Swapan Dasgupta
Indian journalist and politician (born 1955)
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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 currently is the Member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly representing the Rashbehari Assembly constituency since 2026. [6] 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.[7]
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Swapan Dasgupta | |
|---|---|
Dasgupta in 2016 | |
| Member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly | |
| Assumed office 4 May 2026 | |
| Preceded by | Debasish Kumar |
| Constituency | Rashbehari |
| 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 | 3 October 1955 Kolkata, West Bengal, India |
| Party | Bharatiya Janata Party (1990–present) |
| Spouse | Reshmi Ray Dasgupta |
| Children | 1 son |
| 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) |
Early life and education
Dasgupta was born into a Bengali Baidya family on 3rd October 1955 in Calcutta, West Bengal. He received his schooling from St. Paul's School and La Martiniere Calcutta before graduating from the St. Stephen's College in 1975, and was awarded the prestigious Inlaks scholarship. 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.
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.[8][9] 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.[8]
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.[8][10] He is a frequent guest on news channels in English-language debates on Indian politics and international affairs.[8]
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.[11] He stepped down from Directorship of Larsen and Toubro upon being appointed to the Rajya Sabha.[12][13]
In 2019, he published Awakening Bharat Mata: The Political Beliefs of the Indian Right.[14]
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.[15]
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.[16]
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.[17][8][18]
Mushirul Hasan, writing in 1997, held him the chief spokesperson of BJP in the English language press.[19] In the early 2000s, Dasgupta blogged:[20]
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;[21] he was one of the most fierce critics of the pro-vernacular policies followed by the communist government of West Bengal.[22]
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.[23] 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.
He contested in 2026 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election for BJP from Rashbehari Assembly constituency and won by a margin of 20865 votes.[24]
Reception
Meera Nanda finds Dasgupta among India's most prominent center-right public intellectuals.[25][26] Arvind Tajagopal found Dasgupta among the most vocal enthusiasts for the spread of Hindutva in English language press in the 80s.[27] Scholars have located parallels between his writings and the thought school of Hindu nationalist organisations.[28][29][30]
Personal life
He is married to Reshmi Ray Dasgupta, Lifestyle Editor at The Economic Times and has a son, Soumya Srijan Dasgupta, who is a practicing lawyer in the Supreme Court of India.[9] They reside in Kolkata.[9]
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.
See also
External links
- Bal, Hartosh Singh (28 December 2015). "The challenge to Jaitley is a challenge to business as usual in Lutyens' Delhi". The Caravan. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
- Swapan Dasgupta on Twitter