Ashis Nandy Biography 
Ashis Nandy is a political psychologist, a social theorist and a cultural and political critic who has served as the Senior Fellow and Director of CSDS for many years. He is the brother of noted writer, film producer, entrepreneur and artist – Pritish Nandy. Ashis is a recipient of Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize for the year 2007. His name was listed in Top 100 Public Intellectuals Poll of the Foreign Policy magazine for the year 2008. He held the first UNESCO Chair at the Center for European Studies, University of Trier, in 1994. Most recently in January 2013, he invited controversies in the Jaipur Literature Festival where he quoted some controversial statements on corruption among lower castes in India. He quoted that corruption is done only by scheduled castes, tribes and OBC and that they are increasing over time.
He was born in Bhagalpur, Bihar, in 1937 to a Bengali Christian family. He is the eldest of three sons. His family later moved to Kolkata, where his mother worked as a teacher. He witnessed the conflicts of India Partition at the age of 10. After schooling at La Martiniere School, where his mother was a teacher, he joined medical studies though he discontinued it to join Hislop College, Nagpur to study social sciences. He also completed PG in sociology. His interest to clinical psychology prompted him to complete PhD at Gujarat University. He is a trained sociologist and clinical psychologist.
After studies, he joined Centre for the Study of Developing Societies where he worked for a long period. He started his career as a faculty and moved to many decorative positions later. He served as the Director of CSDS between 1992 and 1997. His contributions also include many human rights reports, which he co-authored.
Published: N/A
Updated: June 16, 2014
