Dr. Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay

Name: Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay

Designation: Associate Professor

Email: ritajyoti@iisermohali.ac.in

Office: 4F1, Academic Block 2

Education Ph.D. (History), Jadavpur University and Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, and partly at UC Berkeley; degree awarding institution: Jadavpur University
M.A (History), Jadavpur University
B.A (History), Jadavpur University

Employment

2023-Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IISER Mohali

2016-2023: Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IISER Mohali

Areas of Research

Urban History, Contemporary History, Political Economy, State and Democracy Studies, Infrastructure Studies

Research Focus: My earlier and ongoing research projects explore themes in informality, infrastructure technologies, urban history and governmentality studies in late-colonial and postcolonial India. I work on the trajectories of capitalist accumulation and urbanization in twentieth century Calcutta, economic informality, postcolonial statecraft and its relationship with knowledge, social policy, rent and tenancy relations in South Asian cities, and mass political formation under popular sovereignty and neoliberalism.

Teaching

HSS602: Social Theory: Concepts and Debates
HSS634: Themes in Infrastructure Studies
HSS637: Reading Records
HSS642: Science and Society

Selected Publications

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2022): Streets in Motion: The Making of Infrastructure, Property and Political Culture in Twentieth-century Calcutta (Series: Metamorphoses of the Political), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [Monograph]: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009109208

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2022): ‘The Making of a Majoritarian Metropolis: Crowd Action, Public Order and Communal Zoning in Calcutta’, in Thomas Blom Hansen and Srirupa Roy (eds) Saffron Republic: Hindu Nationalism and State Power in India (Series: Metamorphoses of the Political), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 130-157: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009118873.006

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay and Ujaan Ghosh (2022): ‘Class and Tenancy Relations in Calcutta.’ In R. Bhattacharya, & A. Shaw (eds), ‘Urban housing, Livelihoods and Environmental Challenges in Emerging Economies’, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 362–391: https://orientblackswan.com/details?id=9789354422331

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2022): ‘The Life of Sidewalks in Calcutta: Histories and Possibilities’, in Manas Ray (Ed). State of Democracy in India: Essays on Life and Politics in Contemporary Times, New Delhi: Primus, 475-500: https://primusbooks.com/state-of-democracy-in-india-essays-on-life- and-politics-in-contemporary-times-ed-by-manas-ray/

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Paula Banerjee and Ranabir Samaddar (eds), (2021): India’s Migrant Workers and the Pandemic, London: Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Indias-Migrant-Workers- and-the-Pandemic/Bandyopadhyay-Banerjee-Samaddar/p/book/9781032158921

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Paula Banerjee and Ranabir Samaddar (2021): ‘The Shiver of the Pandemic’. In Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Paula Banerjee and Ranabir Samaddar (eds), (2021): India’s Migrant Workers and the Pandemic, London: Routledge: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003246121-1/introduction-ritajyoti- bandyopadhyay-paula-banerjee-ranabir-samaddar

 Rajan Pandey and Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2021): ‘Covid-19: Migration, Informality, and Postcolonial Capitalist Development’, in Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Paula Banerjee and Ranabir Samaddar (eds), (2021): India’s Migrant Workers and the Pandemic, London: Routledge: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003246121-6/covid-19-rajan-pandey- ritajyoti-bandyopadhyay

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2021): ‘Growing Democracy: How India’s Green Revolution Enfranchised the Rural Poor’, Breakthrough Journal, 14, Summer 2021: https://thebreakthrough.org/journal/no-14- summer-2021/growing-democracy-india-farmer

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2020): ‘Why do Empty Streets Threaten Democracy?’ Antipode (Wiley), 25 June, 2020: https://antipodeonline.org/2020/06/25/empty-streets/

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2017): ‘Obstruction: Counter-pedestrianism and the Trajectories of an Infrastructure Public’, Decision (Springer), 44 (2), 121-132: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40622-017-0155-7

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2016): Institutionalizing Informality: ‘The Hawkers’ Question in Postcolonial Calcutta’, Modern Asian Studies (Cambridge), 50, (2), 675-717: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/abs/institutionalizing-informality-the-hawkers-question-in-postcolonial-calcutta/8F73E390BF050976D660E8A6364DF83E

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2015): ‘Counter-pedestrianism’: Seminar, 674: http://www.india-seminar.com/2015/674.htm

 Curt Gambetta and Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2012): ‘The Problem Statement’ of the Seminar Issue, ‘Streetscapes’, Volume 636, August: http://www.india-seminar.com/semframe.html  Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay, T. V. H. Prathamesh and Puja Guha (2012): ‘Zoning Crossroads: A Critique’, in Curt Gambetta and Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (eds.) Seminar Symposium titled ‘Streetscapes’, Volume 636, August. Link: http://www.indiaseminar.com/semframe.html

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2011): ‘A Historian among Anthropologists: Comments on “Politics of Archiving”’, Dialectical Anthropology (Springer), 35:(3), 331-339: http://www.springerlink.com/content/q397w40817281213/

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2011): ‘Politics of Archiving: Hawkers and Pavement Dwellers in Calcutta’, Dialectical Anthropology (Springer), 35: (3), 295-316:http://www.springerlink.com/content/41rk00157lh771j2/

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2010): ‘Negociaciones del Archivo: El Caso de Los Venderores Ambulantes en Calcutta’, Estudios de Asia y Africa (Jstor), 45: (1), January – April: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/27807142

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2009): ‘Hawkers’ Movement in Kolkata, 1975-2007’, Economic and Political Weekly, 44 (17), 116-119: https://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/2009_44/17/Hawkers_Movement_in_Kolkata_19752007.pdf

  Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay and Ranabir Samaddar (2017): ‘Caste and the Frontiers of Postcolonial Accumulation’, in Iman Mitra, Ranabir Samaddar and Samita Sen (eds), Accumulation in Postcolonial Capitalism, Singapore, Springer: http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-981-10-1037-8_10

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2013): ‘The Political Economy of India’s Unique Identification Project’, in Atig Ghosh (ed): Branding the Migrant: Arguments of Rights, Welfare and Security, London, Frontpage

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2012): “In the Shadow of the Shopping Mall: Hawkers in Global Calcutta,” in G. L. Riberico, C. A. Vega and G. Mathews (eds.) Economic Globalization from Below, New York and London: Routledge: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415535090/

 Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (2007): “Role of women in the Joint Forest Management Programme: Case Study of Two Forest Villages of West Bengal,” in Ranjan Chakrabarti (ed.): Situating Environmental History, New Delhi: Manohar: Click Here

Research Projects

ESRC-ICSSR RESEARCH PROJECT TITLED ‘LEARNING FROM SMALL CITIES: governing imagined futures in India’s smart urban age (2018-2020) LINK: https://www.smartsmallcity.com/

Position: Co-investigator
LINK: https://www.smartsmallcity.com/research-team/dr-ritajyoti-bandyopadhyay

Position (s) outside IISER Mohali Permanent Fellow (2014-), Critiques and Renewals of Democracy Module, International Centre of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, New Delhi
https://micasmp.hypotheses.org/moduls/critiques-and-renewals-of-democracy Visiting Professor (W2), Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), University of Gottingen (August 2021-July 2022)

Achievements

2021: Best Teacher Award, IISER Mohali.

2005: University Gold medal for standing first in order of merit at the M.A. Examination in History, Jadavpur University, calcutta, India.

2005: Ratnalekha Roy Memorial gold centered silver medal for standing first in History, the Master of Arts Examination, Jadavpur University, calcutta, India, 2005.

2003: University Gold Medal for standing first in order of merit in the B.A. Examination in History, Jadavpur University, calcutta, India, 2003.

2003: Uma Charan Sen Memorial Gold Medal for securing highest marks in Bachelor of Arts in History, Jadavpur University, calcutta, India, 2003.

2003: National Scholarship issued by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, National Scholarship Scheme 2003-04 for standing first in Bachelor of Arts Examination in History at Jadavpur University, calcutta, India