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Swapan Dasgupta
Swapan Dasgupta in May 2017
MP of Rajya Sabha (Nominated)
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 April, 2016
Personal details
Born	(1955-10-03) 3 October 1955 (age 69) Calcutta, West Bengal, India
Spouse	Reshmi Dasgupta
Children	1 son
Residence(s)	New Delhi, India
Alma mater	La Martiniere Calcutta St. Stephen's College, Delhi SOAS, University of London Nuffield College, Oxford
Occupation	Journalist, Writer, Public Policy Analyst, Politician

Swapan Dasgupta (born 3 October 1955) is an Indian journalist and a presidential nominee to the Rajya Sabha (India's Upper House of Parliament). He is an influential figure in the right-wing intelligentsia of Hindutva and writes regular columns for leading English dailies.

Dasgupta was awarded Padma Bhushan (the third highest civilian award in India) in 2015, for his contribution to Literature and Education.

Early life and education

Dasgupta received an elite Anglophone education in La Martiniere Calcutta and St. Stephen's College, Delhi, before earning his PhD in history from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. An excerpt from his thesis concerning the intersectionality of local politics in the Midnapur district of Bengal has featured in a volume about subaltern studies, edited by Ranajit Guha.

Personal life and ideologies

Despite being initially attracted to Trotskyism, Dasgupta became a Thatcherite in his days at England. He now self-identifies with centre-right politics and has been heavily active in the national political theater as a member of Bharatiya Janata Party.

He is married to Reshmi Ray Dasgupta, Lifestyle Editor at The Economic Times and has an adult son. They reside in New Delhi.

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. He is a frequent guest on news channels in English-language debates on Indian politics and international affairs.

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. In April, 2016, Dasgupta was nominated by the President of India Pranab Mukherjee to the Rajya Sabha. His term would continue till 2022. These appointments have though attracted criticism from other commentators as a reward for political allegiance.

In 2018, he published Awakening Bharat Mata: The Political Beliefs of the Indian Right.

Reception

Manisha Basu, writing in The Rhetoric of Hindu India, deems Dasgupta to be a vocal exponent of exploiting English as a tool of substituting the prevalent ideologies of the socialist left-liberals with that of hindutva. She further notes of his consistent attacks upon left-liberal commentators -- people who have supposedly leveraged their social privilege to dominate the socio-political consciousness of the "Anglophone national bourgeoisie" for long enough -- in the process of becoming one of the few self-appointed interpreters of the Indian Right. Back in the early 2000s, he had noted in his blog:-

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.

Basu observes Dasgupta's ideas of democracy to be identical with the attacks on the inadequacies of political liberalism by Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt; it ran parallel to consensual nationalism and strove for the establishment of a cohesive nationalistic unification coupled with the throttling of any dissenting narrative, as a necessary prerequisite for any parliamentary process.

Dasgupta proceeds to draw a synonymous relation of his perspective of democracy with dharma, which he terms as the ‘fundamental commonality of democratic expression'. Basu remarks of this translation to allude to his desire of homogeneity across all religious strands and observes a high degree of similarity in the intended effects of Dasgupta's and Jay Dubashi's writings. But, political awareness and ambitions has simultaneously led him to pursue a less radical socio-religious path in the national polity, wherein he had advocated for the exclusioning of BJP from the communalism typically associated with ‘Hindutva’ and re-branding itself as a "market-friendly, pro-defense, socially conservative right-of-center party".

External links

• Bal, Hartosh Singh. "The challenge to Jaitley is a challenge to business as usual in Lutyens' Delhi". The Caravan. Retrieved 3 August 2019.

Notes

1. In India, Hindutva is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism. According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics and International Relations:-

   Hindutva ... refers to the ideology of Hindu nationalists, stressing the common culture of the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent. ... Modern politicians have attempted to play down the racial and anti-Muslim aspects of Hindutva ... but the term has Fascist undertones.

References

1. "Subramanian Swamy, Sidhu, Suresh Gopi, Swapan Dasgupta nominated for Rajya Sabha". indianexpress.com. 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. Brown, Garrett W.; McLean, Iain; McMillan, Alistair (6 January 2018). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics and International Relations. Oxford University Press. p. 381. ISBN 9780192545848.
6. 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.
7. "Press Information Bureau". pib.nic.in. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
8. ^ 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.
9. ^ Soni, Aayush. "The Man Who May Speak for Narendra Modi". OZY. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
10. Mishra, Pankaj (9 November 2015). "Narendra Modi: the divisive manipulator who charmed the world". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
11. Ludden, David (April 1996). Contesting the Nation: Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812215854.
12. Murari, S. (13 June 2012). The Prabhakaran Saga: The Rise and Fall of an Eelam Warrior. SAGE Publications India. p. 72. ISBN 9788132109914.
13. "Business Standard". Retrieved 9 June 2015.
14. "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.
15. "'Swapan Dasgupta is not untouchable for me'". Rediff. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
16. Saikia, Arunabh (10 July 2015). "Hartosh Bal Versus Swapan Dasgupta. And Others Caught In The Crossfire". Newslaundry. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
17. Pushkarna, Vijaya (10 June 2019). "Understanding the Indian right". The Week. Retrieved 3 August 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
18. "'No fear of India turning authoritarian'". Rediff. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
19. Bhattacharya, A. K. (2 July 2019). "The roots of Hindu nationalism". Business Standard India. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
20. "Our Rashtra Mata In Heaven". OutlookIndia. Retrieved 3 August 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
21. 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.
22. Basu, Manisha (August 2016). "Time's victims in a second republic". The Rhetoric of Hindu India by Manisha Basu. Cambridge University Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-107-14987-8. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
23. ^ 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.
24. Basu, Manisha (August 2016). The Rhetoric of Hindu India by Manisha Basu. Cambridge University Press. pp. 67, 68. ISBN 978-1-107-14987-8. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
25. Basu, Manisha (August 2016). "Time's victims in a second republic". The Rhetoric of Hindu India by Manisha Basu. Cambridge University Press. pp. 61, 68, 131. ISBN 978-1-107-14987-8. Retrieved 3 August 2019.

• Use dmy dates from April 2011
• 1955 births
• Bengali people
• Indian columnists
• Living people
• La Martiniere Calcutta alumni
• St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni
• Alumni of SOAS, University of London
• Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education
• Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from West Bengal
• Indian male journalists
• 20th-century Indian journalists
• Journalists from West Bengal
• Writers from Kolkata
• Politicians from Kolkata