Looks brown, thinks white When Dinesh D'Souza recently referred to the terrorists who attacked New York as warriors on a late night television show, it created a furore in the USA. The reaction was swift and furious. Several sponsors, such as FedEx and Sears, withdrew from Politically Incorrect, the ABC's popular programme. Many channels stopped telecasting it. And host Bill Maher, who had added fuel to fire with his own comments, was forced to offer an apology. But D'Souza, 40, a research scholar with Hoover Institution in Stanford University now, and formerly a senior domestic policy analyst at the White House during the Ronald Reagan administration, doesn't regret making the remark. In fact, he was patient and polite with the deluge of phone calls and emails that followed thereafter, all demanding an immediate explanation. 'I told them that my intention was not to praise the terrorists or to say the act was honourable. What I meant was that President George Bush was underestimating them by calling them cowards. They are committed to a cause and should be thought of as formidable adversaries,' he told The Telegraph. Whether he is making remarks that stir up a hornet's nest or writing politically provocative books, controversy comes easy to D'Souza. Frequently on TV, fashionably dressed and media savvy, his views on racism, multiculturalism and affirmative action have aroused extreme passions. His best selling books, Illiberal Education (1991) and End of Racism (1995) have been called 'revolutionary manifestos that champion free speech' as well as the products of a 'bigot' with hate-filled content. Going through Illiberal Education, the book that catapulted D'Souza to literary stardom, it is not difficult to understand why. The author takes a conservative right-wing position arguing against multicultural curriculum and affirmative action in college admissions and hiring practices. He tries to demonstrate that racism is inherent in affirmative action 'quotas' and argues that 'merit', with a few exceptions, should determine which students are admitted into universities. There is no doubt that if D'Souza was a political scientist in India, he would have spoken out against the Mandal Commission recommendations. Similarly, his paradigm in the End of Racism has left many wondering whether it offers a path to end discrimination or simply makes a brand new beginning. Racism, he argues, never was the bugbear many people thought it was. If D'Souza is to be believed, racism, while producing unfortunate consequences, originated as Europeans' fair-minded effort to understand non-Westerners' lack of 'civilisational skills.' Much to the consternation of those who disagree with him, D'Souza's views have not been consigned to the dustbin of academia. Instead, he has been hailed as a right wing conservative scholar. He is a much-sought speaker in places like Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford and Duke. Just days after the politically incorrect remarks, he addressed 400 students, faculty members and administrators at the University of Virginia, discussing, 'Why they hate us: America and its enemies.' The response was pretty positive. What exactly is the secret behind the great D'Souza success story? In an age where form often takes precedence over substance, he is stylishly articulate with a gift for repartee. A good public speaker, he once gave 60 lectures in nine months, many of them without notes. Quotable quotes, which draw laughter from the audience and make television ratings go up, come easily to him. In a world where youth is viewed as energy and creativity rather than lack of experience, he has age on his side. But, most importantly, despite part of a minority community himself, D'Souza has taken an ideological position that makes liberals squirm and right-wing conservatives chuckle with glee. He says things you least expect from a first-generation brown immigrant. And because he is talented, he can defend it to a certain degree. This makes him a saleable scholar. Perhaps, it is this positioning that the men in the White House were eager to capitalise on when they took him in. 'I found out later that they had been reading what I was writing. And since they liked what they read, one day they decided, 'let's hire him'.' So, at the age of 26, D'Souza was advising President Reagan on crucial issues such as civil rights, constitutional questions and AIDS. D'Souza admits he did not interact with the former President on a one-on-basis but recalls an interesting incident that gave him an insight into his mind. During a meeting, he saw most Reagan aides having an animated discussion, but the US President was silent and appeared to be detached. 'He just reached out for the jellybean jar occasionally,' recalls D'Souza, who wrote a biography of Reagan in 1997. 'It was only later that I understood his style of functioning. He gave everyone a chance to air his views but did what he thought was best,' he says. It was also at the White House that the author-scholar met Dixie, his American wife. They now have a six-year-old daughter. As the son of a chemical engineer in Mumbai, D'Souza was the regular middle-class Bandra boy playing cricket and watching Hindi films, Sholay being a favourite. He was also fond of reading Western and Eastern literature. 'Books give you a window into experiences that are often deeper than the ones we have in everyday life,' he once said. His life changed at 17 when he had the opportunity to go to a high school in remote Arizona on a one-year Rotary Club exchange programme. He didn't have any plans to stay back but ultimately did. In 1979, he journeyed to New Hampshire to major in English at Dartmouth College. His talent with words and ideas soon came to the fore as he started writing for the campus newspaper and helped start the Dartmouth Review, a conservative magazine that came into national focus for 'attacking the college's administration and taking controversial stands on minority issues.' He went on to work as managing editor of Policy Review and editor of Crisis magazine, a Catholic monthly publication of news and opinion, before the Reagan offer came. Since then, D'Souza has divided his career between writing articles and books, and lecturing extensively on the college circuit. Right now, he is working on his fifth book, which will attempt to explain what makes the American experience distinctive from other cultures. His thesis is based on three important building blocks: science, democracy and capitalism. For all his controversial formulations, D'Souza doesn't want to comment on Kashmir or the after-effects of the WTC attack on India. His explanation: it is not his area of expertise. 'I have never taken up a political issue pertaining to India,' says the former American Enterprise Institute scholar. He has also largely stayed out of the NRI social circle. The academic attributes this to his chosen profession. 'My world has never included too many Indians,' he says. But at a North American Konkani Sammelan sometime back, Dinesh D'Souza was felicitated as the Outstanding Konkani of the Year. At least, there was no controversy about this award.