ABHAY KUMAR DUBEY is a well known public intellectual, a prolific author of scholarly works, tv debater, social media analyst, orator, translator and editor. a professor at delhi’s centre for the study of developing societies (csds), he has been leading the project and enterprise of social science knowledge production in hindi. his works span themes and areas as varied as linguistic modernity, problems of secularism, construction of hindi feminism, dalit movement, linguistic ideology of colonialism, cultures of media, political biographies of post-nehru leadership, studies in globalization and urban sexualities. unwaveringly given to the life of mind, he drives his motto from a ghalib’s couplet:
है आदमी बजाए ख़ुद इक महशर-ए-ख़याल,
हम अंजुमन समझते हैं ख़ल्वत ही क्यूँ न हो।
abhay edits highly acclaimed pratiman samay samaj sanskriti, a refereed journal of social sciences and humanity devoted to promote knowledge production in hindi, since its inception. the publisher of this journal, the indian languages programme of the csds, of which he is a founding director, flourished under him as a unique research programme dedicated to the dissemination of social sciences (translated and originally written) in indian languages with a view to democratization of knowledge-production process, and possibly impart a new epistemic gain which indian social sciences are missing all along due to the ongoing monolingual hegemony of english.
he is currently working on an ambitious three-volume monograph on the history of english-language hegemony in india. through the formulation of the linguistic ideology of colonianlism as well as the concept of metaphysical empire of english, this project tells the discursive story of the philosophies, events and individuals who pushed the indian knowledge systems in background and replaced them by western epistemological categories. by deploying primary research data it discusses factors, policies and events that prevented the postcolonial indian state to complete the historical task of epistemological decolonization.
known for bringing the social scientific perspective to media debates, he is a regular columnist in newspapers such as dainik bhaskar, daily ajit (punjabi and hindi) and lokmat samachar as well as appears as a political analyst on tv channels and social media. hailing from a family of freedom-fighters and activists of gandhian socialist leanings, his incarceration during the indian emergency in 1975 was his diksha into political activism and journalism. he has been part of the founding leadership of indian people’s front, as well as a staff journalist at jansatta (indian national hindi-language daily) before becoming a full-time scholar.
with a number of books to his credit, his major works include: kranti ka atmsangharsh : naksalwadi andolan ke badalte chehre ka adhyayan (1990), hindi mein ham : aadhunikta ke karkhane mein bhasha aur vichar (2015), footpath par kamsutra : narivad aur sexuality ki kuchh bharatiya nirmitiyan (2016), secular/sampradayik : ek bharatiya uljhan ke kuchh aayam (2016), sahitya mein anamantrit (2018), hindu ekta banam gyan ki rajneeti (2019). his edited works include the six-volume social science encyclopedia samaj-vigyan vishvakosh (2013), and the three-volume hindi ki adhunikta: ek punarvichar (2014).
twice he has been the chairman of the governing body of the delhi college of arts and commerce (dcac), delhi university, and currently serving as a member of the governing board of dr. bhim rao ambedkar university (aud), new delhi.
