Pradip Basu

Pradip Basu (born 1957, Kolkata, India) is a Bengali-speaking Indian scholar of political science. He is currently a professor of political science at the Presidency University, Kolkata.

He was a Research Scholar at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC) from 1984–1985, and then a Doctoral Teacher Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) from 1988–1991. He earned his Ph.D. under the supervision of Partha Chatterjee on inner-party ideological struggles leading to Naxalism. He taught at the University of Kalyani, before moving on to teach at the Scottish Church College, later as a Guest Faculty in Political Science at the University of Calcutta. From 2010–2012, he was a Guest Faculty in 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, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Partha Chatterjee, Dipesh Chakraborty, Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Ashis Nandy, Sobhanlal Datta Gupta, Sukumari Bhattacharji 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.

He specializes in postmodernism and the Naxalite movement, 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, Louis Althusser, and the Frankfurt School. Over time he further moved towards poststructuralism, especially the works of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. His chief academic interest lies in working for a possible dialogue between Naxalism and postmodernism, poststructuralism, postcolonialism and feminism.

Authored Books

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

Edited Books

1. Discourses on Naxalite Movement (1967-2009) (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani), 2010.
2. Avenel Companion to Modern Social Theorists (Kolkata: Avenel) 2011.
3. Colonial Modernity: Indian Perspectives (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2011.
4. Red on Silver: Naxalites in Cinema (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2012.
5. Modern Social Thinkers (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2012.
6. Monone Srijone Naxalbari (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2012.
7. Political Sociology (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2016.
8. Social Thinkers of Modern Times (Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2016.
9. Naxalite Politics: Post-structuralist, Postcolonial and Subaltern Perspectives(Kolkata: Setu Prakashani) 2017.