There is an Indian connection to post-revolution Tunisia. Kolkata-born Riddhi Dasgupta, the 28-year-old chief draftsperson of British think-tank The Wilberforce Society, was a driving force in crafting the nation's new constitution. The new charter, ratified in January 2014, is the first progressive document in the Arab world and presages a new era for the Tunisian state's relationship with its citizens and the rest of the world. While signing the new constitution, Tunisia's president Moncef Marzouki proclaimed it "our victory over dictatorship." 

Tunisia saw the ouster of the authoritarian regime of president Zine El Abedine Ben Ali in early 2011 and eventually a democratically-elected coalition government of Islamists and Centre-Left party took over the reins of the country. 

The Wilberforce Society, under the stewardship of George Bangham, was asked by the Tunisian National Constituent Assembly (NCA) leaders to put together a comparative-law team to draft a proposed constitution in August 2011. The society submitted the draft in September 2012. 

A 35-member team, of which Dasgupta was a key member, drafted the constitution, keeping in mind Tunisian wishes. Talking about the experience, he says, "It's been great to be witness to history. We were moved by the conversations that we had with Tunisians from different ethnic groups and economic classes. Without the people's help, we wouldn't have been able to produce the draft. The new constitution strives to protect individual rights and human dignity, garner respect for religious traditions while securing secularism, and takes constructive strides against corruption." 

The similarity between Tunisian and Indian society also helped Dasgupta. "My view of international and comparative law is influenced by the cultural richness of India. As a child in West Bengal, I loved Shantiniketan and the university. It's nice to be able to take that Indian essence and deliver it to the rest of the world," he says. 

Son of an IT professional father and professor mother, Riddhi was 12 when he moved with his parents from Lake Town in Kolkata to Washington. He graduated from Columbia University, completed a masters in comparative social policy from Oxford University and followed it up with a doctorate in international economic law from Cambridge University where he was a Cambridge Overseas Trust Scholar. He is now associated with University of California at Berkeley. 

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