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Dipak Nandy

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Dipak Nandy (born 21 May 1936) is an Indian academic, administrator, and Marxist.

Beginning his career as a Lecturer in English literature, Nandy developed greater interests in race relations and was the first director of the Runnymede Trust. He was later a Special Consultant to the Home Office and deputy director of the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Early life

Nandy was born in Calcutta, India, on 21 May 1936, into a Bengali family, and was educated at St Xavier's College.

He arrived in Britain in March 1956 and worked for a time on the night shift at Cadbury Schweppes, then was offered a place in the English Literature Department at the University of Leeds. He has always maintained that Leeds, in the 1950s, was, in range, variety and intellectual heft, the most exciting place in Britain to be. He took his first degree at Leeds in 1960, then moved on to a further degree, also at Leeds.[citation needed]

Career

In 1964, Nandy was appointed as a lecturer at Leicester University. On his arrival there, his colleague Monica Jones described him as "a coloured communist".[1] From 1964 to 1967 he chaired the Leicester Campaign for Racial Equality and also took part in sit-ins at the Admiral Nelson pub, which at that time had a colour bar.[2] In 1966 and 1967, he was Director of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination Summer Projects; he also joined the Information Panel of the National Committee for Commonwealth Immigrants and served as Secretary of Equal Rights.

Nandy left the academic profession in 1968 to found and run the Runnymede Trust, which he directed until 1973. He was also a member of the BBC's Immigrants Advisory Committee and of the Council of the Institute of Race Relations.[3]

After a brief break at Social and Community Planning Research, 1973-1974, he was recruited as a Special Consultant by the Home Office, to work on the Sex Discrimination Bill, before in 1976 helping to draft the Labour government’s Race Relations Bill.

In 1975, Hugo Young described Nandy as a highly intelligent academic, administrator and politician.[4]

In 1976, he went to Manchester, where the Equal Opportunities Commission had been located, and remained its Deputy Director and chief policymaker for the next ten years, remaining until 1986. There, among other work, he was intimately involved in driving through the Government's policy on taxation (The Taxation of Husband and Wife, by pressing for the equalisation of the State Pension ages of men and women. He successfully briefed Liberal and Labour MPs and peers to redraft the Government's proposed amendment to the Equal Pay Act 1970.

In 1979, Nandy began to forge a link with the Directorate-General V of the European Commission, and organised a representative conference on outstanding issues in the progress towards equal treatment of women throughout the nine members of the European Economic Community as at 1981, and acted as the Conference Secretary.

Nandy always had a detailed personal interest in broadcasting as 'the way a society talks to itself', and he served as the Chairman of the BBC's Immigrant Programme, 1983-1988, and as a member of its General Council, 1983-1990. He was appointed a member of Lord Annan‘s Committee of Inquiry into the Future of Broadcasting, 1974–77, which created Channel 4 instead of the widely expected ITV2, and successfully lobbied through the Committee's report for a unified Broadcasting Complaints Commission.[5]

Personal life

In 1960, while still a student at Leeds, Nandy met Margaret Gracie, whom he dated until 1964, when they were married. They separated in 1971, [6] and in 1972 Nandy married secondly Louise Byers,[7] daughter of Lord Byers, Leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords. Their youngest daughter, Lisa Nandy, was born in 1979. She became a Labour MP in 2010, and has stated that her father considers her right wing.[8]

Publications

  • Nandy, Dipak (January 1962). "Ancient Indian Materialism". Marxism Today.[9]
  • Nandy, Dipak (January 1963). "How Not to Write History". Marxism Today. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)[10]
  • Nandy, Dipak (1965). Order, empiricism and politics. Philosophical Books. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
  • Nandy, Dipak (September 1965). "Who Is the Leper Now?". The Labour Monthly. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)[11]
  • Nandy, Dipak (1965). The English mind. Philosophical Books. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
  • Nandy, Dipak (June 1966). "Immigrants at Work". The Labour Monthly. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)[12]
  • Nandy, Dipak (1968). How to Calculate Immigration Statistics. Runnymede Trust. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
  • Nandy, Dipak (1968). Race and Community. ISBN 0950009806. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
  • Nandy, Dipak (July 1968). "La société britannique face aux immigrants de couleur". Le Monde diplomatique. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)[13]
  • Nandy, Dipak (1970). How to calculate immigration statistics. Runnymede Trust. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
  • Nandy, Dipak; Holman, Bob; Lambert, John (1972). Race in the inner city. Runnymede Trust.
  • Nandy, Dipak (1982). "Introduction". In Jefferson, Douglas; Martin, Graham (eds.). The Uses of Fiction: Essays on the Modern Novel in Honour of Arnold Kettle. Open University Press. pp. 1–8. ISBN 033510181X.
  • Nandy, Dipak (30 May 1986). "Famine---who runs the world?". New Statesman. {{cite magazine}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)[14]
  • Nandy, Dipak (1988). "Arnold Kettle and English Marxist Literary Criticism". Literature and Liberation: Selected Essays. By Kettle, Arnold. Martin, Graham; Owens, W.R. (eds.). Manchester University Press. pp. 1–17. ISBN 0719025419.
  • Nandy, Dipak (1988). Sir Peter Medawar O.M., C.H., C.B.E., F.R.S. 1915–1987. A Personal Memoir. Runnymede Trust. ISBN 0902397745. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)

Filmography

  • Racial Discrimination, Rediffusion, 1967[15]
  • Question Time 14 February 1985 [16]
  • A Question of Colour, Open University, 1982

References

  1. ^ "Monica Jones". Guardian. 15 March 2001. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  2. ^ Jacobs, Barbara (2 November 2011). "Leicester graduate presents programme on fight against racism". Leicester University. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  3. ^ "The Runnymede Trust Begins Work". Runnymede Trust. October 1968. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  4. ^ Young, Hugo (2008). The Hugo Young Papers: Thirty Years of British Politics - Off the Record. Allen Lane. ISBN 978-1846140549.
  5. ^ "HO 245 - Committee on The Future of Broadcasting (1974-1977): Minutes, Evidence and Papers". National Archives. Home Office. 1974–1977. Retrieved 18 March 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  6. ^ Newitt, Ned. "Who's Who in Radical Leicester". Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  7. ^ "Dipak Nandy". IMDB. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  8. ^ "Lisa Nandy Interview: 'Ed Miliband Is A Different Sort Of Politician'". Independent. 17 November 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  9. ^ Nandy, Dipak (January 1962). "Ancient Indian Materialism". Marxism Today: 13–21. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  10. ^ Nandy, Dipak (January 1963). "How Not to Write History". Marxism Today. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  11. ^ Nandy, Dipak (September 1965). "Who Is the Leper Now?". The Labour Monthly: 418–422.
  12. ^ Nandy, Dipak (June 1966). "Immigrants at Work". The Labour Monthly. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  13. ^ Nandy, Dipak (July 1968). "La société britannique face aux immigrants de couleur". Le Monde diplomatique (in French). Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  14. ^ Nandy, Dipak (30 May 1986). "Famine---who runs the world?". New Statesman. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  15. ^ "This Week (1956–1992)". IMDB. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  16. ^ "Question Time". IMDB. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
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