/author/kaushik-raj-641405a42fdce

You can find me on X (Twitter) at kaushikrj6.

Thank you.