Ashis Nandy

Ashis Nandy
Prof. Nandy receiving Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2007, Japan
Born	1937 (age 79–80) Bhagalpur, Bihar, British India
Occupation	political psychologist, social theorist, Former Director of CSDS DELHI
Nationality	Indian
Ethnicity	Bengali
Alma mater	Gujarat University
Spouse	Uma Nandy
Children	Aditi (daughter)
Relatives	Pritish Nandy and Manish Nandy (brothers)

Ashis Nandy (Bengali: আশিস নন্দী; born 1937) is an Indian political psychologist, social theorist, and critic. A trained clinical psychologist, Nandy has provided theoretical critiques of European colonialism, development, modernity, secularism, Hindutva, science, technology, nuclearism, cosmopolitanism, and utopia. He has also offered alternative conceptions relating to cosmopolitanism and critical traditionalism. In addition to the above, Nandy has offered an original historical profile of India's commercial cinema as well as critiques of state and violence.

He was Senior Fellow and Former Director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) for several years. Today, he is a Senior Honorary Fellow at the institute and apart from being the Chairperson of the Committee for Cultural Choices and Global Futures, also in New Delhi.

Nandy had received the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2007. In 2008 he appeared on the list of the Top 100 Public Intellectuals Poll of the Foreign Policy magazine, published by The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Nandy was born in a Bengali Christian family at Bhagalpur, Bihar, in 1937. He is the eldest of three sons of Satish Chandra Nandy and Prafulla Nalini Nandy, and brother of Pritish Nandy. Later, his family moved to Calcutta. Nandy's mother was a teacher at La Martiniere School, Calcutta and subsequently became the school's first Indian vice principal. When he was 10, British India was partitioned into two sovereign countries – India and Pakistan. He witnessed the time of conflicts and atrocities that followed.