Faculty

Teaching

Courses

Education

  • B.A. (Pol. Science), St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata – 2011
  • M.A. (Political Science), Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi – 2013
  • Phil., CPS, Jawaharlal Nehru University – 2015
  • Ph.D. CPS, Jawaharlal Nehru University – 2022

Profile

Chepal Sherpa is a student of political philosophy. Completed his doctoral thesis on the question of Self and Praxis in Classical Marxism. Trained in political theory, his area of interest is critical theory, Marxism, and Post-colonialism. More specifically, he is passionate about ideas of ethics, justice, truth, and their relation with political practices. Similarly, his doctoral thesis is a critical study on the relation between ethical claims and political practice in the writings of Marx, Georg Lukacs and Lenin. He wrote his M. Phil dissertation on the critique of Postcolonial Thought in India.

Apart from political philosophy, he has been a keen observant of contemporary ecological questions. He has taught courses like – Modern Indian Political Thought and Government and Politics in India for the undergraduate students while writing his thesis. He has also worked as research assistant with a group of Indian journalists and academics abroad. As a scholar, he has contributed on various political issues in journals and books chapters.

Research Interests

  • Critical Theory
  • State and Politics in India
  • Ecology and Law
  • Political Movements and Democracy

Publications

Journal Articles:

  • Countering Hegemony of ‘Hegemony’: A Marxist Critique of “Subaltern” Pedagogy in – “Neoliberalism, Critical Pedagogy and Education”, Ed. Ravi Kumar, (New Delhi: Routledge, 2016) 
  • Revisiting the Debate on Man-Nature relationship in Marxist Tradition – Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 57, Issue No. 18, 30th Apr, 2022.
  • Development Discourse: A Comprehensive perspective on Politics of Development Boards in Darjeeling Hills, in “Contemporary Issues in rural and Urban Development: Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas”, Ed. Dr. Neelee KC Lepcha, (New Delhi: Rajesh Publications, 2022).

Paper Presentations at International Conferences:

  • Countering Hegemony of ‘Hegemony’: A Marxist Critique of “Subaltern” Pedagogy, at International Conference on “Educational Transformation and Transformative Education: Possibilities and Alternatives to the Educational Crisis”, in South Asian University, New Delhi on 20-22 March, 2014.
  • Theorising Democratic Legality under Neoliberal Capitalism: India’s Neoliberal Project and the Maoist Alternative, at the International Symposium (workshop) on “Politics of Legality in a Neoliberal Age” on 1st and 2nd August 2014 in the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia.
  • Politics and Poetics” at the international seminar organized in the year 2017, by South Asian University and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung on the 150th anniversary of publication of Marx’s Capital and 100th year of Russian Revolution.

Paper Presentations in India:  

  • Caste and Cultural Interpretations: Proposal for a Materialist Interpretation of Caste” at the Young Scholars’ Seminar, titled “Articulating  Caste” 5-6th September, 2015 organised by Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion, School of Social Sciences, JNU, New Delhi.
  •  “‘Ascending from Earth to Heaven’: Understanding Political Subject as Against Subaltern Politics” at the Young Scholars Conference “Democracy and Dissent”, 2016 organized by Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, JNU, New Delhi.
  • “Conceptions of Self in Marxism”, Young Scholars Seminar, 2020, organized by Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, JNU, New Delhi.

Lectures:

  • Political Discourses of Identity and Development in Gorkhaland Movement at the invitation of IQAC and Debating and  Seminar Committee, Kurseong College, as a Resource Person, on a one day Seminar on 22/04/2022
  • A Historical Approach to an Understanding of Post-Emergency Politics in India, organized by Department of History, St. Joseph’s College, Darjeeling (North Point), on 13/04/2022
  • Mapping Global Politics since Ukraine-Russia War, invited and organized by the Department of Political Science, Southfield College, Darjeeling, on 19/04/2022.

Articles: 

  • “The Hokkolorob Movement and the Shantiniketan Sexual Assault Case: Convergences, Fragmentation and the Aversion to Politics” (published in the year 2014 at ‘Sanhati’)
  • “I Love Justice and Intensely Hate Mockery of it!!” (published in 2015 at Sanhati)
  • “The Real Reason Behind The RSS Branding JNU As A ‘Den For Anti-Nationals’” (Published in 2015, at ‘Youth Ki Awaaz’)
  • “Ideological Stagnation of Communist Parties: A Moment to go Back and Reaffirm Marx” (Published in 2016, at Counter Currents.Org)
  • Forms of Attacks on Students’ Movement in Today’s Context” (published in 2016, at Towards a New Dawn)
  •  “Pinjra Tod: Witches You Couldn’t Burn Yesterday” (published in 2016 at Towards a New Dawn)
  •  “Watch Dangal, Uncover the Logic of Contemporary Right-Wing Ideology” (Published in 2017, at Counter Currents.Org)