A former journalist/photographer who later served with the U.S. Information Service, Department of State, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and on the staff of a U.S. senator. He authored two seminal political histories of the constitution of India; The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation and Working a Democratic Constitution: The Indian Experience. Red Austin received fellowships or grants from St. Antony's College, Oxford, the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Program, the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Rockefeller Founation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. In 2011, in recognition for his writing on the framing and working of the Indian Constitution, he was awarded a Padma Shri award, the fourth highest civilian honor of the Republic of India.