Swapan Dasgupta

Swapan Dasgupta (born 3 October 1955) is an Indian journalist and politician.[1] He is influential within the Indian right wing,[2][3][4] writing columns for leading English dailies espousing Indian nationalism.[5] He is a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha. In 2015, Dasgupta was conferred with the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to literature and education.[6]

Swapan Dasgupta
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
In office
1 June 2021 – 24 April 2022
ConstituencyNominated (Journalism)
In office
25 April 2016 – 16 March 2021
Succeeded byHimself
ConstituencyNominated (Journalism)
Personal details
Born (1955-10-03) 3 October 1955
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Political partyBharatiya Janata Party (1990 – present)
SpouseReshmi Ray Dasgupta
Children1 son
Alma materSt. Stephen's College, Delhi (BA)
SOAS University of London (MA, PhD)
Nuffield College, Oxford (Post-doctoral Fellow)
OccupationJournalist, Writer, Political analyst
AwardsPadma Bhushan (2015)

Early life and education

Dasgupta was born into a Bengali Baidya family on 3 October 1955 in Calcutta, West Bengal. He received his schooling from St. Paul's School and La Martiniere Calcutta before graduating from St. Stephen's College in 1975. He earned his MA and Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies and returned to India briefly in 1979 to take up a management position at Calcutta Chemical Company, a family.

However, within a year, Dasgupta returned to the United Kingdom as a Junior Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, where he taught and researched South Asian Politics.[7][8] During this time, an excerpt from his thesis concerning the intersectionality of local politics in the Midnapur district was published in one of the Subaltern Studies volumes.[7]

Career

Dasgupta has served in editorial positions over several English dailies in India including The Indian Express, The Times of India, The Statesman, India Today et cetera.[7][9] He is a frequent guest on news channels in English-language debates on Indian politics and international affairs.[7]

In February 2015, Swapan Dasgupta was appointed on the Board of Directors of Larsen and Toubro as a nominee of the Unit Trust of India.[10] He stepped down from Directorship of Larsen and Toubro upon being appointed to the Rajya Sabha.[11][12]

In 2019, he published Awakening Bharat Mata: The Political Beliefs of the Indian Right.[13]

He was conferred Honorary Visiting Professorship at Center for Media Studies (CMS) at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in recognition to his excellent expertise on journalism and media.[14]

Dasgupta led the first edition of the Delhi University Literature Festival as its festival director alongside Sanjeev Sanyal as the festival patron in March 2023.[15]

Politics

Dasgupta started as a Trotskite during college but became a Thatcherite in England; since then, he has self-identified with centre-right politics. Dasgupta has been active in national politics since the early 90s as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); he believed in the potential of the Mandal Commission recommendations and the Ram Rath Yatra to forge a common Hindu identity.[16][7][17]

Mushirul Hasan, writing in 1997, held him the chief spokesperson of BJP in the English language press.[18] In the early 2000s, Dasgupta blogged:[19]

The Right is an endangered community in India's English-language media. I happen to be one of the few to have retained a precarious toe-hold in the mainstream media.

Throughout these years, Dasgupta emphasized the value of English in reaching out to the elites — who were allegedly mass-committed to the left-liberal cause — and winning them over towards hindutva;[20] he was one of the most fierce critics of the pro-vernacular policies followed by the communist government of West Bengal.[21]

Legislation

In April 2016, the incumbent BJP government nominated Dasgupta to the Rajya Sabha as an eminent personality in literature; his term would have continued till 2022.[22] However, in 2021, Dasgupta resigned from Rajya Sabha to contest the Legislative Assembly election in West Bengal for BJP from Tarakeswar; he lost by over 7000 votes. A month later, Dasgupta was renominated to the Rajya Sabha for the remainder of his original term — opposition politicians and constitutional scholars questioned the legal soundness of the renomination.

Reception

Meera Nanda finds Dasgupta among India's most prominent center-right public intellectuals.[23][24] Arvind Tajagopal found Dasgupta among the most vocal enthusiasts for the spread of Hindutva, in English language press in the 80s.[25] Scholars have located parallels between his writings and the thought school of Hindu nationalist organisations.[26][27][28]

Personal life

He is married to Reshmi Ray Dasgupta, Lifestyle Editor at The Economic Times and has a son who is a practicing lawyer in the Supreme Court of India.[8] They reside in New Delhi.[8]

Bibliography
  • Awakening Bharat Mata: The Political Beliefs of the Indian Right. India: Penguin Random House. 2019. p. 440. ISBN 9788185990309.
  • The Ayodhya Reference: The Supreme Court Judgement and Commentaries. India: South Asia Books. 1995. p. 208. ISBN 9780670091690.

References
  1. "Subramanian Swamy, Sidhu, Suresh Gopi, Swapan Dasgupta nominated for Rajya Sabha". The Indian Express. 23 April 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  2. Ayres, Alyssa (2018). Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World. Oxford University Press. p. 28. ISBN 9780190494520.
  3. Basu, Manisha (August 2016). The Rhetoric of Hindu India by Manisha Basu. Cambridge University Press. pp. 67–68, 139. ISBN 978-1-107-14987-8. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  4. Joseph, Tony. "The real reason Indian intellectuals are backing Narendra Modi". Quartz. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  5. Basu, Manisha (August 2016). "Introductory Matters". The Rhetoric of Hindu India by Manisha Basu. Cambridge University Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-107-14987-8. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  6. "Press Information Bureau". pib.nic.in. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  7. Basu, Manisha (August 2016). "Between death and redemption". The Rhetoric of Hindu India by Manisha Basu. Cambridge University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-107-14987-8. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  8. Soni, Aayush (6 June 2014). "Swapan Dasgupta: The Face to Ring in Modi's New India". OZY. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  9. Murari, S. (13 June 2012). The Prabhakaran Saga: The Rise and Fall of an Eelam Warrior. SAGE Publications India. p. 72. ISBN 9788132109914.
  10. "Business Standard". Business Standard India. 9 February 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  11. "Swapan Dasgupta is not untouchable for me". Rediff. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  12. Saikia, Arunabh (10 July 2015). "Hartosh Bal Versus Swapan Dasgupta. And Others Caught in the Crossfire". Newslaundry. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  13. Pushkarna, Vijaya (10 June 2019). "Understanding the Indian right". The Week. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  14. "CMS Faculty".
  15. "It's raining lit fests at Delhi University". The Indian Express. 19 March 2023. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  16. Rajagopal, Arvind (25 January 2001). Politics After Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 343, 194. ISBN 9780521648394.
  17. Ludden, David (April 1996). Contesting the Nation: Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812215854.
  18. Hasan, Mushirul (1997). Legacy of a Divided Nation: India's Muslims since Independence. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. p. 303. doi:10.4324/9780429039690. ISBN 9780429701207. OCLC 1110150477. S2CID 242620789.
  19. Basu, Manisha (August 2016). "Between death and redemption". The Rhetoric of Hindu India by Manisha Basu. Cambridge University Press. pp. 140–144. ISBN 978-1-107-14987-8. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  20. Basu, Manisha (August 2016). "Preface". The Rhetoric of Hindu India by Manisha Basu. Cambridge University Press. pp. xi. ISBN 978-1-107-14987-8. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  21. Kapoor, Richa (2008). Understanding and Interpreting English as a School Discipline in Postcolonial India (Thesis). University of Minnesota.
  22. "Official: Swamy, Sidhu, Swapan Dasgupta and Mary Kom nominated to Rajya Sabha by PMO - Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis". dnaindia.com. 22 April 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  23. Nanda, Meera (2011). The God Market: How Globalization is Making India More Hindu. New York: Monthly Review Press. pp. ix. ISBN 9781583672501.
  24. Basu, Manisha (2008). Fathers of a Still-born Past: Hindu Empire, Globality, and the Rhetoric of the Trikaal (Thesis). University of Pittsburgh.
  25. Rajagopal, Arvind (25 January 2001). Politics After Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 170. ISBN 9780521648394.
  26. Datta, Pradip; Pati, Biswamoy; Sarkar, Sumit; Sarkar, Tanika; Sen, Sambuddha (1990). "Understanding Communal Violence: Nizamuddin Riots". Economic and Political Weekly. 25 (45): 2487–2495. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4396965.
  27. Thakore, Aloke (2004). Reporting ethnic violence: context, text, and practice of journalism in an Indian city (Thesis). University of Wisconsin–Madison.
  28. Sarkar, Sumit (1993). "The Fascism of the Sangh Parivar". Economic and Political Weekly. 28 (5): 163–167. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4399339.
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