Appu is the founder of Pixstory, a social media initiative launched in the United States in 2021. Pixstory brings together journalists, coders and business professionals with the aim of creating a space to build people’s narratives that are alternative, non-singular, personal and political. Appu is also the author of ‘The Murderer, The Monarch and The Fakir: A New Investigation of Mahatma Gandhi's Assassination’, which was published by Harpercollins India in October 2020.
Previously, Appu was an Editor (Special Assignments) at India’s second largest English-language daily newspaper, Hindustan Times, where he spearheaded the newspaper’ investigative efforts and promoted evidence-based journalism while reporting on social issues. Traditionally, reporting on riots in India tends to be episodic in its examination of the local causes of Hindu-Muslim conflict. However, Appu secured a vast database of police and intelligence records, spanning over five years from three communally sensitive states of India and, using field reporting to illuminate trends that were evident in the data, he made a significant contribution to public understanding of a sensitive and complex topic. Most importantly, Appu mapped the shifting paradigm of communal conflict from large scale violence to high intensity low-key communal tensions, which remained unnoticed till then.
Appu has a deep interest in the political economy and has followed the rise of crony capitalism in India. In his work documenting this, he produced a landmark estimation of the size of the black economy in the country, based on previously unavailable data.
Appu graduated from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, where he began news reporting while still a college student. During the same time, he was associated with civil society movements, particularly land struggles and campaign against state led human rights violations. In a decade-long journalism career, he reported from 20 provinces on issues ranging from conflict to corruption. Prior to joining the Hindustan Times in 2016, Appu was an assistant editor at Indian Express and was part of the team that collaborated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to work on tax havens.
Appu has a MSc in Inequalities and Social Science degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
In the past decade India has gone through many changes, and I have been mapping the most pressing social issues. Based on my vast experience of covering riots and sectarian clashes, and the data that I have collected over the past five years, I believe that inequality is at the core of social disruption. I am interested in investigating how income inequality subverts the idea of a just society.Appu Suresh