Ashis Nandy (Bengali: আশীষ নন্দী) (born 1937) is an Indian political psychologist, a social theorist, and a contemporary cultural and political critic. A trained sociologist and clinical psychologist, his body of work covers a variety of topics, including public conscience, mass violence, and dialogues of civilizations. Nandy quit medical college before joining Hislop College, Nagpur to study social sciences. Later he took a Master's degree in sociology. However, his academic interest tended increasingly towards clinical psychology and he did his Ph.D. in psychology at Gujarat University, Ahmedabad.