I am interested in the study of social movements and resistance, ecology, urban spaces and sociology of food.
My doctoral work was in the field of social movements, where I studied a farmer's movement from Karnataka. During my Post-Doctoral Fellowship, I focused on how protests get translated to policies and in what conditions. I also explore alternative agriculture practices, particularly practices and policies around agroecology in India.
I have explored street food of Kolkata, focusing on taste, cosumption and urban spaces.
B.Sc. Economics (University of Calcutta, 2007)
M.A. Sociology (University of Hyderabad, 2009)
UGC-NET JRF (2010)
M.Phil. Sociology (University of Hyderabad, 2010)
PhD Sociology (University of Hyderabad, 2015)
Post-Doctoral Fellow (Indian Institute of Management Calcutta 2015-2017)
My doctoral work looks at different modes of resistance of social movements, particularly creation of alternatives. It conceptualises creation of alternatives as a mode of resistance, and examines under what conditions do such alternatives act as resistance to dominant power structures. By studying a farmer’s movement which emerged in the post Green Revolution context in India, it explores how an agrarian movement is reorienting itself to address the contemporary questions of ecological and agrarian crises. It focuses on Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) and its networks with transnational agrarian movement La Via Campesina (LVC), besides other national networks with agrarian, social justice and environmental movements. Focusing on the linkage between networks, discourses and practices, it looks at the emergence and significance of concepts of food sovereignty and agro-ecology, and the emergence of alternative methods of agriculture such as zero budget natural farming (ZBNF).
Member, Internal Complaints Committee (November 2019 onwards)
Member, Finance Committee (Sept 2018 to 2022)
Member, Grievance Redressal Cell (November 2019 to 2023)
Courses taught:
Sociology of India (UG)
Envrionment and Society (Optional) (UG)
Economy and Society (UG and PG)
Field Methods (PG)
Currently supervising doctoral students in the field of:
a) Urban Spaces (Focus on Ghats of Kolkata)
b) Social Movements (Focus on Ethnic Politics in North Bengal and Sikkim)
c) Economy and Society (Focus on Flower Market Sellers in Kolkata)
PhD degree Awarded: 1 (in 2024)
Life Member, Indian Sociological Society
Articles
'Food Sovereignty and Agro-ecology in Karnataka: Interplay of Discourses, Practices and Identities', Development in Practice 27(4), June 2017
'Networks, Solidarities and Emerging Alternatives: Linkages of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) with La Via Campesina', Economic and Political Weekly (Special Issue of Review of Rural Affairs), Vol. LII no. 25 and 26, 48-55, 2017
'Social Movements, 'Popular Spaces' and Participation: A Review', Sociological Bulletin, 61(2), co-author Vinod K. Jairath, May 2012
‘From Protest to Policies: Actors, Spaces and Processes’ , co-author Manish Thakur, Sociological Bulletin, Journal of the Indian Sociological Society, Volume 69 (3), 2020, 1-17.
'Art, Resistance and Social Media: The Anti CAA Protests in India'. Forthcoming in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies (Dec 2025).
Book Reviews
In the name of the goddess: Contemporary Durga pujas in Kolkata, Tapati Guha Thakurta, 66(1) pp. 106-108, Sociological Bulletin, 2017
Persistence of Poverty in India, Nandini Gooptu and Jonathan Parry (eds.) New Delhi: Social Science Press, 65(2) May-Aug, pp. 272-98 Sociological Bulletin, 2016
Ananta Kumar Giri (ed.): New Horizons of Human Development. New Delhi: Studera Press, 2015 xxxiv+51 pp., Price not given (hb) ISBN 978-81-939333-5-7, Sociological Bulletin 66(3), 2017
State of India's Livelihood Report 2017, Narasimhan srinivasan and Girija Srinivasan, Sage Publications (New Delhi) Sociological Bulletin Vol. 68 no. 2. 2019.
‘State-Labour Relations and Spaces of Dissent: Whither Labour Activism’, a Review of Undervalued Dissent: Informal Workers’ Politics in India. Manjusha Nair, Albany: State University of New York Press. 2016. Published in Historical Materialism, April 2020 historicalmaterialism.org/book-review/state-labour-relations-and-spaces-dissent-whither-labour-activism
Presidency University Students Corner