SASNET Seminar with Ipshita Basu: "Reclaiming Indigeneity and Democracy in India's Jharkhand"

About the seminar

Created in 2000 after a lengthy regional campaign for a separate state, Jharkhand ('the land of forests') represents an important experiment in regional autonomy and self-determination for indigenous communities in a postcolonial democracy. Over two decades, Jharkhand has experienced a volatile political environment as competing political groups have mobilized indigenous subaltern communities for different ends. 

In her book Reclaiming Indigeneity and Decocracy in India's Jharkhand, Ipshita Basu highlights relations of justification as a central feature of claims-making for social groups identifying as indigenous in diverse ways. Specifically, the book focuses on reclaiming political recognition for Adivasis in the dynamic contemporary context of majoritarian populism and the market economy.

About the lecturer

Ipshita Basu is a political sociologist specialising in development justice for indigenous communities and marginalised groups in contexts of change and conflict. Basu holds a PhD in international development from the University of Bath and an MA from the University of Warwick. Currently, she is a Reader in Global Development at the University of Westminister's Centre for Study of Democracy.