Swapan Dasgupta | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Dasgupta in 2016 | |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 1 June 2021 – 24 April 2022 | |
| Constituency | Nominated (Journalism) |
| In office 25 April 2016 – 16 March 2021 | |
| Succeeded by | Himself |
| Constituency | Nominated (Journalism) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1955-10-03)3 October 1955 (age 70) Kolkata, West Bengal, India |
| Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party (1990 – present) |
| Spouse | Reshmi Ray Dasgupta |
| Children | 1 son |
| Alma mater | St. Stephen's College, Delhi (BA) SOAS University of London (MA,PhD) Nuffield College, Oxford (Post-doctoral Fellow) |
| Occupation | Journalist, Writer, Political analyst |
| Awards | Padma Bhushan (2015) |
Swapan Dasgupta (born 3 October 1955) is an Indian journalist and politician.[1] He is influential within the Indianright-wing,[2][3][4] writing columns for leading English dailies espousingHindu nationalism.[5] He was anominated member of theRajya Sabha. In 2015, Dasgupta was conferred with thePadma Bhushan for his contribution to literature and education.[6]
Dasgupta was born into aBengaliBaidya family on 3 October 1955 inCalcutta,West Bengal. He received his schooling fromSt. Paul's School andLa Martiniere Calcutta before graduating fromSt. Stephen's College in 1975, and was awarded the prestigious Inlaks scholarship. He earned his MA and Ph.D. from theSchool of Oriental and African Studies and returned to India briefly in 1979 to take up a management position atCalcutta Chemical Company, a family.
However, within a year, Dasgupta returned to the United Kingdom as a Junior Research Fellow atNuffield 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 theMidnapur district was published in one of the Subaltern Studies volumes.[7]
Dasgupta has served in editorial positions over several English dailies in India includingThe 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 theUnit 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 publishedAwakening 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 alongsideSanjeev Sanyal as the festival patron in March 2023.[15]
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| Conservatism in India |
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Dasgupta started as aTrotskite during college but became aThatcherite in England; since then, he has self-identified withcentre-right politics. Dasgupta has been active in national politics since the early 90s as a member of theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP); he believed in the potential of theMandal Commission recommendations and theRam 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 towardsHindutva;[20] he was one of the most fierce critics of the pro-vernacular policies followed by the communist government ofWest Bengal.[21]
In April 2016, the incumbentBJP government nominated Dasgupta to theRajya 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 theLegislative Assembly election in West Bengal for BJP fromTarakeswar; he lost by over 7000 votes. A month later, Dasgupta was renominated to theRajya Sabha for the remainder of his original term — opposition politicians and constitutional scholars questioned the legal soundness of the renomination.
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]
He is married to Reshmi Ray Dasgupta, Lifestyle Editor atThe Economic Times and has a son who is a practicing lawyer in theSupreme Court of India.[8] They reside in New Delhi.[8]
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