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Biography

Contact Details:

Office: B 308, IIM Calcutta, Joka, Kolkata - 700104.

Academics

Academic Background:

Ph. D. (2005), Goa University
M.Phil. (1998), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay
M.A. in Sociology (1995), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi

Courses Taught:

Indian Social Structure; Consumption, Culture and Markets; Sociological Theories; Qualitative Research Methodology; Economy and Society in Post-colonial India

Awards:

Recipient of Prof. V. K. R. V. Rao Award in Social Sciences (Sociology), 2014. Recipient of the Indian Sociological Society’s (ISS) Prof. M. N. Srinivas Memorial Award for Young Sociologist, 2007. Recipient of the Indian Social Science Association’s (ISSA) Prof. Radhakamal Mukerjee Memorial Award for Young Social Scientist, 2002.

Consulting Interests:

“Socio-economic effect in the event of recent “Bird-Flu” outbreak in the rural poultry population” for the Directorate of Animal Resources and Animal Health, Government of West Bengal “Appraisal of NREGA in West Bengal” for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) “Restructuring School Education System in West Bengal”, Government of West Bengal (with Profs Ashok Banerjee, Bhaskar Chakrabarti, Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Shekhar Chaudhuri)

Current Projects:

“Everyday State and Local Bureaucracy: Governance at the ‘Block’” (with Prof. Bhaskar Chakrabarti); Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta "Can dual apprenticeships create better and more equitable outcomes for young people? A comparative study of India and Mexico" (with Prof. Saikat Maitra), ESRC/Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), UK, December 2018-August 2021. “Gendered Journeys: the trajectories of STEM students and graduates through higher education and into employment, in multiple global south contexts”, (with Prof. Saikat Maitra), ESRC/Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), UK, May 2021–April 2023.

Past Projects:

“Political Culture and Local Governance: Aspects of Service Delivery in West Bengal” (with Prof. Bhaskar Chakrabarti); Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, 2011 "The Challenges of Governance in a Nascent Democracy” (with Prof. Bhaskar Chakrabarti); Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, 2013 “Political Identity and Cultural Articulation”; Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta ,2010 “Ethnic Associations and Everyday State: Selected Case Studies” ; Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta; 2009 “Integrating Sociology in Management Education: Trends, Trajectories and Possibilities”; Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, 2008

Experience

Work Experience:

Professor (21 April 2016 - )
Associate Professor, Public Policy and Management Group, IIM Calcutta, (3 March 2011 - 20 April 2016)
Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (16 August 2011 - 15 August 2013)
Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (2 July 2007 - 2 March 2011)
Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Goa University, Goa (24 November 1997 - 30 June 2007)

Research

Journal Publications:

• ‘Forging and Foraging Ethnic Identity: The Sylhet Association of Delhi’ (with Nabanipa Bhattacharjee), Sociological Bulletin, Volume, 74, No. 1, January-April 2025, Forthcoming.
• ‘Guest Editorial’ (with Saikat Maitra), Contemporary Education Dialogue, Vol. 21, No. 2, July 2024, pp. 158-63.
• ‘The Marching Millions: An Obloquy for Indian Sociology’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 59, Issue No. 5, 3 February 2024, pp. 14-18.
• ‘Challenging the Status Quo: IIMs and the NEP 2020’ (with R. Rajesh Babu), Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 58, Issue No. 18, 6 May 2023.
• ‘Betwixt Agency and Accountability: Re-visioning Street-level Bureaucrats’ (with Priyanshu Gupta and Bhaskar Chakrabarti), Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, Issue 26, May 2022, pp. 94-113. 
• ‘The Strength of Strong Ties: Wasta and Migration Strategies among the Mappila Muslims of Northern Kerala, India’ (with Mufsin Puthan Purayil), Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies,  Vol. 49, Issue 19, 2023, pp. 5099-5116.
• “Uncertain Itineraries: Dual System of Training and Contemporary TVET Reforms in India” (with Saikat Maitra and Srabani Maitra), Journal of Vocational Education and Training Vol. 76, No. 3, 2024, pp. 556-75. 
• ‘Studying Bureaucracy in Post-Colonial India: The Normative and the Quotidian’ (with Bhaskar Chakrabarti, Mufsin Puthan Purayil), Journal of the Anthropological Survey of India, Vol. 70, No.1, June 2021, pp. 72-86. 
• ‘From Protests to Policies: Actors, Spaces and Processes’ (with Niloshree Bhattacharya), Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 69, No. 3, September-December 2020.
• ‘Peasants and Their Interlocutors: Swami Sahajanand, Walter Hauser and the Kisan Sabha’ (co-authored), Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 55, No. 20, 16 May 2020, pp. 24-28. 
• ‘N. Jayaram in Conversation with Manish Thakur’, Explorations: E-Journal of Indian Sociological Society. Vol. 1, No. 1, April 2017, pp. 103-145. 
• ‘The Changing Rural-agrarian Dominance: A Conceptual Excursus’ (co-authored with Priyanshu Gupta), Sociological Bulletin, January- April 2017, Vol. 66, No. 1, pp. 42-57.
• ‘Editorial Introduction’ (with Dev Pathak), Journal of Human Values, (Guest-edited the Special Issue on Exploring Values: Interdisciplinary Perspectives), Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2016, pp. 1-6. 
• ‘The Politics of Indigenous Social Science: Invoking a Lucknow Sociologist’, Society and Culture in South Asia, Vol. 1. No. 2, July 2015, pp. 109-26. 
• ‘Tracking the Political: Trends and Pathways’, Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 63, No. 3, September-December 2014, pp. 442-55. 
• ‘Sociological Traditions: Contexts, Claims, Practices’, Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol. 48, No. 3, September-December 2014, pp. 419-28. 
• ‘Democracy, Pluralism and the Religious Minorities: The Muslim Question in India’, Social Change, Vol. 43, No. 4, December 2013, pp. 581-94. 
• ‘Radhakamal Mukerjee and the Politics of Disciplinary Erasure: A Preliminary Note’, Eastern Anthropologist, Vol. 66, No.1, January-March, 2013, pp. 33-44. 
• “Of ‘Village Studies’ and the ‘Village’: A Disputed Legacy’ , Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 62, No. 1, January-April 2013, 138-51 
• ‘Everyday Ethnic Engagements: Malayalee Associations in Goa’, Kerala Sociologist, Vol. 40, No. 2, July-December 2012, pp. 106-118. Also published as a book chapter in D. V. Kumar (ed.). 2014. Modernity and Ethnic Processes in India. Jaipur: Rawat Publications, pp. 127-138. 
• ‘Radhakamal Mukerjee and the Quest for an Indian Sociology’, Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 61, No. 1, January-April 2012, pp. 89-108. [Also published in Hindi under the title ‘Radhakamal Mukerjee: Ek Bharatiya Samajshashtra Ki Talash”.in Radhakamal Mukerjee: Chimtan Parampara, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 1-12]. Also published as a book chapter in Ishwar Modi (ed.). 2014. Pioneers of Sociology in India (Readings in Indian Sociology: Volume X). New Delhi: Sage Publications. 
• ‘Sociology of Social Movements’ , Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 60, No. 2, May-August 2011, pp. 346-55. 
• 'Global Discourses and Local Mobilisations: The Case of “Barh Mukti Abhiyan”', Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 58, No. 2, May-August 2009, pp. 212-28. Also published as a book chapter in D.R.Sahu (ed.). 2012. Sociology of Social Movement (Studies in Indian Sociology). New Delhi: Sage Publications. 
• ‘Representing Village: Text and Context of Rural Development Programmes in India’, International Journal of Rural Management, Vol. 3, No. 2, October 2007, pp. 229-43.
• ‘Social Scientists or Development Professionals? Research-Policy Interface in a Rural Development Institute’, Review of Development and Change, Vol. 11, No. 2, July-December 2006, pp. 179-200. 
• ‘Ethical Issues in Social Research’, Indian Journal of Social Work, Vol. 67, Nos. 1&2, January-June, 2006, pp. 182-99. 
• ‘The Indian Village: Colonial Power, Historiography and Forms of Knowledge’, Summerhill: IIAS Review, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2006, pp.: 7-16. 
• ‘Rural Development versus Rural Management: Towards a Comparative Sociology of Institutions’, Man and Development, Vol. 28, No. 2, June 2006, pp. 69-82. 
• ‘State and Village in the Context of Rural Development: A Conceptual Excursus’, Eastern Anthropologist, Vol. 58, Nos. 3 & 4, July-December 2005, pp. 389-400. 
• ‘Visions in Conflict: The Village in the Nationalist Discourse’, Social Change, Vol. 35, No. 3, September 2005, pp. 25-42. 
• ‘Engendering Social Sciences: A View from Sociology’, Loyola Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 18, No. 2, July-December 2004, pp. 213-24. 
• ‘National Institute of Rural Development: A Study of an “Epistemic Community”’, Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 53, No.3, September-December 2004, pp. 347-73. 
• ‘Dalit Politics and the Indian State: Changing Landscape, Emerging Agendas’, Social Change, Vol. 34, No. 2, June 2004, pp. 1-15. 
• 'Collective Violence, State, and Community: Notes on the Making of Communal Riots in India’, IASSI Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 1, July-September 2003, pp. 112-23. 
• ‘Discourse on Rural Development: A Sociological Appraisal’, Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 22, No. 3, July-September 2003, pp. 211-32. 
• ‘Sociology and the Challenge of Globalisation: Issues and Concerns’, Loyola Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 17, No.1, January-June 2003, pp. 33-44. 
• ‘The Politics of Minority Languages: Some Reflections on the Maithili Language Movement’, Journal of Social and Economic Development, Vol. 4, No. 2, July-December 2002, pp. 199-212. 
• ‘How Effective are Pani Panchayats: A Fieldview from Maharashtra’ (co-authored with Binay K. Pattnaik), Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 51, No. 2, March-September 2002, pp. 243-68. Also published as a book chapter in Sukant K Chaudhury (ed.). 2014. Sociology of Environment (Readings in Indian Sociology: Volume VII). New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Conferences:

• ‘Public Policy Interventions and Social Inclusion: The Case of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, India’ in Proceedings of 2009 International Conference on Public Administration (5th) (Vol. 2), UESTC Press, Chengdu (China), pp. 782-87. 
• ‘Integrating Sociology in Management Education: Trends, Trajectories and Possibilities’ In Change and Continuity: Management Prospects and Challenges, 10th South Asian Management Forum, April 9-10, 2009, Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia (AMDISA) and Royal Institute of Management, Thimphu (Bhutan), pp. 180-88.

Research Interests:

• Economic Sociology; Disciplinary History; Management Education

Books/Book Chapters:

Books: 

• Managing India: The Idea of IIMs and Its Changing Contexts (Edited with R. Rajesh Babu), New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis, 2024.
• Sociology and Management Education: Engagements and Agendas, New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis, 2021. 
• Doing Theory: Locations, Hierarchies, Disjunctions (co-edited with Maitrayee Chaudhuri): New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2018. 
• Management Education in India: Perspectives and Practices (co-edited with R. Rajesh Babu). Singapore: Springer International, 2017. 
• Indian Village: A Conceptual History, 2014, New Delhi: Rawat Publishers. 

• The Quest for Indian Sociology: Radhakamal Mukerjee and Our Times. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 2014. 

  Book Chapters: 

• ‘The Dual System of Training and Its Local Enactments: A View from ITIs in India’ (with Sadaf Sethwala, Antara Sengupta, Saikat Maitra, and Srabani Maitra) In Oscar Valiente, Srabani Maitra, Philipp Gonon and Matthias Pilz (eds.). International Policy Transfer of Dual Apprenticeships. Routledge. 
• ‘Beyond the Familiar Terrain: Sociology in Professional Institutions in India’, In B. K. Nagla (ed.) 2024. Sociology in India Volume I, Jaipur: Rawat Publishers. pp. 482-98.
• ‘Reimagining IIIMs: NEP 2020 and the Changing Institutional Governance’ (with R. Rajesh Babu) In R. Rajesh Babu and Manish Thakur eds. 2024. Managing India: The Idea of IIMs and Its Changing Contexts New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis, pp. 98-114.
• ‘Indian Institutes of Management: Footprints and Footsteps into the Future’ (with R. Rajesh Babu) In R. Rajesh Babu and Manish Thakur eds. 2024. Managing India: The Idea of IIMs and Its Changing Contexts New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis, pp. 1-14.
• ‘The Community Development Block and India’s Development Discourse’ (with Bhaskar Chakrabarti and Debraj Bhattacharya), In Suman Nath and Debraj Bhattacharya (eds.), 2022. Development and Discontents in India: Theory, Policy, Practice. London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis. 
• ‘Decentralised Governance in India: The Anticipated and the Unanticipated’, In D. Rajasekhar (ed.). 2021. Handbook on Decentralised Governance and Development in India. Delhi: Routledge, Taylor and Francis, pp. 154-66. 
• Entries on ‘Neta’ and ‘Lal Batti’, In Rukmini Bhaya Nair and Peter Ronald deSouza (eds.). 2020. Keywords for India: A Conceptual Lexicon for the 21st Century. London: Bloomsbury. 
• ‘The Village Studies Tradition in Indian Sociology’, In Shoma Choudhury Lahiri (ed.). 2020. Doing Social Research: Qualitative Methods in Sociology. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, pp. 115-35. 
• ‘Cultural Sociology in India’, In Stephan Moebius, Frithjof Nungesser and Katharina Scherke (eds). 2019. Handbuch Kultursoziologie. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 129-42. 
• ‘Introduction’ (co-authored with Maitrayee Chaudhuri), In Maitrayee Chaudhuri and Manish Thakur (eds.). 2018. Doing Theory: Locations, Hierarchies and Disjunctions, New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, pp. 1-36. 
• ‘The Quest for Indigenous Theory: Then and Now’ In Maitrayee Chaudhuri and Manish Thakur (eds.). 2018. Doing Theory: Locations, Hierarchies and Disjunctions, New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, pp. 39-58. 
• ‘The State of Management Education in India: Trajectories and Pathways’ In Manish Thakur and R. Rajesh Babu (eds.). 2017. Management Education in India: Perspectives and Practices, Singapore: Springer International, pp. 1-20. 
• ‘(Invisible) Disciplines: Sociology and Management’, In Manish Thakur and R. Rajesh Babu (eds.). Management Education in India: Perspectives and Practices, Singapore: Springer International, 2017. 
• ‘Social Forestry for Sustainable Rural Development: The Case of Maharashtra’ In R. B. Patil (ed.). 2014. Sustainable Development: Local Issues and Global Agenda. New Delhi: Rawat Publishers. 
• ‘Globalisation, Middle-Class Consumerism, and the Declining Welfare State: Some Sociological Reflections’, In N. Jayaram and D. Rajasekhar (eds.). 2012. Vulnerability and Globalisation: Perspectives and Analyses from India. New Delhi: Rawat Publishers, pp. 94-113. 
• ‘Of Centres and Peripheries: Sociology in Goa’ (co-authored with Alito Siqueira), in Sujata Patel (ed.). 2011. Doing Sociology in India: Genealogies, Locations and Practices. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 103-26. 
• ‘Of Mainstream and Margins: Sociology in Indian Institutes of Management’ in Maitrayee Chaudhuri (ed.). 2010. Sociology in India: Intellectual and Institutional Practices. New Delhi: Rawat Publishers, pp.157-80. 
• 'Globalisation, Nation-State and the Production of Sociological Knowledge’ in S.R. Mehta (ed.) 2010. Socio-Cultural Diversities and Globalisation: Issues and Perspectives. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, pp.103-18. 
• ‘Mofussil Netajis: Elections and Beyond’ in Lidia Guzy and Uwe Skoda (eds.). 2009. Power Plays: Politics, Rituals and Performances in South Asia. Berlin: WeiBensee Verlag, pp. 19-34. 
• ‘Representing Village: State, Rural Development and the Villager’ in B.C. Barik and U.C. Sahoo (eds.). 2008. Panchayati Raj Institutions and Rural Development in India, Delhi: Rawat Publications, pp. 144-60. 
• ‘The Dalit Discourse on Human Rights: Durban and Beyond’, in S. N. Chaudhary (ed.). 2005. Human Rights and Poverty: Theoretical Issues and Empirical Evidences (Vol. 3). Delhi: Concept Publishing House, pp. 222-35.

Articles/Cases:

• ‘Semantic Journeys: How Some Communities Turned Words Used as Slurs as an Assertion of Pride’ (with Rizwan Ahmad). Scroll.In https://scroll.in/article/1070620/semantic-journeys-how-some-communities-turned-words-used-as-slurs-as-an-assertion-of-pride
• ‘Karpoori Thakur: A Centennial Appraisal’ (co-authored), Mainstream, 27 January 2024.
• ‘IIM Calcutta: Many in One’, The Open Magazine, 5-11 December 2023, pp. 56-58.
• ‘Karpoori Thakur: Social Justice and Its Limits’ (co-authored), Mainstream, 14 October 2023.
• ‘Socio-economic Takeaways from Bihar Caste Survey’ (co-authored), The Tribune, 10 October 2023.
• ‘Shikshit Vyaktitwa Ki Pehchan: Vaktritwa Kala, Oj and Lachhedar Bhasha’ (in Hindi), Samkaleen Janmat, July 2023, pp. 27-30.
• 'IIMC: Rigour and Relevance’, Open, Vol. 14, Issue 49, 6-12 December 2022, pp. 130-33. 
• ‘Maria Aurora Couto (1937-2022) and Her Fifty-Fifty Nationalism’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 57, No. 33, 22 July 2022, pp. 28-29. 
• ‘Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy and the Board of Governors’ (co-authored), Mainstream, 2 July 2022. 
• ‘Congress, BJP and the Christening Culture’, (co-authored), The Tribune, 4 June 2022. 
• ‘India’s Caste Census and the Chimera of Data-driven Policymaking’, (co-authored), The Daily Star (Dhaka), 1 June 2022. 
• ‘Brand Prashant Kishor and Its Political Repercussions’, (co-authored), Mint, 26 May 2022, p. 13 
• ‘IIM Calcutta: The Democracy of Decisions’, Open, Vol. 11, Issue 115, 14-21 January 2022. 
• 'The Withering State: Where are Thou, Sushasan Babu' , Bihar Times, 27 May 2021. 
• 'The Demands of Dignity: In Death, and in Life', Bihar Times, 21 May 2021. 
• ‘Principal Saheb Ka Hona’ (in Hindi), Paathshala: Bheetar Aur Bahar, July 2020. 
• ‘The Marching Millions to Nowhere Villages’, Mainstream, 16 June 2020. 
• ‘Covid-19, Migrants and the Republic’, (co-authored), Bihar Times, 23 May 2020. 
• 'Virus Infects; But It is Poor Governance That Kills the Poor’ (co-authored), Bihar Times, 13 May 2020. 
• ‘Hamare Headmaster Saheb’ (in Hindi), Paathshala: Bheetar Aur Bahar, July 2019, pp. 7-13. 
• ‘Who Should Claim Swami Sahjanand Saraswati’ (co-authored), Bihar Times, 9 February 2019. 
• ‘Medical Tourism’, (with R. Rajesh Babu), Education Times, 11 September 2017 http://www.educationtimes.com/article/248/2017091120170909123135462ead30764/Medical-tourism.html 
• ‘IIMs and Reservations’ (co-authored with R. Rajesh Babu), Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 52, No. 13, 1 April 2017, pp. 15-16. 
• 'Public Health Matters! Does It?’ http://www.iimcalcuttablog.in/public-health-matters-does-it/ 
• ‘Bihar: Psephology Trumps Ideology’, Bihar Times, 23 August 2014. 
• ‘Need of the Hour’, The Times of India (Mumbai and New Delhi editions), 7 July 2014. 
• ‘Samajik Jeevan ko Aakar Deti Kitaben (in Hindi), Bhasha-Boli, 2013, pp. 30-34. 
• ‘Land Question in Bihar: Madhubani as a Metaphor’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 48, No. 19, 11 May 2013, pp. 19-21. 
• ‘Sahibs, Pandits, and the Scholarship on Caste’ (co-authored), www. kafila.org, posted 14 March 2013. 
• ‘Higher Education in Bihar: The Systemic Neglect’, Bihar Times, 23 January 2013. 
• ‘Swami Sahajanand Saraswati: Vivadon Mein Phansi Ek Virasat’ (in Hindi, co-authored), Samayik Varta, Vol. 36, No. 182, pp. 32-35, September 2012. 
• ‘Bihar’s Shame’, Bihar Times, 26 July 2012. 
• ‘Misappropriating a Legacy: Swami and His Contemporary Enthusiasts’, (co-authored), Mainstream, 30 June 2012, Vol. L, No. 28, pp. 15-17. 
• ‘Bihari Asmita and its Blinkers’ (co-authored), Bihar Times, 22 March 2012. 
• ‘JP and the Limits of Lokniti’, Economic and Political Weekly, 1-7 November, 2008, pp. 62-63. 
• ‘Politics, Not Dams, Will Contain Floods’, Bihar Times, 12 September 2008. 
• ‘Dr. Ambedkar and the Indian Village’, Radical Humanist, Vol. 67, No. 10, January 2004, pp. 28-31. 
• ‘Durban Conference’, Radical Humanist, Vol. 65, No. 8, November 2001, pp. 26-27. 
• ‘Rammanohar Lohiya and the Politics of Anti-Congressism’, Mainstream, March 25, 2000, pp. 9-10. 
• ‘Remembering Arvind Narayan Das (1948-2000)’, Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2, January 2001, pp.187-90. 
• ‘Aakalan ki Kasauti To Ho’ (in Hindi), Hans, May 1998.