Pradip Basu (; born 1957,

Kolkata, India Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

) is an Indian Bangali (Bengali)

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

. He retired as the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, former Head and Professor of political science at the

Presidency University, Kolkata Presidency University, formerly Presidency College, is a public state university located in College Street, Kolkata. Established in 1817 as the ''Hindoo College'', it was later renamed ''Presidency College'' in 1855 and functioned as a leadi ...

Career

He was a Research Scholar at the

Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC) is a social science and humanities research and teaching institute in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. History Established in 1973 jointly by the Indian Council of Social Science Research and ...

(CSSSC) from 1984 to 1985, and then a Doctoral Teacher Fellow of the

Indian Council of Social Science Research The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) is the national body overseeing research in the social sciences in India. It was established in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delh ...

(ICSSR) from 1988 to 1991. He earned his Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Partha Chatterjee on inner-party ideological struggles leading to

Naxalism Naxalism is the communist ideology of the Naxalites or Naxals, a grouping of political and insurgent groups from India. It is influenced by Maoist political sentiment and ideology. Inspired by Maoism, Charu Majumdar wrote the Historic Eigh ...

. He taught at the

University of Kalyani The University of Kalyani, established in 1960, is a Government of West Bengal administered, University Grants Commission (India), UGC affiliated, National Assessment and Accreditation Council, NAAC accredited, collegiate public research unive ...

, before moving on to teach at the

Scottish Church College Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in Asia. ...

(affiliated to Calcutta University), later as a Guest Faculty in the Post Graduate Deptt. of Political Science at the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

. From 2010 to 2012, he was a Guest Faculty in the Post Graduate Deptt. of Philosophy at the University of Calcutta. He is the founder and former chief editor of the ''Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences'', which is an annually published refereed journal published by the Scottish Church College. Its advisory board includes

Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher. Sen has taught and worked in England and the United States since 1972. In 1998, Sen received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions ...

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (; born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative ...

, Partha Chatterjee, Dipesh Chakraborty,

Ashis Nandy Ashis Nandy (born 13 May 1937) is an Indian political psychologist, social theorist, futurist and critic. A trained clinical psychologist, Nandy has provided theoretical critiques of European colonialism, development, modernity, secularism, ...

, Sobhanlal Datta Gupta, and others. He was the founder-convener of ''Samaj-o-Chinta'', an academic seminar society in Kolkata which conducted monthly seminars in Bengali, from 1991 to 2006.

Areas of specialization

He specializes in the

Naxalite Naxalism is the communist ideology of the Naxalites or Naxals, a grouping of political and insurgent groups from India. It is influenced by Maoist political sentiment and ideology. Inspired by Maoism, Charu Majumdar wrote the Historic Eight ...

movement and post-structuralism, and was actively involved in Naxalite politics during 1974–1981, but gradually became critical of Naxalism and orthodox Marxism, and became interested in Western Marxism, and the works of

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , ; ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosophy, Marxist philosopher, Linguistics, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, Political philosophy, political the ...

Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser was a long-time member an ...

, and the

Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School is a school of thought in sociology and critical theory. It is associated with the University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, Institute for Social Research founded in 1923 at the University of Frankfurt am Main ...

. Over time he further moved towards

post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...

, especially the works of

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...

and

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

. His chief academic interest lies in working for a possible dialogue between Naxalism, on the one hand and Critical Theories such as post-structuralism, postcolonialism, feminism and Ambedkarism, on the other.

Books

Authored books

# ''Naxalbari-r Purbakshan: Kichhu Postmodern Bhabna'' (Kolkata: Progressive Publishers), 1998 () # ''Towards Naxalbari'' (1953–1967) (Kolkata: Progressive Publishers), 2000. () # ''Uttar Adhunik Rajniti O Marxbad'' (Kolkata: Pustak Bipani), 2005. () # ''Postmodernism, Marxism, Postcolonialism'' (Kalna: Avenel Press), 2010. () # ''Uttar Adhunik Rajniti'' (Kolkata: Sahityalok), 2010. ()

Edited books

# ''Discourses on Naxalite Movement'' (1967–2009) (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani), 2010. # ''Avenel Companion to Modern Social Theorists'' (Kalna: Avenel) 2011. # ''Colonial Modernity: Indian Perspectives'' (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2011. # ''Red on Silver: Naxalites in Cinema'' (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2012. # ''Modern Social Thinkers'' (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2012. # ''Monone Srijone Naxalbari'' (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2012. # ''Political Sociology'' (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2016. # ''Social Thinkers of Modern Times'' (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2016. # ''Naxalite Politics: Post-structuralist, Postcolonial and Subaltern Perspectives'' (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2017. # ''Theories, Society, Politics'' (Kalna: Avenel) 2022. # ''Theories, Culture, Politics'' (Kalna: Avenel) 2022. # ''Theories, People, Politics'' (Kolkata: Gangchil) 2022. # ''Theories, Processes, Politics'' (Kolkata: Gangchil) 2022. # ''Theories, Reality, Politics'' (Kolkata: Gangchil) 2023. # ''Theories, Interaction, Politics'' (Kolkata: Gangchil) 2023. # ''Gender and Naxalite Movement'' (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2023. # ''Caste and Naxalite Politics'', (Kolkata: Gangchil) 2023. ISBN 2gg8119360117, 9788119360116 # ''Naxalbarir Rajniti o Jaat-Paater Proshno'', (Kolkata: Gangchil) 2025, ISBN: 978-81-19360-92-5.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Basu, Pradip 1957 births Bengali Hindus Bengali writers 20th-century Bengalis 21st-century Bengalis Indian political scientists Indian political writers Living people Academic staff of the University of Kalyani Academic staff of Scottish Church College Academic staff of the University of Calcutta Academic staff of Presidency University, Kolkata Scholars from Kolkata People from West Bengal 20th-century Indian writers 20th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian historians 20th-century Indian scholars 21st-century Indian writers 21st-century Indian male writers 21st-century Indian historians