Pradip Basu

Pradip Basu (; born 1957, Kolkata, India) is an Indian Bangali (Bengali)political scientist. He retired as the Academic Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, former Head and Professor of political science at the Presidency University, Kolkata.

Career He was a Research Scholar at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC) from 1984 to 1985, and then a Doctoral Teacher Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (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. He taught at the University of Kalyani, before moving on to teach at the Scottish Church College (affiliated to Calcutta University), later as a Guest Faculty in the Post Graduate Deptt. of Political Science at the University of Calcutta. 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, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Partha Chatterjee, Dipesh Chakraborty, Ashis Nandy, 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 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, Louis Althusser, and the Frankfurt School. Over time he further moved towards post-structuralism, especially the works of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. 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. Naxalbarir Rajniti o Jaat-Paater Proshno, (Kolkata: Gangchil) 2025.