Jayanta Sengupta
Assistant Professor of History
Field
South Asian History
Profile
Jayanta Sengupta received his BA in History from Presidency College, Calcutta, his MA in History from the University of Calcutta, and a PhD in History from the University of Cambridge. He taught previously at Jadavpur University, India, and has held visiting appointments at the Universities of Cambridge, Pennsylvania, Heidelburg and Utah State University. His primary research interests are the social and cultural history of modern South Asia, and Indo-US intellectual interactions.
Current Project
Dr. Sengupta is currently working on the last revisions of a book manuscript on the discourses of development and democracy in twentieth-century Orissa, India. Titled "At the margins: Discourses of Development, Democracy and Regionalism in an Indian State," it investigates the nature of the politics of ethnicity and cultural 'nationalism' in modern India, and explores the relationship of such politics with both Indian nationalism in the late-colonial period and the centralizing impertives of the postcolonial Indian state. It also examines how the concepts of 'backwardness' and 'marginality' are constructed in domocratic societies, and the ways in which they inform political identities and affect patterns of democratic bargaining. The book proposes to present a dynamic historicalunderstanding of how democratic forms of governance are able to adapt to unequal and divided societies, and in doing so, also change the cultural expression of rights and obligations, and patterns of social and political power.
With the help of a grant from the University Grants Commission of India, he is also working on a second book project ("Trans-Oceanic Passages: Scholars, Missionaries, Travelers and American Constructions of India, 1850-1950") on the relationship between Orientalism and American perceptions of colonial rule in th eUS in a perios of increasing global involvement, Cross-cultural and comparative in its approach, the book projec addresses transnational issues such as Imperialism, Colonialism, nationalism and Orientalism.
Teaching Interests
The history and civilization of South Asia, Colonialsm and Nationalism in South Asia, Postcolonial and contemporary South Asia, Gender and politics, perceptions of the West in the Indian subcontinent, cultural practices and negotiating modernity in South Asia.
Recent Publictions
"Indian Princely States," Peter N. Stearns, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming, 2008).
"Through Albion's Looking Glass? Constructions of Inda in American Travel Writing, c. 1850-1910," Bharati Ray, ed., Science, Culture History: Exploring New Frontiers (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, forthcoming, 2008).
"Islam Through the Eyes of Americans: Reflections on My Fulbright Experience," Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani and Nibir K. Ghosh, eds., Beyond Boundaries: Reflections of Indian and U.S. Scholars (New York, Lincoln and Shanghai: iUniverse, Inc., 2007).
"Imaginied Chronologies: Perceptions of "Development" as a Tool of mapping Oriya Political Identity," Angelika Malinar, ed., Time in India. Concepts and Practices (New Delhi: Manohar, 2007).
"Globalising Patriotism? Some Lessons from the ICC World Cup of 2003," J.A. Mangn and Boria Maajumdar, eds., Sport in South Asian Society: Past and Present (London: Routledge, 2005).
Contact
Office: 228 Decio Faculty Hall
Phone: (574)631-7536
Email: jsengupt@nd.edu