Jonathan Spollen
Irish journalist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leonard Jonathan Spollen[1] (born 1983) disappeared on 3 February 2012 while working as a journalist for the International Herald Tribune newspaper; he was formerly Assistant Foreign Editor of The National in Abu Dhabi.[2] He went missing from the northern Indian tourist attraction of Rishikesh, sparking an international campaign to locate him,[3] which included his local TD, Eoghan Murphy, raising the issue in the Irish Parliament.[4] It is believed by several analysts that he may have joined a cloistered and extreme Hindu religious cult.[5][6][7] Others speculate that Spollen died in 2012, either as a result of drowning in the River Ganges,[8] or after having been attacked by a wild animal.[9]
1983
Lakshman Jhula, Rishikesh
Jonathan Spollen | |
|---|---|
| Born | Leonard Jonathan Spollen 1983 |
| Disappeared | 3 February 2012 (age 28) Lakshman Jhula, Rishikesh |
| Status | Missing for 14 years, 7 months and 1 day |
| Height | 6 ft (1.8 m) |
Biography
Spollen has worked on stories including the Iranian nuclear programme,[10] the Hijab controversy in Ireland[11] and the 2009 Iranian Elections.[12] He read Philosophy and Politics at University College Dublin, before commencing postgraduate studies in 2004 focusing on the Near and Middle East at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.[13]
Disappearance and aftermath
Some commentators have speculated that Spollen may have fallen prey to a supposed condition increasingly described as the India syndrome, which shares similarities with the alleged form of spiritual hysteria known as the Jerusalem syndrome.[3][14] Scott Carney, for example, states that Spollen: "fits the profile of the fervent young enthusiast of yoga, meditation, and Eastern thought who becomes lost—or worse—on a journey of spiritual self-discovery."[15][14] However, this claim has yet to be substantiated.[citation needed]
Placing this within the history of negative perceptions of non-Western cultures said to be characteristic of much Western analysis as contended by Edward Said, Hammmerbeck further states:
"This point of view parallels Said and other critics’ rather orthodox Orientalism, a clear thesis/antithesis between home and foreign cultures with no possible synthesis. The foreign other, in this case the guru as embodiment of Hindu mysticism, functions as a negative of Western values, consistent with the approach that Said and others propose as being the historical epistemology of Orientalism."[16]
On the fifth anniversary of his disappearance, the BBC News website published a major feature on Spollen, written by his former colleague and now BBC journalist Roland Hughes.[17]
Spollen is still considered a missing person.[18] Indian police and Irish authorities are calling for any information as to his whereabouts,[1] with the former also reportedly investigating Spollen for breaching Indian visa regulations,[19] in the event that he has remained in the country. Overstaying a visa carries a maximum penalty under The Foreigners Act, 1946 of five years imprisonment with a fine and subsequent deportation from India.[20]