Dilip D'Souza
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Dilip D'Souza (b 1960) is a Mumbai based writer and journalist. He writes about social and political causes (with an left-centrist prespective) as well as some travel and current affairs articles. His columns have appeared in The Sunday Observer, Rediff.com, Outlook and Mid-Day. A column by him has provided the inspiration for a key segment of the 2004 movie Swades directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. He has a BE in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BITS Pilani (1976-81) and a MS in Computer Science from Brown University (1984)[1]. Dilip has won several awards for his writing, including the Statesman Rural Reporting Award, the Times of India/Red Cross prize, the Outlook/Picador nonfiction prize (for which he was also, earlier,runner up), the Sanctuary Magazine prize and more.[2] He is married to French language teacher Vibha Kamat (in 1993), and they have two children, son Sahir (b 1999) and adopted daughter Surabhi (b 2003).[3] He worked as a software engineer in US from 1984-1992 when he returned to India to write full time.[4]. He still works part-time as a software consultant in SPA Software, a Portland, OR based firm, for Autocad applications to support his writing.
As an alumnus of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, he's dedicated to alumni activities and has come over many times to his alma mater. He is currently the editor of the BITS Alumni magazine 'Sandpaper'.[5]
Dilip's father is former Maharashtra Chief Secretary Mr. J.B. D'Souza.[6]. He (the father) is noted for filing a Public Interest Litigation asking for immediate implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report and has been in the forefront of those demanding justice to the 1993 Mumbai riots victims on the basis of the Srikrishna report.[7] Rediff columnist Rajeev Srinivasan has noted that there is a possible correlation between Dilip's articles on the Bombay riots, and his father's involvement with anti-Shiv Sena interests.
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[edit] Selected Articles
- Dilip is a columnist at Rediff.com [8], an Indian portal. One of his columns, "My country, right or wrong?"[9], was written after the start of the Iraq war and invoked debate and controversy. This was because it raised questions about the meaning of patriotism, especially in the context of Iraq and the overthrow of dictators like Saddam Hussain and Adolf Hitler. This article caused quite a controversy because it obliquely raised the question whether one should revolt against a possibly despotic regime in India. The following is a quote of the contentious passage:
Let's build a hypothesis instead: that, like Iraq, India is ruled by a despotic regime. Suppose it has ignored -- and by ignoring, aggravated -- the suffering of millions of miserably poor Indians, many of whom go to sleep hungry and sick every single night. It has stoked hatreds among Indians, hatreds that have led to regular massacres all over the country. Too often, state machinery has participated in these great crimes. It has paid no attention to the need to punish the perpetrators of such massacres. Too often, it has rewarded them with power and protection, status and wealth. It has snuffed out any public faith in the rule of law -- not just by perverting the courts and police, but by installing criminals as the makers and keepers of the law. And, in this thought experiment, the greatest criminal of all heads the regime. Remember: just a hypothesis. But now, still in this hypothesis, how must a patriotic Indian react? Does she defend this ghastly junta to the world, because after all and always, it's 'my country, right or wrong'? Does he take up arms to fight its wars, to defend it to the death against foreign aggression, because of his love for India? (Does this love mean you must die for criminals?)
– Dilip D'Souza, http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/03dilip.htm
Some thought that the above was likely a thinly veiled attack on the BJP government in context of the Gujarat violence of 2002. They thought such a hypothesis calling upon "patriotic Indians" to revolt against the government could be considered treasonous. Others read the article as nothing more than a thought experiment in the meaning of patriotism.
- Another of Dilip's columns on Rediff.com, titled "The bulb brought the tears [10]", was the inspiration behind a key segment of the 2004 Hindi movie "Swades", directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, the director of the Oscar-nominated "Lagaan". In "Swades", Hindi film star, Shah Rukh Khan is shown as an Indian-born NASA engineer who, on a visit to India, sets up a hydel-project to provide electricity for a small village. This is based on Dilip's column on his visit to the villages of Domkhedi and Bilgaon (Maharashtra) where he met two engineers from Kerala, Anil and Madhu, who set up micro-hydel projects for those villages.
- Dilip won the Outlook/Picador prize in 2004 for his essay "Ride Across The River" [11]. It was about an Army officer killed in action in Kashmir, examining patriotism through his example.
- He wrote an account for salon.com, "Rain, Blood and Sirens" [12], about the July 2006 train bomb blasts in Mumbai.
[edit] Affiliations
- Dilip was a member of the Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD). The PIPFPD pursues "Track II diplomacy", meaning increased contact between ordinary people in both countries, towards peace between India and Pakistan. Some people question this group's agenda. On its website [13], the "Declaration of the Seventh Joint Convention" held at Delhi in 2005 has this sentence: We urge recognition of the fact that there is a plurality of views on both sides of divided J & K as well as several approaches to the dispute -- ranging from independence, accession to Pakistan, to de jure recognition of the current status quo. All three are at odds with the views of the Government of India[14], so some label them anti-national. Others believe that there are indeed many views about and approaches to the dispute.
- He was also a member of the India Progressive Action Group (IPAG) in Austin, Texas, that funded and worked closely with various rural development projects in India.[citation needed]
- He has worked with the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), the Narmada Bachao Andolan and Ekta.[citation needed]
- He was on the editorial board of the Consumer Guidance Society of India (CGSI) and the Foundation for Humanization.[citation needed]
- He is a member of the Managing Committee of Citizens for Peace (CfP) in Mumbai.[citation needed]
- Dilip was an invited speaker/panelist to the Austin conference of the Association for India's Development (AID[15]) and witnessed first-hand their relief and rehabilitation work in Tamil Nadu after the tsunami in December 2004. AID supported the post-tsunami relief activities of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). [16] DYFI is the youth wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).[17]. AID, however, has denied any permanent links with any political parties in India.[18]
[edit] Published Books
Dilip D'Souza has written the following books (published by Penguin India):
- Branded by Law: Looking at India's Denotified Tribes [19]
- The Narmada Damned: An Inquiry into the Politics of Development (2002) [20]
He is currently researching on a third book, dealing with patriotism and Kashmir. [21]
