Arupjyoti Saikia 

Arupjyoti Saikia 

Professor 
Education: PhD
History
arupjyoti@iitg.ac.in
+91 361 2582564
Room No: 207
Personal Website

Research Interests: Economic, Environmental and Political History of Modern Assam

Journal Publications


1. Arupjyoti Saikia, "Nature and Assam's present", Seminar, vol.690, pp.20-24 [2017]

2. Arupjyoti Saikia, "Borders, Commodities and Citizens across Mud and River: Assam, 1947-1950", Studies in History, Sage, vol.32, Issue no.1, pp.72-96 [2016]

3. Arupjyoti Saikia, "Jute in the Brahmaputra valley: The making of flood control in 20th century Assam", Modern Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press, vol.49, Issue no.5, pp.1405-1441 [2015]

Book Chapter


1. Arupjyoti Saikia, "Hardwoods and the British Empire in Assam: Sal and Teak in the Age of Colonialism, 1850s–1940s" , Capital and Ecology: Developmentalism, Subjectivity and the Alternative Life-Worlds , Routledge , [2023]

2. Arupjyoti Saikia, "Flows and Fairs: The Eastern Himalayas and the British Empire" , Flows and Frictions in Trans-Himalayan Spaces: Histories of Networking and Border Crossing , Amsterdam University Press , [2022] https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463724371/flows-and-frictions-in-trans-himalayan-spaces

3. Arupjyoti Saikia, "Landscape, Culture, and Belonging: Writing the History of Northeast India" , Geographical Exploration and Historical Investigation: John Peter Wade in Assam , Cambridge University Press , pp.110-130, [2019]

4. Arupjyoti Saikia, "On Modern Indian Sensibilities: Culture, Politics, History" , Vernacular for the Nation : Hemchandra Goswami’s Typical Selections from Assamese Literature , Routledge , pp.179-197, [2018]

5. Arupjyoti Saikia, "“Making Room Inside Forests: Grazing and Agrarian Conflicts in the Brahmaputra valley of Colonial Assam”" , Shifting Ground: People, Animals, and Mobility in India's Environmental History , Oxford University Press , [2014]

6. Arupjyoti Saikia, "“Coal in Colonial Assam: the Dynamics of Exploration, Trade and Environmental Consequences”" , The Coal Nation: Histories, Cultures and Ecologies of Coal in India , Ashgate, London , [2014]

Books


1. Arupjyoti Saikia, "The Quest for Modern Assam: A History, 1942-2000", Penguin Random House [2023], https://www.penguin.co.in/book/the-quest-for-modern-assam-a-history/

2. Arupjyoti Saikia, "The Unquiet River: A Biography of the Brahmaputra", Oxford University Press [2019], https://india.oup.com/product/the-unquiet-river-9780199468119

3. Arupjyoti Saikia, A Century of Protests: Peasant Politics in Assam Since 1900, Routledge [2014], https://www.routledge.com/A-Century-of-Protests-Peasant-Politics-in-Assam-Since-1900/Saikia/p/book/9781138660274

4. Arupjyoti Saikia, "A Forests and Ecological History of Assam, 1826-2000", Oxford University Press [2011]

5. Arupjyoti Saikia, "Jungles, Reserves, Wildlife: A History of Forests in Assam", Wildlife Areas Development and Welfare Trust, Assam [2005]

6. Arupjyoti Saikia, "Orunodoi: collected essays between the period 1855–1968", Krantikal, Nagaon [2002]

No Project Available!

Sl.No Name Thesis Title PhD Status
1 Ajay Salunkhe Displaying India: Museums, Exhibitions, and Politics in Modern India APR3
2 Ditte Moni Baruah Polity and Petroleum Making of an Oil Industry in Assam, 1825-1980
3 Kawal Deep Kour History of Intoxication: Opium in Assam, 1800-1959
4 N.s. Abhilasha Empire, Epidemics, and Health in Assam, 1860-1940 APR2
5 Arka Ghatak Course Work
6 Hrishita Rajbangshi
7 Priyanka Sarma Writing and Poetics in Vernacular: Exploring the Assamese Literary Practices (c. 14th-18th century AD)
8 Namrata Borkotoky Completed
9 Prarthana Saikia
10 Swagata Mukhopadhyay Discovery of Ancient Kamrup: Quest for Past in Colonial Assam
11 Himalaya Bora Course Work
12 Gitashree Tamuly Completed
13 Rima Kalita Will update soon Comprehensive
Sl.No Name Year Dissertation Title
1 Ayushi Chauhan 2020 Environment, Governance and Development: Making of Modern Delhi and the Changing Fate of Yamuna River
2 Himalaya Bora 2017 Agrarian world, market and colonial Darrang: Understanding market in colonial times
3 Suchiney Buhphang 2016 Trade and navigation on the Brahmaputra river during the Colonial period: 1873-1889
4 Madhab Bonia 2016 A study in Jonai sub-division under Dhemaji district: understanding flood and embankment in the Brahmaputra Valley
5 Namrata Borkotoky 2015 A history of tea plantations in Assam: 1947-70
6 Dhrubajyoti Nath 2013 The Land Question: Assam Legislative Assembly, 1951-61
7 Haren Saikia 2013 Emerging Dilemma of Forest Rights in Assam: A Study of Doyang and Tengani Area
8 Rinku Das 2013 When Fish Disappear! Ecological Fates of Fishing Communities in Floodplain of Brahmaputra Valley
9 Sajib Das 2013 Avifauna, Landscape and Ecological Transformation in Assam: An Exploration into two habitats
10 Pratim Das Land, Rivers and Agriculture : Making of the Teesta Barrage in North Bengal

No Data Available!

Sl.No Name Year
No Data Available!
Sl.No Program Name Email Year Thesis/Project Title Affiliation

Awards and Achievements


Award Title : New India Foundation Fellowship
Awarded By : New India Foundation
2017-18 National
Award Title : Charles Wallace Visiting Fellowship
2017-18 International
Award Title : Srikanta Dutta Book Award
Awarded By : NMML, New Delhi
2016 National

Patents


No Data Available!

Sl.No Name of Faculty and co-researcher Title Application No Date of Award Year Status

Attended


Title: Gold washers, Fishermen, and Boatmen: Was there a pre-modern life of the Brahmaputra?

Name of Conference: Six Rivers in Historical Times: Nature-Human Interactions on Himalayan Rivers

Duke University, Durham, USA Feb 18, 2016 - Feb 18, 2016 International
Title: “Sal, Teak and a British Imperial Project: Redesigning an Ancient Landscape in India’s North East”

Name of Conference: The Wood Age in Asia Connection and Comparison in Forest History

Yale University, New Haven Sep 21, 2018 - Sep 23, 2018 International

Invited


Title: Elephants, Water and Environmental History of Modern Guwahati

Name of Conference: More-than-Human Guwahati: Reflections on Nonhuman Lives in the Indian Urban

Cotton University, Cotton University Nov 7, 2022 - Nov 8, 2022 No.of Partcipants: 50 International
Title: Colonial Oil Explorations and Assam’s Nature
: Some Preliminary Consideration

Name of Conference: Energy History and Environmental Sustainability

University of Chicago, New Delhi May 3, 2024 - May 3, 2024 No.of Partcipants: 50 International
Title: Trading Nature at Empire's Edge: Marwari Merchants in Colonial Northeast India [c.1820s-1920]

Name of Conference: Asian Borderlands: Cross-Border Exchange and Extraction in Modern History

University of Bern, University of Bern Sep 2, 2024 - Sep 3, 2024 No.of Partcipants: 50 International

Attended


Title: Unwilling Hosts: Partition and the Entangled Histories of Assam

Name of Invited Lecture: Borders in Modern Asia Seminar Series

Harvard University, Harvard, USA Feb 18, 2014 - Feb 18, 2014 International
Title: The Unruly Floodplains, the British Empire and an Environmental History of the Brahmaputra

Name of Invited Lecture: South Asian Studies Colloquium

Yale University, New Haven Sep 18, 2027 - Sep 18, 2027 International

Invited


Title: Where Rain Becomes History: How the Monsoon Carved Assam's Destiny?

Name of Invited Lecture: Keynote Lecture: Global Protection of Refugees and Climate - Induced Migrants

CRG, Kolkatat, Kolkata Feb 20, 2024 - Feb 21, 2024 No.of Partcipants: 100 International
Title: Power, Voice and the Buranjis: Rethinking Assamese Historical Thoughts

Name of Invited Lecture: Lila Gogoi Memorial Lecture

North Lakhimpur College, North Lakhimpur College May 24, 2024 - May 24, 2024 No.of Partcipants: 100 National
Title: Anxiety and Enigma: Last Days of the British Empire in Assam

Name of Invited Lecture: Anxiety and Enigma: Last Days of the British Empire in Assam

Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh Mar 18, 2029 - Jul 19, 2030 National
Title: Paik to Raiyat: Patharughat, 1894

Name of Invited Lecture: Pandit Tirthanath Sarma Memorial Lecture

Pragjyotish College, Guwahati, Guwahati Sep 18, 2001 - Sep 18, 2001 National

Invited


Title: Flows and Fairs: The Eastern Himalayas and the British Empire

Name of Workshop: Reimagining Frontiers

University of Zurich, University of Zurich Sep 6, 2024 - Sep 6, 2024 No.of Partcipants: 30 International