Subho Basu
Assistant Professor of History

145 Eggers Hall / Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY 13244-1020
Tel. 315-443-3802 / Fax 315-443-5876
Website: http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/hist/isuweb/
email: subasu@maxwell.syr.edu


Academic Specialization

Indian History, South Asian History, African Studies.

Education
  1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge (UK) PhD, in History 1990-94.
  2. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. M.Phil. in South Asian History (Distinction) 1986-89.
  3. Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal, India 1981-86.
    MA in History with specialization in Modern South Asia (First Class)
    BA (Honors) in History with Economics subsidiary (First Class)

Dissertation
  1. "Workers' Politics in Bengal, 1890-1929: Mill-towns, Strikes and Nationalist Agitations".
  2. Supervisor Late R. S. Chandavarkar ( British System)

Work Experience

Current Positions:
  1. Syracuse University, Assistant Professor in South Asian History, Department of History, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Global Affairs, August 2005

Prior Employment:

  1. Illinois State University, Assistant Professor in South Asian History. August 2002- August 2005.
  2. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, England. Teaching Fellow in Indian History. September 1999 - August 2002.
  3. College of St Mark and St John (affiliated to the University of Exeter), England. Assistant Professor in British Imperial History.1996-1999.
  4. University of Cambridge, Center of South Asian Studies, Smuts-Hinduja Fellow 1993-1996.
  5. University of Cambridge, Wolfson College, Fellow and Member of the Governing Body 1994-1996.
  6. North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India. Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Modern Indian History 1989-90.

Teaching Assignments at Syracuse University

South Asia:
  1. Ancient and Medieval India
  2. Making of Modern India
  3. Gandhi and Gandhism
  4. Maps and Identity

Cross Disciplinary Study:

  1. Theories of Empire
  2. Globalization and Global Community

Teaching Assignments at Illinois State University

South Asia:

  1. History of South and South East Asia

  2. Democracy. Modernity and Nation Formation,: The Indian Experience.(His 309)

Cross Disciplinary Study:

  1. Philosophy of History and Historiography (His 496)
  2. Partitions :Themes in Global History ( His 478)

Teaching Assignments at SOAS

South Asia:

  1. The Rebellion of 1857

  2. Nehru and India’s Modernity
  3. ‘India and Pakistan c., 1860-1971

Cross Disciplinary Study:

  1. Theories of Imperialism

Teaching Assignments at College of St. Mark and St. John

South Asia:

  1. British Empire and India (1757-1947)

  2. Indian Ocean Region and Early Maritime Colonial Empire (1498-1757)
  3. Nationalism and Popular Resistance: India 1914-1947

Cross Disciplinary Study:

  1. Colonial Empire in India and sub Saharan Africa
  2. Colonial Experience and After
  3. Development Experience in India and the Middle East (1947-97)

Teaching Assignments at Cambridge University

South Asia:

  1. India from the eighteenth Century onwards

  2. Sociology and Politics of South Asia

Cross Disciplinary Study:

  1. The Expansion of Europe
  2. The West and the Third World

Research and Publications

Monograph:

  1. Does Class Matter? Colonial Capital and Workers' Resistance in Bengal (1890-1937). New Delhi, New York: Oxford University Press 2004 (South Asia Series sponsored by SOAS, University of London).

Co-authored Book:

  1. Paradise Lost: State in Crisis in Nepal (with Ali Riaz) Forthcoming Lexington Press, 2007.

Edited Volumes:

  1. Electoral Politics in South Asia. Co-editor Suranjan Das Calcutta: K. P. Bagchi (2000) (Calcutta University Monograph Series).

  2. Second World War and Decolonisation Special Edition, Social Scientists, India Vol. 27, Nos. 7-8, July; Co-editors S. Bhattacharya and R. Keys (1999).

  3. Rethinking Indian Political Institutions. Co-editor: Crispin Bates, Anthem Press, (2005).

Research Papers:

  1. “The quest for manhood: masculine Hinduism and nation in Bengal”. (with Sikata Banerjee) Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Vol. 26, No3, 2006 Pp.76-90.

  2. ‘The State-Society Relationship and Political Conflicts in Nepal (c.1951- c.2005) with Ali Riaz’ Forthcoming Journal of Asian and African Studies.

  3. Basu S and Suranjan Das ‘Politicized History in Rhetoric, Mobilization and Political Confrontations in India’ in Padraic Kenney and Max Paul Friedman ed Partisan Histories: The Past In Contemporary Global Politics. ( Palgrave, New York 2005)

  4. ‘Political Institutions, Strategies of Governance and Forms of Resistance in Rural Market Towns of Contemporary Bengal: A Study of Bolpur Municipality.’ Subho Basu and Crispin Bates (ed) in Rethinking Indian Political Institutions, Anthem Press 2005)

  5. 'Manager Raj, Bhadralok Politicians and Workers' Resistance: Labour Politics in Bengal 1890-1939.' Forthcoming Special Issue, Modern Asian Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  6. "Strikes and 'Communal' Riots in Calcutta in the 1890s : Industrial Workers, Bhadralok Nationalist Leadership and the Colonial State". Modern Asian Studies (1998). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Vol. 34, No 4, pp. 949-983.

  7. ‘The Emergence of the Mill Towns in Bengal 1880-1920: Migration Pattern and Survival Strategies of Industrial Workers’. The Calcutta Historical Journal, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1, January -June 1996, pp. 97-135.

  8. Basu, S. and S. Das (2000) 'Introduction' in Basu, S. and S. Das (eds) Electoral Politics in South Asia. Calcutta : K. P. Bagchi Press. pp. xiii-xxxix

  9. Basu, S and S. Mukhopadhaya (2000) 'The Crisis of the Centralized Nation State: Regionalization and Electoral Politics in India in the 1990s'. In Basu, S. and S. Das (eds) (2000). Electoral Politics in South Asia. Calcutta: K. P. Bagchi. pp. 201-234.

Reviews and Short Essays:

  1. “Rajnarayan Chandavarkar (1953-2006): An Intellectual Biography” in Economic and Political Weekly, Mumbai, June 2006 (with Doug Haynes)

  2. God Willing: The Politics of Islamism in Bangladesh. By Ali Riaz (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004) Journal of Asian and African Studies, Sage (Vol. 41, Issue No. 4, 397-399, 2006)

  3. Population, Gender and Politics: Demographic Change in Rural North India. By Jeffery, R. and P. Jeffery (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1997). Modern Asian Studies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ( Vol 33, Issue No. 3 Year 1999)

  4. Unsettled Settlers: Migrant Workers and Industrial Capitalism in Calcutta by Arjan de Haan. Rotterdam: Verloren Publishers, 1994.South Asia Research October 1 1996, Volume 16, No. 2 pp. 209-212.

  5. Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition, 1932-47, J. Chatterji, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, Social Scientist V.26:No.11-12 Nov-Dec #306-307

  6. ‘The Rise of Agrarian Bourgeoisie[in India]’ The Hindu July 8 1999

  7. ‘The Death of Ideology[ in Indian Politics]’ The Hindu August 7 1999

Work in progress:

  1. A contemporary History of India (with Crispin Bates)

  2. Home and Abroad: Colonial Bengali Travelogue and Journey towards Citizenship

Conferences

  1. Organized a Panel on Nepal at Cornell University Conference on Religious and Social Fragmentation and Economic Development in South Asia 15-16 October, 2005.

  2. Chaired a session entitled Textbooks as Weapons: Politics and Education in India and Pakistan.

  3. Organized a panel discussion entitled ‘Participatory Development and the Empowerment of Rural Women: Exploring Experiences of Bangladesh and India’. Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, University of Minnesota Minneapolis, 1 -3 October.

  4. Organized a panel Round Table discussion entitled ‘Dilemma of Nuclear option in South Asia’ at the Mid-West Conference on Asian Affairs at Illinois State University, 2003.

  5. Organized a panel discussion entitled ‘Identity Politics in Bengals: Religion, Rhetoric and Mobilization’ at Bengal Studies Conference, Irving, Texas, 2003.

  6. Co- Organized a panel entitled ‘Religion, Region, Rhetoric and Mobilization in South Asia’ 32nd Annual Conference on South Asia -- October 24-26, 2003.

  7. Organized a panel entitled 'Rethinking Indian Political Institutions' at the 16th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, September 2000.

  8. Chaired a session at ICAS ( International Conference of Asia Scholars) on Minor Political Parties and the British Empire in India at Leiden, organized by the University of Leiden and European Science Foundation, July 1998.

  9. Organized an International Conference on 'Second World War and Decolonization' at the College of St Mark and St John, Plymouth, June 1997.

  10. Organized an international symposium on 'Electoral Politics in South Asia' at the University of Cambridge, Wolfson College, February 1997.

  11. Organized a workshop on 'Religion and Politics in South Asia, c.1890-1992' at the Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge , June 1995.

Seminars, Conferences and Invited Lectures

  1. “Beyond Nations: Researching South Asia” Central New York Scholars of South Asia Association. Cornell-Syracuse South Asia National Resource Center consortium, November 4, 2006.

  2. “ Nepal in 1950s: Indian intervention, unfinished revolution and royal coup.” The ‘Long’ 1950s in South Asia. Pre-Conference 35th Annual Conference on South Asia - October 19, 2006, University of Wisconsin at Madison.

  3. “Revolution Unending : Nepal in Transition” Santosh Kumar Basu Memorial Lecture History Department Visva Bharati University, India 9 July 2006.

  4. “Maps and Public Identity of Spaces: Multiple Ways of Imagining India”. 35th Annual Conference on South Asia - October 20-22, 2006, University of Wisconsin at Madison.

  5. Tsunami Disaster in Indian Ocean Region. Honorary Lecture at Manchester Hall, Illinois State University, February 21, 2004.

  6. ‘Frontiers of rural India: Visiting urbanization through the portal of
    a rural market town’. 33rd Annual Conference on South Asia - October 15-17, 2004, University of Wisconsin at Madison.

  7. ‘Addressing Male Bias in Development: Constitutional Social Engineering and Women’s Representation in Panchayati Raj (Village Government) Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Minneapolis Radisson Metrodome, University of Minnesota October 1 ,2004.

  8. ‘Mission Accomplished! Perspectives on US in Iraq after a year’. Global Review Seminar, Illinois State University April 2004.

  9. ‘Is Gandhi Relevant in global politics in 2003?’ Global Review Seminar, Illinois State University , October 2003.

  10. Participant Presenter with Suranjan Das ‘Politicized History in Rhetoric, Mobilization and Political Confrontations in India and Pakistan’ in Partisan Histories: The Past in Contemporary Global Politics Remarque Center New York University October 23-26, 2003.

  11. ‘Understanding Indian Labor History: Class, Religion, Region and the Rhetoric of Mobilization’, History Department, University of Iowa, February 2003.

  12. Panel Discussant- Critical Reflections on September 11 and the Politicization of Religion. Illinois State University, International Studies Program Unit for Middle East and South Asian Studies.

  13. ‘Imaging The Other: Projection of Muslim Identity in Hindu Nationalist Discourse’, Illinois State University, Religion and Politics, Global Review Series, April 2002.

  14. ‘Does Class Matter? Colonial Capitalism and Workers’ Resistance in the Bengal Jute Industry 1890-1940.’ St Catherine College, University of Cambridge, April 2002.

  15. ‘Trade Union Organization in the Labor Politics of Bengal in the 1930s’. Center of South Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh, March 2000.

  16. ‘Understanding the mechanism of General Strike among Jute Mill workers’. Center of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, October 1999.

  17. ‘General Strike of 1937 Class and Community Mobilization.’ School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, October 1999.

  18. 'Migration, Capitalist Formations and Ethnic Tensions in Colonial South Asia: A survey of Assam 1826-1876'. St Catherine College, University of Cambridge, March 1999.

  19. Basu, S and S. Mukhopadhaya 'Election in 1996: India in Transition'. Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, February 1997.

  20. ‘Strikes and 'Communal Riots in Calcutta in the 1890s : Industrial Workers, Bhadralok Nationalist Leadership and the Colonial State’. Center of Indian Studies, St Anthony's College, University of Oxford, March 1996.

  21. 'Communal Riots in Calcutta in 1890s'. Center of South Asian Studies, Laundress Lane, University of Cambridge, November 1995.

  22. 'Strikes, Riots and Industrial Workers: Labor Politics in Calcutta 1870-1900'. The International Conference on South Asian Labor Migration at the Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, November 1995.

  23. 'Municipal Politics of the mill towns and Industrial Workers in Bengal c.1890-1920.' The British Association for South Asian Studies Annual Meeting, University of Cambridge, July 1993.

  24. 'Communalism and Bengal workers 1890-1920'. The British Association for South Asian Studies Annual Meeting, the University of Birmingham, April 1992.

  25. 'The community identities of Jute mill workers in Bengal 1890-1920'. The Center of South Asian Studies, Laundress Lane, University of Cambridge, May 1992.

  26. 'The Making of the Local Elites: Mill-towns of Bengal 1890-1920'. Center of Indian Studies, St Anthony's College, University of Oxford, February 1992.

  27. 'The Processes of Nation State Formation in the West Asia and the Gulf Crisis'. Surendranath Banerjee Memorial Lecture, Albert Hall Calcutta, February 1991.

  28. 'Reinterpreting Labor Movement: Bengal 1890-1940'. Informal History Seminar Series, St John's College, University of Cambridge, December 1990.

  29. 'Labor and the Indian National Congress: Transition in Bengal Politics 1919-1939'. Expert to Lay series lecture, Darwin College, University of Cambridge, June 1990.

  30. 'Sahib, Coolie, Babu: Labor Movement in the Mill Towns of Bengal'. Informal Humanities Seminar series Darwin College, University of Cambridge, March 1990.

  31. ‘Origins of Colonial Labor Management: Comparative study of Tea Gardens and Jute Mills in Eastern India.’ North Eastern India History Association Conference, Shillong, India, October 1989.

Research Service and Editorial Responsibilities

  1. Director, Citizenship, Nation and Empire Workshop, History Department, Syracuse University, 2006….

  2. Director History Honors Society, History Department, Syracuse University 2005-2006.

  3. Member Editorial Board, History Compass, On Line Journal Published by Blackwell Press, Oxford, England.

  4. Review Editor, Journal of Comparative Studies in South Asia, Africa and Middle East, Duke University Press, 2002-

  5. Consulting Editor, South Asia series Anthem Press, London, 2002-

  6. Referee Critical Asian Studies

  7. Referee, Modern Asian Studies, University of Cambridge,1994-2002.

  8. Referee, Journal of South Asia Research, School of Oriental and African Studies, Sage Press, 1999-2002.

  9. Member Advisory Editorial Board, Cornish History Journal, Plymouth, United Kingdom, 1999-2002.

Visiting Professorships and Fellowships

  1. Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, Victoria University, Canada, July 2004.

  2. Visiting Fellow, Netaji Institute of Asian Studies, Calcutta. June 2001.

  3. Visiting Fellow, History Department, Calcutta University. December 1998.

  4. Visiting Fellow at Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris. July 1998.

  5. Fellow Royal Asiatic Society, London.

Awards and Scholarships

  1. Junior Faculty Research Award, Syracuse University

  2. Junior Faculty Research Award at the Illinois State University.- 2002

  3. A research project grant by the College of St Mark and St John (affiliated to the University of Exeter), England. 1996-97.

  4. Charles Wallace Research Award London, England 1993.

  5. Foreign and Commonwealth Office Scholarship, British Council, London, England. 1990-93.

  6. Indian Council of Historical Research 1986-89.

  7. National Talent Performance Award 1981-86.

Area Specialization

  1. Modern South Asian History, Labor History, History of Contemporary Social Movements, Nationalism and Post Colonial Politics.

Languages known

  1. Bengali, Hindi, Assamese and Urdu

Hobbies

  1. Traveling, Map Collection, Watching Thrillers and Current Affairs.