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 Hindu nationalism.[5] He was a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha. In 2015,Dasgupta was conferred with the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to literature and education.[6]
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]
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]
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]
↑ Basu, Manisha (August 2016). "Introductory Matters". The Rhetoric of Hindu India by Manisha Basu. Cambridge University Press. p.16. ISBN978-1-107-14987-8. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
↑ Basu, Manisha (August 2016). "Preface". The Rhetoric of Hindu India by Manisha Basu. Cambridge University Press. pp.xi. ISBN978-1-107-14987-8. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
↑ Kapoor, Richa (2008). Understanding and Interpreting English as a School Discipline in Postcolonial India (Thesis). University of Minnesota.
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