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Anindita Chakrabarti

Anindita Chakrabarti

PhD (University of Delhi)

Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Research Interest

sociology of law, sociology of religion, economic sociology with a focus on sociology of work, wealth accumulation, inheritance and entrepreneurship

[email protected]

0512-259-7277 (O)

https://www.aninditac.in/home

FB-325,
IIT Kanpur,
Kanpur 208016

Education

PhD, Sociology, University of Delhi, 2007

M.Phil, Sociology, University of Delhi, 1997

M.A., Sociology, University of Delhi, 1995

B.A., Sociology, University of Calcutta, 1993

Current Teaching

Undergraduate level

  • Urban Sociology
  • Introductory Sociology
  • Indian Society and Culture
  • Indian Society and Social Problem

Postgraduate level

  • Sociological Theories
  • Economy and Society
  • Methods of Sociological Research
  • Sociology of Social Movement
  • Sociology of Religion
  • Law and Religion: A Sociological Perspective
  • Social Change in Contemporary India

Selected Publications

Books

Sudha Sitharaman and Anindita Chakrabarti (ed.). Religion and Secularity: Reconfiguring Islam in Contemporary India (Orient Blackswan, 2020).

Anindita Chakrabarti. Faith and Social Movements: Religious Reform in Contemporary India (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

Journal Publications

Anindita Chakrabarti et al. "Of Marriage, Divorce and Criminalisation: Reflections on the Triple Talaq Judgment in India." Journal of Legal Anthropology 6 no.1 (2022): 24-48.

K. C. Mujeebu Rahman and Anindita Chakrabarti. "Sharia, Legal Pluralism and Muslim Personal Law: Ethnographic Lessons from the Mahallu System of Malabar, India." Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (2022): 1-16.

Suchandra Ghosh and Anindita Chakrabarti. “Religion-based ‘Personal’ Law, Legal Pluralism and Secularity: A Field View of Adjudication of Muslim Personal Law in India” in Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 2021.

Anindita Chakrabarti. “Religious Freedom, Legal Activism and Muslim Personal Law in Contemporary India: A Sociological Exploration of Secularism” Annual Review of Sociology of Religion, BrillVol. 12. Special issue on "Religious Freedom: Social-Scientific Approaches" 2021.

Sruti Kanungo and Anindita Chakrabarti. “Gold governance and goldsmithery: Economic sociology of an informal manufacturing sector in India” Contributions to Indian Sociology 55, 2, 2021.

Anindita Chakrabarti and Suchandra Ghosh. “Judicial Reform vs Adjudication of Personal Law: View from a Muslim Ghetto in Kanpur,” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 52, No. 2, Dec 2017.

Anindita Chakrabarti. “Democracy as Civil Religion: Reading Alexis De Tocqueville in India” in Journal of Human Values (Sage Publication), Vol. 22 (1) January 2016.

Suchandra Ghosh and Anindita Chakrabarti. 2015. “Kaumi Ek Jayate: A Call for Interfaith Unity” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 50, No. 26-27. pp. 25-27.

Anindita Chakrabarti. “Soteriological Journeys and Discourses of Self Transformation: the Tablighi Jamaat and Svadhyaya in Gujarat” in South Asian History and Culture (Routledge Publication) Vol. 1 (4) 2010.

Anindita Chakrabarti and Niharika Banerjea. “Primary Education in Himachal Pradesh: A Case of Kinnaur District” in Journal of Educational Planning and Administration, Vol. XIV, No 4, October 2000.

Book Chapters

K. C. Mujeebu Rahman and Anindita Chakrabarti. “Max Weber, Religion, and Economic Acumen: the Curious Case of Muslim Entrepreneurship in Malabar, India” in Verstehen als soziologischer Zugang zur Welt- Festschrift for Monika Wohlrab-Sahr Uta Karstein, Marian Burchardt & Thomas Schmidt-Lux (ed). (Frankfurt: Campus verlag) 2022.

Sudha Sitharaman & Anindita Chakrabarti. “Anthropology of Islam in Contemporary India: A Conceptual Overview” in Sudha Sitharaman and Anindita Chakrabarti (ed.). Religion and Secularity: Reconfiguration of Islam in Contemporary India (Orient Blackswan 2020).

Suchandra Ghosh and Anindita Chakrabarti “Adjudication of Personal Law and the Question of Secularity: An Analysis of Judicial Practice in Sharia Courts of Uttar Pradesh” in Sudha Sitharaman and Anindita Chakrabarti (ed.). Religion and Secularity: Reconfiguration of Islam in Contemporary India (Orient Blackswan 2020).

Sruti Kanungo and Anindita Chakrabarti. ‘A Sociological Study of Work, Mobility and Enterprise among the Goldsmiths of India: A Multi-Sited Ethnography’, in Methodological Issues in Social Entrepreneurship Knowledge and Practice edited by Satyajit Majumdar and Edakkandi Meethal Reji. Singapore: Springer). 2020.

Anindita Chakrabarti. “Initiation, ‘Re-birth’ and the Emergent Congregation: An Analysis of the Svadhyaya Movement in Western India”, in Ritual Matters: Dynamic Dimensions in Practice, edited by Christiane Brosius and Ute Hüsken, (London: Routledge) 2010.

Anindita Chakrabarti. “Soteriological Journeys and Discourses of Self Transformation: the Tablighi Jamaat and Svadhyaya in Gujarat” in Gujarat Beyond Gandhi: Politics, Conflict and Society, edited by Nalin Mehta and Mona G. Mehta (New Delhi: Routledge), 2011.

Anindita Chakrabarti. “Judicious Succession and Judicial Religion: Internal Conflict and Legal Dispute in a Religious Reform Movement in India”, in Permutations of Order: Religion and Law as Contested Sovereignties, edited by Bertram Turner and Thomas Kirsch, (London: Ashgate). 20091.

[1] This paper won the M. N. Srinivas Memorial Prize awarded by the Indian Sociological Society in   2010.

Anindita Chakrabarti “Assertive Religious Identities, the Secular Nation-State and the Question of Pluralism: the Case of the Tablighi Jamaat” in Assertive Religious Identities: India and Europe, edited by Satish Saberwal and Mushirul Hasan, (New Delhi: Manohar) 2006.

Working Paper (peer-reviewed)

Suchandra Ghosh and Anindita Chakrabarti. “Religion-based ‘Personal’ Law, Legal Pluralism and Secularity: A Field View of Adjudication of Muslim Personal Law in India” Working Paper Series 16 of the HCAS Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities. Leipzig University, 2019.

Ongoing Book Project

I am currently co-editing a volume (Vol. 6: South Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia) in the series titled, Global Secularity: A Sourcebook which is part of the “Multiple Secularities: Beyond Modernities, Beyond West” Project.

I have published book-reviews in Contributions to Indian Sociology and the Biblio.

E-Learning Web-Course

MHRD web-course titled Rural and Urban Sociology (NPTEL) 2012.

Awards & Fellowships

 Distinctions and fellowships

Senior Fellow at Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies (HCAS) at Leipzig University, June-July 2022.

Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (February- May 2022).

Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, 2022.

Senior Fellow, Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies (HCAS) at Leipzig University. 2016-2020

Visiting Fellow, Department of Sociology, Delhi University. 2015

Visiting Fellow, Centre for the Study of Social Systems (CSSS), JNU. 2014

Visiting Professor, Leipzig University. 2013

Doctoral Fellowship awarded by Sephis (South-South Exchange Programme for Research on the History of Development) the Netherlands. 2004-05

Visiting Research Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. 2005

University Grants Commission (Junior Research Fellowship) 1999-2004

First Rank, M.Phil. in Sociology (University of Delhi) 1997

First Rank, M.A. in Sociology (University of Delhi) 1995

First Rank, B.A. in Sociology (University of Calcutta) 1993

Awards

Professor M. N. Srinivas Memorial Prize 2010 awarded by the Indian Sociological Society. 2010

Kunda Datar Gold Medal for performance in M.A. 1995

Conference Presentations

‘From Mines to Market: Many Lives of Gold in India’. The workshop was held at IIC, New Delhi, September 2019.

‘Religion, Civil Society and Personal (Family) Law Reform in Post-Colonial Nation States: Interrogating Secularity in India and Beyond’, workshop organized at Leipzig University, June 2019.

Panel titled: ‘Exploring Secularities: A Comparative Perspective on Religion, Law and the State in India’. Conference on Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities, Leipzig University, Germany October 2018.

Organized Research Committee 06: Religion and Religious Communities as Co-convener at the 43rd All India Sociological Conference of the Indian Sociological Society, Lucknow, December 2017.

Organized Research Committee 06: Religion and Religious Communities as Co-convener at the 41st All India Sociological Conference of the Indian Sociological Society, Bhubaneswar, December 2015.

Organized Research Committee 06: Religion and Religious Communities as Co-convener at the 40th All India Sociological Conference of the Indian Sociological Society, Varanasi, November 2014.

Organized a seminar titled “Religion, Secularity and Law” at the Department of HSS, IIT Kanpur, October 2014.

Organized Research Committee 06: Religion and Religious Communities as Secretary at the 39th All India Sociological Conference of the Indian Sociological Society, Mysore, December 2013.

Organized the Research Committee 06: Religion and Religious Communities as Secretary at the 38th All India Sociological Conference of the Indian Sociological Society, Udaipur, December 2012.

Papers

Papers presented (after joining IIT Kanpur) National and international seminars, workshops and conferences:

  • 1. Ayushi Dube and Anindita Chakrabarti  “Religious Freedom, Human Rights, and Secular Governance in India: A Socio-legal Study of Jain Santhara”, Flashpoints Conference: Law, Human Rights and Religion, Nottingham Law School, December 2021.
  • 2. Anindita Chakrabarti and K. C. Mujeebu Rahman “Of Marriage, Divorce and Family Laws: Feminist Activism and Muslim Personal Law Reform in India”, Workshop on The Best of Intentions: Marriage, Women's Rights and Legal Reform in Muslim Societies, Journal of Legal Anthropology, November 2021.
  • 3. Anindita Chakrabarti and Mujeebu Rahman K. “Religion as an Object of Social Scientific Study: the Case of Islam in India”, Workshop on Religion as an Object of Historical and Social Scientific Study: Global Perspectives at Leipzig University November 2021.
  • 4. Anindita Chakrabarti and Shriram Venkataraman, “God’s Gold, Legal Frames and the Question of Material and Non-Material Heritage: the Case of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala, India” Workshop on Enshrining the Past: Religion and Heritage-Making in a Secular Age. Leipzig University, October 2021.
  • 5. Anindita Chakrabarti and Mujeebu Rahman K. Environmental Discourse in the Muslim Public Sphere in Kerala: A Sociological Investigation. Religion, Faith, Spirituality, and Sustainability (Session of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” European Academy of Religion (EuARe), Muenster, Germany September 2021.
  • 6. Anindita Chakrabarti and Suchandra Ghosh “Religion-based ‘Personal’ Law, Legal Pluralism and Secularity: A Field View of Adjudication under Muslim Personal Law in India” presented at the Workshop on Plural Ideas of Justice Stories, Narratives and Experiences from India held at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay on April 23-24, 2021 (paper presented by co-author Suchandra Ghosh).
  • 7. Anindita Chakrabarti. 'Rights, Religion and Law: What Can Sociology Bring to the Conundrum?' Plenary Session Titled: “Making of the Nation in the Post Liberal Era - Shifting Agenda and Identities” at the 45th All India Sociological Society Conference, Department of Sociology, University of Kerala. December 2019.
  • 8. Anindita Chakrabarti. ‘Local, Global and the Sociological: Research in Post-Truth Times’ Workshop on Academic Writing for Young Faculty Members/ PhD Students of Anthropology and Sociology, Lucknow University, November 2019.
  • 9. Anindita Chakrabarti. 'Gender Rights, Civil Society and Personal Law: Towards a Sociology of Marriage, Divorce and the Minority Question in India'. 2-day workshop on Civil Society and Good Governance in India and Bangladesh, IIT Delhi, January 2019
  • 10. Anindita Chakrabarti. Migrant Artisans’ Guilds, Village Networks and the Unorganized Goldsmithing Sector: An Ethnography of Gold Manufacturing Industry in India. Workshop on History and Material Culture, Tubingen University, October 2018.
  • 11. Anindita Chakrabarti. 'Public Interest Litigation, Religion and the Question of Secularity in Contemporary India'. XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology. Toronto, Canada. (RC22), July 2018.
  • 12. Anindita Chakrabarti. Presented a paper on my work on religion at a seminar titled "The Study of Religions with Colonialism in the Rearview Mirror." Organized by Department of Religious Studies at the University of Cape Town March 2017.
  • 13. Anindita Chakrabarti and Sruti Kanungo. "Who are the Goldsmiths? A Sociological Study of Network, Mobility and Precarity among Migrant Goldsmiths of West Bengal, India" at Living in an Age of Precarity: Living and Lives in 21st Century Asia Conference, organised by the Asia Research Institute (ARI) , National University Of Singapore (NUS), February 2017.
  • 14. Anindita Chakrabarti. “Personal Law, (Personal) Disputes and Adjudication: An Ethnography of the ‘Islamic’ and Civil Courts of Uttar Pradesh (India)” at the International Workshop on Multiple Secularities—Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities. Leipzig University, 27-29 June 2016.
  • 15. Anindita Chakrabarti and Suchandra Ghosh. “An Ethnography of Judicial Reasoning: Exploring the Personal, Legal and Political in Sharia Courts of Uttar Pradesh” at the International Workshop on Religion and Law: Colonial and Post-Colonial Encounters, organized by the Centre for the Study of Comparative Religions and Civilizations, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, March 2016.
  • 16. Anindita Chakrabarti. “Exploring Multiple Secularity: Majoritarian Morality, Religious Communities and Law” at the 41st All India Sociological Conference of the Indian Sociological Society, Bhubaneswar, December 2015.
  • 17. Sruti Kanungo and Anindita Chakrabarti. “A Sociological Study of Network and Trust among Goldsmiths: A Case Study of Migrant Goldsmiths of West Midnapur (West Bengal)”, presented by Sruti Kanungo at the Economic Sociology Conference on Trust in Transactions hosted by the Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK), sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), November 2015.
  • 18. Anindita Chakrabarti. “Democracy as Civil Religion: Reading Alexis De Tocqueville in India” at a seminar titled Reasoning with Value(s): Explorations in the Contemporary Milieu organized by IIM, Kolkata, March 2015.
  • 19. Anindita Chakrabarti and Suchandra Ghosh. “Imam, Qazi and the Judge: Sociology of Legal Forum Shopping in Kanpur City” at the 40th All India Sociological Conference of the Indian Sociological Society, Varanasi, November 2014.
  • 20. Anindita Chakrabarti. “Interrogating Islamization: Towards a Non-dualist Framework” at the 39th All India Sociological Conference of the Indian Sociological Society, Mysore, December 2013.
  • 21. Anindita Chakrabarti. “Sociology of Religious Movement and Sect Formation: A Theoretical Exploration.” at the 38th All India Sociological Conference of the Indian Sociological Society, Udaipur, December 2012.
  • 22. Anindita Chakrabarti. “The Role of Critical Thinking in Religion” at the National Seminar organized by the Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection (19372012), Vidyajyoti, New Delhi, October 2012.
  • 23. Anindita Chakrabarti. “Sociology of Sectarianism and the Question of Religious Plurality: Towards a Conceptual Framework” at a National Seminar on “Culture of Religion and Trans-cultural Religion” organized by the Department of Philosophy, Christ Church College, Kanpur, February 2012.
  • 24. Anindita Chakrabarti. “Religious Movements, the Question of Sanskritization/Islamization and Religious Identity”, at the 37th All India Sociological Conference of the Indian Sociological Society, New Delhi, December 2011.
  • 25. Anindita Chakrabarti. “Sacred traditions, Sectarian Identity and the Question of Secularism in Contemporary India” at a Conference on Rethinking Religion in India: European Representations and Indian Responses organized jointly by Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap (Ghent University), the Centre for the Study of Local Cultures (Kuvempu University). The conference was hosted by the Department for the Study of Religion (Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic, October 2011.
  • 26. Anindita Chakrabarti. “Movement, Institutionalization and Sectarianism: Exploring the Question of Succession in Religious Movements” at the 36th Annual Conference organized by the Indian Sociological Society, Cuttack, December 2010.
  • 27. Anindita Chakrabarti. “A Research Note on Religion and Politics”—paper presented at a seminar on Interdisciplinary Dialogue on Religion and Politics at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, November 2010.
  • 28. Anindita Chakrabarti. “Sectarian Identity, Sanskritization and the Question of the ‘Classical/Vernacular’, at an International Seminar on Language, Culture and Identity: Issues and Challenges, organized by the Department of Linguistics, Aligarh Muslim University in collaboration with the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, February 2010.

Administrative posts held in academic organizations

  • 1. Elected as Convener for Research Committee 06: Religion and Religious Communities of the Indian Sociological Society, 2016-17.
  • 2. Co-convener for Research Committee 06: Religion and Religious Communities of the Indian Sociological Society, 2014-15.
  • 3. Secretary for Research Committee 06: Religion and Religious Communities of the Indian Sociological Society, 2012-13.

Invited Lectures

1. “Sacred Gold, Litigious Gods and the Question of Inheritance: Anglo-Hindu Law and the Curious Case of ‘Despised’ Gold-traders (Subarna-baniks) of Bengal, India”. At the Department of History, University of Tubingen May 2019.

2. “Gender Rights, Civil Society and Personal Law: Towards a Sociology of Marriage, Divorce and the Minority Question in India”. At a two-day National seminar on Globalization, Development and Social Movements in India at Department of Sociology, Aligarh Muslim University, February 18-19, 2019.

3. “Public Interest Litigation, Religion and Adjudication of Muslim Personal Law: A Sociological Exploration of the Question of Secularity in Contemporary India”. At School of Law, Governance and Citizenship, Ambedkar University, Delhi, November 14, 2018.

4. Panelist at the event Author Meets Critics and discussed the book: The Sociology of Islam: Knowledge, Power, and Civility by Armando Salvatore. XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, Canada July 15-21, 2018.

5. Keynote address on the occasion of Women’s Day at a workshop organized by the Defence Materials and Stores R & D Establishment (Kanpur). The title of the talk: “Women’s Day and Women’s Empowerment in India: Some Sociological Thoughts”. May 2018.

6.“Who are the Goldsmiths? Migrant Artisans’ Guilds and the Changing Contours of Goldsmithing in India” at the India Gold Policy Centre, IIM Ahmedabad, September 2017.

7. “Adjudication of Personal Law and the Question of Secularity: An Ethnography of Dar-ul-Qaza in Uttar Pradesh, India” Colloquium at Leipzig University May 2017.

8. “Courts, Law and Judges: An Ethnography of ‘Judicial’ Practice in Sharia and Civil Courts of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh”, Centre for Indian Studies in Africa. WITS, Johannesburg, March 2017.

9. “Courts, Law and Judges: An Ethnography of ‘Judicial’ Practice in Sharia and Civil Courts of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh”, Aligarh Muslim University, November 2016.

10. “Imam, Qazi and the Judge: an Ethnography of Judicial Reasoning” invited lecture at the Department of Sociology, Delhi University, February 2015.

11. “Religion and Law: an Ethnography of Judicial Reasoning” invited lecture at the Department of Sociology, Shiv Nadar University, February 2015.

12. “Religion as an Object of Sociological Research: Exploring the Conceptual and Methodological Terrain”, invited lecture at CSSS, Jawaharlal Nehru University, March 2014.

13. “Religion as a Sociological Object”, invited lecture at the Department of Sociology at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. January 2014.

14. “Dissent, Reconstruction and Movements in India: Towards a Sociology of Sects”, public lecture at Leipzig University, October 2013.

15. “Organizing the Tablighi Jamaat and the 'Unintended Consequence' of Piety: An Anthropological View from Gujarat, India”, invited lecture at Humboldt University, October 2013.

16. “History, Society and Religion: Shared Boundaries and Conceptual Challenges” Keynote Address, ICHR National Seminar on Religion and Community in Indian History: Contemporary Reappraisals, Department of History, University of Calicut, March 2013.

17. Invited as a panelist by the Sociological Association of West Bengal at their 4th Annual Conference organized on the theme: Is Natural Science the only model of research in Sociology? December 2010.

18. Invited as a panelist at a workshop on Religion and Civil Society in South Asia, organized by the University of California, Santa Barbara. The workshop was held at the India International Centre, New Delhi, September 2010.

Administrative Responsibilities at IIT Kanpur

  • 1. Convener, Departmental Space Committee. 2019-20.
  • 2. Convener, Sociology Discipline. 2010-11; 2013-14; 2018-19.
  • 3. Warden-in-Charge GH-1. August 2016-July 2017.
  • 4. Convener, Departmental Undergraduate Committee (DUGC). 2014-15.
  • 5. Warden, GH-1, January 2014 to July 2016.
  • 6. Convener, Faculty Handbook Committee.
  • 7. Convener, Centre for Creative Writing and Publication (CCWP). As the convener I had organized talks by Nabaneeta Deb Sen and Annie Zaidi, 2013-14.
  • 8. Convener, Green Space Committee. 2009-2011.
  • 9. Convener, Departmental Library Committee (DLC). 2008-09.

Other Academic Activities

1. Member, International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies

2. Member, European Association of Sociology

3. Associate Member, Department of History and Sociology. University of Konstanz June 2019-December 2021

3. Associate Member, Department of History and Sociology. University of Konstanz June 2019-December 2021

4. Editorial Board member of the Journal of Human Values: Sage Journals. Since 2018

5. Member of the Advisory Board of McGill Queen’s University Press on Protest, Power, and Resistance 2018 onwards

6. Life member of the Indian Sociological Society (ISS)

7. Member of the International Sociological Society

8. Referee for Economic and Political Weekly, SAMAJ and Sociological Bulletin

PhD Supervision

Awarded: 

Shahul Ameen K.T.: “Religion, Civil Society and Democracy: The Jamaat-e-Islami and the Solidarity Youth Movement in Kerala”. Awarded in November 2015

Suchandra Ghosh: A Sociological Study of Adjudication at Dar-ul-Qaza: Personal Law, Personal Disputes and the Question of Legal Pluralism. Awarded in November 2019

Sruti Kanungo: Gold and Goldsmiths: A Sociological Study of the Informal Economy, Work and State Regulation in India. Thesis Awarded in May 2020

Currently I am supervising five doctoral students. They are working in the areas of wealth accumulation and inheritance, sociology of business and entrepreneurship, religion and sociology of law.