0009-0005-8864-4875 About
Akhil Ranjan Dutta, presently Professor and former Head in the Department of Political Science at Gauhati University, Assam, India is one of those social scientists of India’s Northeast whose research has been motivated by political and cultural aspirations of people at the grassroots. A familiar face in Assam’s intellectual circle, Professor Dutta is known for his endeavours to build an organic link between academia and the larger society, a passion born of his academic trajectory. His political, cultural and ideological orientations have been moulded by his early encounters with the common citizen’s struggles in the rural setting of his childhood in a remote village of Assam’s Lakhimpur district, his subsequent exposure to the diverse, secular and inclusive academic and cultural atmosphere of Cotton College, Guwahati, and the rich and progressive intellectual setting of the University of Delhi.
A bilingual author (in Assamese and English) and a political commentator, Professor Dutta is closely connected with the social and cultural movements in Northeast India, and is a popular columnist in several leading Assamese dailies. He is a regular commentator and contributor on Assam’s politics in leading national and international journals including the Economic & Political Weekly, and served as Executive Editor of Natun Padatik, a socio-cultural magazine published from Guwahati. A passionate advocate of interdisciplinary social science scholarship, Professor Dutta presently serves as the honourary Chairperson of Brahmaputra Institute of Research and Development (BIRD), Guwahati, India, and is the President of the Social Science Research Community (SSRC), India- Transcending Boundaries for Sustainable Alternatives. In his two decades of teaching at Gauhati University, he has also served the Gauhati University Teachers’ Association (GUTA) as its General Secretary for three tenures, as its Vice President for two tenures and as its President in the year 2019-20.
A Rotary World Peace Fellow (2009) at the Rotary International Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, Professor Dutta led the Indian Think Tank Delegation to China in June,2017 on the invitation of the Chinese Embassy in India and the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. Professor Dutta also received visiting fellowships at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi in March 2017 and in the Department of Political Science, the University of Delhi in March 2020. Professor Dutta is also the recipient of the Second Bhabananda Dutta Memorial Social Science Research Award 2020.
Apart from his research publications in reputed international journals like Social Change, Studies in Indian Politics and Advances in Applied Sociology Professor Dutta has authored and edited several books both in Assamese and English. Some of his significant edited volumes include Human Security in North East India: Issues & Policies (Ed. 2009); Political Theory: Issues, Concepts and Debates (Ed. 2011); Culture, Ideology, Politics (Ed. 2012); Indian Politics: Issues, Institutions and Processes (Ed. 2013); The Conscientious Statesman: Gaurisankar Bhattacharyya in Assam Legislative Assembly (Ed. 2015) and Asomor Jatiya Jivanat Lakshminath Bezbaruah Aru Anyanya Prabandha (Assamese, 2015). His latest book Hindutva Regime in Assam: Saffron in the Rainbow, Sage, India has been published by Sage in July 2021.
Employment
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Gauhati University Professor2001 - Present
Education
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Publications (1)
- Hindutva Regime in Assam Save