{{Short description|Indian historian (born 1948)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}} {{Infobox academic | name = Dipesh Chakrabarty | native_name = দীপেশ চক্রবর্তী | image = Dipesh Chakrabarty, 2012 (cropped).jpg | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1948}} | birth_place = Kolkata, India | spouse = Rochona Majumdar | awards = Toynbee Prize | alma_mater = Presidency College<br>Indian Institute of Management Calcutta<br> Australian National University | main_interests = Subaltern Studies, Postcolonialism }}
'''Dipesh Chakrabarty''' (born 1948 in Kolkata, India) is an Indian historian and leading scholar of postcolonial theory and subaltern studies. He is the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in history at the University of Chicago, and is the recipient of the 2014 Toynbee Prize, named after Professor Arnold J. Toynbee, that recognizes social scientists for significant academic and public contributions to humanity.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Dipesh Chakrabarty Named 2014 Toynbee Prize Recipient|url=https://toynbeeprize.org/posts/dipesh-chakrabarty-named-2014-toynbee-prize-recipient/|access-date=2021-09-09|website=Toynbee Prize Foundation|language=en}}</ref> He is the author of the seminal ''Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference'' (2000) and of the essay "The Climate of History: Four Theses."
== Biography == Dipesh Chakrabarty attended Presidency College of the University of Calcutta, where he received his undergraduate degree in physics. He also received a postgraduate diploma in management (MBA) from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Later he moved on to the Australian National University in Canberra, from where he earned a PhD in history.<ref name="toynbee2014">[http://toynbeeprize.org/toynbee-prize/dipesh-chakrabarty-named-2014-toynbee-prize-recipient/ Dipesh Chakrabarty Named 2014 Toynbee Prize Recipient] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127201912/https://toynbeeprize.org/toynbee-prize/dipesh-chakrabarty-named-2014-toynbee-prize-recipient/ |date=27 January 2020 }}, Toynbee Prize Foundation, 9 July 2014, accessed 22 July 2015</ref>
Chakrabarty has had an extensive program of visiting lectureships: Visiting Fellow, Humanities Institute, Princeton, USA (2002); Hitesranjan Sanyal Visiting Professor of History, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, University of Calcutta (2003); Visitor, Humanities Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook (2004); Visiting Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Historical Sciences, University of Göttingen, Germany (2005); Faculty, Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory, University of California, Irvine (2005); Visiting Research Professor, University of Technology, Sydney (2005 and 2009); Visitor, Center for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi (2005); Scholar-in-residence, Pratt Institute, New York (2005); Visiting Professor, European Humanities University, Vilnius, Lithuania (2006); Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting professor, University of Iowa (2007); Distinguished Visitor, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Minnesota (2007); Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (2008–09): Katz Professor in the Humanities, University of Washington, Seattle (2009); Hallsworth Visiting Professor, University of Manchester, England (2009); Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna, Austria (2010); Lansdowne Lecturer, Victoria University, Canada (2012); Nicholson Distinguished Visiting Scholar, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2013).{{citation needed|date=September 2025}}
In 2014, Chakrabarty delivered the IWM Lectures in Human Sciences in Vienna; a public lecture at Cankaya Municipality (Ankara, Turkey); Principal's Distinguished Visitor, Queen's University, Canada; distinguished visitor, Humanities Institute, Stony Brook University, New York; visitor, University of Barcelona, Spain; visiting fellow, Humanities Research Centre, College of Arts & Social Sciences, Australian National University (2014);<ref name="2014ANU">[http://hrc.anu.edu.au/HRC2014visitingfellows HRC 2014 Visiting Fellows], Australian National University, accessed 24 July 2015</ref> GLASS scholar, Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) – Humanities University of Leiden, (2015).<ref name="2015_Leiden">[http://www.hum.leiden.edu/lias/lias-highlights/chakrabarty.html Dipesh Chakrabarty (Fall 2015)], University of Leiden, accessed 24 July 2015</ref>
He also served on the Humanities jury for the Infosys Prize from 2014 to 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Humanities Jury|first=Infosys Science Foundation|title=Infosys Prize – Jury 2016|url=https://www.infosys-science-foundation.com/prize/jury/jury-2016.asp#Humanities|url-status=live|website=Infosys Science Foundation|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114044655/http://www.infosys-science-foundation.com:80/prize/jury/jury-2016.asp |archive-date=14 November 2017}}</ref>
The academic Christine Fair has accused Chakrabarty of making an inappropriate sexual comment during her time as a student in 1994.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/christinefair/himtoo-a-reckoning |title="#HimToo: A Reckoning", accessed 11 November 2022.|website=BuzzFeed |date=25 October 2017 }} Fair has subsequently withdrawn several of the claims made in this article {{Cite web|url=https://shortbustoparadise.wordpress.com/2022/09/08/retraction-statement |title="Retraction Statement" accessed 11 November 2022|work=Tenacious Hellpussy |date=8 September 2022 }}</ref> Fair also alleged that Chakrabarty made similar comments to others.<ref name=":0" /> The University of Chicago released a statement in 2017 inviting students to formally report such allegations.<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 November 2017 |title=UChicago and the Asymmetry of Power: Academic circles can be unwelcoming and dangerous for women. |url=https://chicagomaroon.com/25142/viewpoints/op-ed/uchicago-asymmetry-power/}}</ref> In 2021, the Graduate Employees' Organization at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign protested the university's decision to host Chakrabarty at a roundtable on criticism and interpretive theory, in response to Fair's allegations.<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 April 2021 |title=GEO Statement on the "Author's Roundtable with Dipesh Chakrabarty" Hosted by UIUC's Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory |work=Graduate Employees' Organization at UIUC |url=https://www.uiucgeo.org/solidarity-statements-and-press-releases/unitforcriticism-cnj2b}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=14 April 2021 |title=Graduate students express concern over University-invited professor with sexual harassment allegation |url=https://dailyillini.com/news-stories/2021/04/14/graduate-students-concerned-with-university-invited-professor-with-sexual-harassment-allegation/}}</ref> Following a legal defamation suit, Fair issued a public apology for several allegations against Chakrabarty and his wife.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-11-12 |title=Retraction Statement – Tenacious Hellpussy |work=Tenacious Hellpussy |url=https://shortbustoparadise.wordpress.com/2022/09/08/retraction-statement/ |access-date=2025-04-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221112104045/https://shortbustoparadise.wordpress.com/2022/09/08/retraction-statement/ |archive-date=12 November 2022 }}</ref>
===Honours===
2004: Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://history.uchicago.edu/directory/dipesh-chakrabarty|title=Dipesh Chakrabarty {{!}} History {{!}} The University of Chicago|website=history.uchicago.edu|access-date=2019-11-15}}</ref>
2006: Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.humanities.org.au/fellows/fellows/|title=Fellows|website=Australian Academy of the Humanities|access-date=2019-11-15}}</ref>
2010: Doctor of Letters or D.Litt. (Honoris Causa), University of London (conferred at Goldsmiths)<ref name=":1" />
2011: Honorary Doctorate by the University of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2011; Distinguished Alumnus Award, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta (conferred on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the institute in 2011)<ref name="Heyman">[http://heymancenter.org/people/dipesh-chakrabarthy/ Dipesh Chakrabarthy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113012355/http://heymancenter.org/people/dipesh-chakrabarthy/|date=13 November 2020}}, Heyman Centre, accessed 24 July 2015</ref>
2014: Toynbee Prize, named for Professor Arnold J. Toynbee, that recognizes social scientists for significant academic and public contributions to humanity.<ref name="toynbee2014" />
2019: Tagore Memorial Prize (Rabindra Smriti Purashkar) awarded by the Government of West Bengal, India for The Crisis of Civilization (2018).<ref name=":1" />
2021: Honorary doctorate by École Normale Supérieure.<ref name=":1" />
2021: Jadunath Sarkar Memorial Gold Medal, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Kolkata, for contribution to History.<ref name=":1" />
2023: Prix Européen de l’Essai or the European Essay Prize for Après le changement climatique: penser l’histoire (Paris: Gallimard, 2023), the French translation of The Climate of History in a Planetary Age (2021).<ref name=":1" />
==Bibliography==
===Books=== *''Rethinking Working Class History'' (1989) *''Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference'' (2000) * ''Habitations of Modernity: Essays in the Wake of Subaltern Studies'' (2002) * ''The Calling of History: Sir Jadunath Sarkar and His Empire of Truth'' (2015) * ''The Crises of Civilization: Exploring on Global and Planetary Histories'' (2018) * (With Ranajit Dasgupta) ''Some Aspects of Labor History of Bengal in the Nineteenth Century: Two Views'' (2019) * ''The Climate of History in a Planetary Age'' (2021) * ''One Planet, Many Worlds: The Climate Parallax'' (2023)
===Edited volumes=== * ''Cosmopolitanism'' (2002), editor with Carol Breckenridge, Sheldon Pollock, and Homi K. Bhabha * ''From the Colonial to the Postcolonial: India and Pakistan in Transition'' (2007), editor with Rochona Majumdar and Andrew Sartori * ''Historical Teleologies in the Modern World'' (2015), editor with Henning Trüper and Sanjay Subrahmanyam
===Selected articles=== *"Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History: Who Speaks for 'Indian' Pasts?" ''Representations'' 37 (Winter 1992): 1–26. *"The Death of History? Historical Consciousness and the Culture of Late Capitalism." ''Public Culture'' 4.2 (Spring 1992): 47–65. *"Universalism and Belonging in the Logic of Capital." ''Public Culture'' 12.3 (Fall 2000): 653–678. *"Where Is the Now?" ''Critical Inquiry'' 30 (Winter 2004): 458–462. *"The Climate of History: Four Theses." ''Critical Inquiry'' 35.2 (Winter 2009): 197–222. *"Postcolonial Studies and the Challenge of Climate Change." ''New Literary History'' 43.1 (Winter 2012): 1–18. *"Climate and Capital: On Conjoined Histories." ''Critical Inquiry'' 41.1 (Autumn 2014): 1–23. *"Humanities in the Anthropocene: The Crisis of an Enduring Kantian Fable." ''New Literary History'' 47.2–3 (Spring and Summer 2016): 377–397.
=== Books in Bengali Language ===
*''ইতিহাসের জনজীবন ও অন্যান্য প্রবন্ধ'' (আনন্দ পাবলিশার্স, 2011)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archives.anandabazar.com/archive/1130302/2pustak1.html|title=আনন্দবাজার পত্রিকা – পুস্তক পরিচয|website=archives.anandabazar.com|access-date=2019-06-06}}</ref> *''মানবিকতা ও অ-মানবিকতা'' (অনুষ্টুপ, 2018) *''মনোরথের ঠিকানা'' (অনুষ্টুপ, 2018)<ref>{{Cite book|title=Manorathera ṭhikānā|last=Chakrabarty, Dipesh|year=2018|isbn=9789382425823|location=Kalakātā|oclc=1035635633}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.anandabazar.com/supplementary/pustokporichoi/book-that-describes-about-people-s-daily-life-1.754408|title=জনজীবনের বিশ্লেষণী দর্পণ|website=anandabazar.com|access-date=2019-06-06}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.anandabazar.com/supplementary/pustokporichoi/book-review-of-monorather-thikana-1.860885|title=তর্কের জায়গাও রইল খোলা|last=ঘোষ|first=সেমন্তী|website=anandabazar.com|access-date=2019-06-06}}</ref> *''উন্নয়ন ও আধুনিকতা: বর্তমান-সর্বস্ব এই সময়'' (কলিকাতা লেটারপ্রেস, 2019) *''সাম্প্রতিক ইতিহাস-ভাবনা: আমার ইতিহাসের আলপথ ধরে'' (তালপাতা প্রকাশনা, 2019) *''বন্ধুর চিঠি বন্ধুকে'' (with রাঘব বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়) (অনুষ্টুপ, 2019) *''স্মৃতি সত্তা সংলাপ'' (নির্ঝর, 2020) *''জলবায়ু পরিবর্তন ও বর্তমান অতিমারি: মানুষের ইতিহাসে একটি সন্ধিক্ষণ'' (লৌকিক প্রকাশন, 2021)
==See also==
* Partha Chatterjee * Vivek Chibber
== References == {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{Citation | last = Dimova-Cookson | first = Maria | contribution = Subaltern studies, post-colonial Marxism, and 'finding your place to begin from': an interview with Dipesh Chakrabarty. | editor-last1 = Browning | editor-first1 = Gary | editor-last2 = Dimova-Cookson | editor-first2 = Maria | editor-last3 = Prokhovnik | editor-first3 = Raia | editor-link3 = Raia Prokhovnik | title = Dialogues with contemporary political theorists | pages = 58–73 | publisher = Palgrave Macmillan | location = Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York | year = 2012 | isbn = 9780230303058 }}
==External links== *{{Commons category-inline}} *[http://tannerlectures.utah.edu/Chakrabarty%20manuscript.pdf Tanner lecture 2015: Human Condition in the Anthropocene] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101071915/https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/Chakrabarty%20manuscript.pdf |date=1 November 2020 }} *[https://history.uchicago.edu/directory/dipesh-chakrabarty UChicago Faculty Page]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chakrabarty, Dipesh}} Category:1948 births Category:Bengali Hindus Category:Bengali writers Category:20th-century Bengali people Category:21st-century Bengali people Category:Bengali historians Category:Indian Institute of Management Calcutta alumni Category:Australian National University alumni Category:Historians of South Asia Category:Indian lecturers Category:20th-century Indian historians Category:20th-century Indian scholars Category:21st-century Indian scholars Category:21st-century Indian male writers Category:21st-century Indian historians Category:20th-century Indian male writers Category:Living people Category:University of Calcutta alumni Category:University of Chicago faculty Category:Scholars from Kolkata Category:Academics from Kolkata Category:West Bengal academics Category:Postcolonial theorists