Ranadir Samaddar

Job Title

Founder and Director

Organization

Calcutta Research Group

Area of Expertise

  • Conflict
  • Gender and constitutions
  • Diversity
  • Customary governance/legal pluralism
  • Human rights
  • Judicial system design
  • Minority issues
  • Participation
  • Power sharing (horizontal/vertical)
  • Religion
  • Security sector

Publications

Books

1. The Materiality of Politics, 2 Volumes; Volume 1 – Technologies of Rule; Volume 2 – Subject Positions in Politics (London: Anthem Press, 2007)

2. (Co-authored) Partitions – Reshaping States and Minds (London: Frank Cass, 2005, Indian reprint in 2007 by Foundation Books)

3. Politics of Dialogue – Living Under the Geopolitical Histories of War and Peace (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004)

4. In the Time of Nationalism – Political Essays on Bangladesh (Dhaka: University Press Limited, 2002)

5. A Biography of the Indian Nation, 1947-1997 (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2001)

6. Marginal Nation – Trans-border Migration from Bangladesh to India (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1999)

7. Memory, Power, Identity – Politics in Jungle Mahals, Bengal 1890-1950 (Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1997)

8. Whose Asia Is It Anyway -- Region and the Nation in South Asia (Calcutta: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies and Pearl Publishers, 1996)

9. Workers and Automation -- The Impact of New Technology on the Newspaper Industry (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1994).

Edited Volumes
1. (With Gilles Tarabout) Conflicts, Laws, and Constitutionalism (London and New Delhi: Routledge, 2007)

2. The Politics of Autonomy (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2005)

3. Co-edited, Indian Autonomies – Keywords and Key Texts (Kolkata: Sampark Pub., 2005)

4. South Asian Peace Studies I - An Introduction to Concept, Scope and Themes (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2004)

5. Refugees and the State – Practices of Asylum and Care in India, 1947-2000 (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2003)

6. Space, Territory and the State – New Readings in International Politics (Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 2002)

7. (With Helmut Reifeld) Peace as Process – Reconciliation and Conflict Resolution in South Asia (Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2001).

8. Reflections on Partition in the East (New Delhi and Calcutta: Vikas Publishing House and Calcutta Research Group, 1997).

9. Women in Asia - Work, Culture and Politics in South and Central Asia (Calcutta and New Delhi: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies and Vikas Publishing House, 1997).

10. (With Barun De) State, Development and Political Culture -- Bangladesh and India

(Calcutta and New Delhi: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies and Har Anand, 1997).
11. Anya Pakistan (a collection of political and literary writings of Pakistan, in Bengali; Calcutta: Punascha and Calcutta Research Group, 1996).

12. Cannons Into Ploughshares - Militarization and Prospects of Peace in South Asia (New Delhi: Lancers Publishers, 1995).

13. (Amiya Bagchi in collaboration with Ranabir Samaddar) New Technology, Labour Market and Labour Response (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1994).

Published Papers
1. “Philosophies and Actions in the Time of Terror”, Naqd, 24, 2008 (in French and Arabic)

2. ‘The Story of the Indian Rights Revolutions” in Eva Pfoestl (ed.), Human Rights and Asian Values (Rome: Editrice APES and L’Instituto de Studi Politici “S.Pio.V”, 2007)

3. “Beyond the Hermeneutics of Autonomy” in Paula Banerjee and Samir K. Das (eds.), Autonomy – Beyond Kant and Hermeneutics (London and Delhi: Anthem Press, 2007)

4. “Ideas as Contentious Acts: Concepts of Freedom, Independence, and Sovereignty in Political Discourse” in Sabyasachi Bhattacharya (ed.) Development of Modern Indian Thought and the Social Sciences, Volume X Part 5 of History of Science, Philosophy, and Cultural in Indian Civilisation, General Editor: D.P. Chattopadhyay (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007)

5. “Flags and Rights”, Policies and Practices, 10 (Kolkata: Calcutta Research Group, 2006)

6. “The Historiographical Operation”, Economic and Political Weekly, 41 (22), 3 June, 2006

7. “Identity Assertions as Contentious Acts” in Satish Saberwal and Mushirul Hasan (eds.), Assertive Religious Identities – India and Europe (Delhi: Manohar, 2006)

8. “The Politics of Autonomy” in R. Samaddar (ed.), The Politics of Autonomy – The Indian Experiences (De;lhi: Sage, 2004)

9. “Formes de guerre et formes de justice” French translation of the lecture titled “Forms of War and Forms of Justice” and published in Guerre et Reconciliation (Paris: UNESCO, 2005), Proceedings of a round table on Philosophy Day, UNESCO, November 2003, Paris, 2005

10.“Terror, Law, and the Colonial State”, text of a public lecture under the same title (Guwahati: Omeo Kr. Das Institute for Social Change, 2004); also translated and published in French as “Loi et Terreur: Le Constitutionnalisme Colonial”, Diogene, 212, Octobre-Decembrr 2005; also published in Imtiaz Ahmed (ed.), Terrorism in South Asia – Beyond Statist Discourses (Delhi: Manohar, 2006)

11. “Empire after Globalisation”, comment on Partha Chatterjee’s article under the same name, Economic and Political Weekly,

12. “The Juridical Political Claims of Minority Protection in India” in Nanda P. Wanasundera (ed.), Protection of Minority Rights and Diversity (Colombo: International centre for Ethnic Studies, 2004)

13. “The Life of Boundaries and Their Impact on the Nation” in The Life Between, a collection of papers presented on the occasion of an exhibition of “Borders and Beyond” (Calcutta: Seagull Limited Edition, 2004)

14. “The Futures of the Colonised”, Futures, 36, 2004|

15. "Deaths, Responsibility, and Justice”, in English in “Three Essays on Law, Rights, and Justice” (Kathmandu), 2003 and in French and Arabic, Naqd, (Algiers), 2004

16. “Five Hypotheses on War and Humanitarianism”, The Journal of Social Studies, 100, April-June 2003 (also published in Seminar annual number 2003, in Cultures et Societes – Cahiers du CEMRIC, Nos. 18-19 (2004), and in French on www.mondialisation.org), also as “Power and Rights – in Life and Death”, www.sacw.net/2002/samaddar062003.html

17. “Chronicles of a No-Where People Along the Indo-Bangladesh Border” (co-authored), SAFHR Paper 15, Kathmandu, 2003

18. “Protecting the Victims of Forced Migration – Mixed Flows and Massive Flows” in Monique Mekenkamp, Paul van Tongeren, and Hans van de Veen (eds.), Searching for Peace in Central and South Asia (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002)

19. “Colonial Constitutionalism”, Identity, Culture and Politics, 3 (1), July 2002;

20. "Three Essays on Law, Rights, and Justice”, SAFHR Paper 11, Kathmandu, 1992, also on www.safhr.org

21. “Murders in Sky and on the Ground”, www.russfound.org/Launch/samaddar

22. “The Destiny of a Translated Constitutional Culture”, Transeuropeenness, 22, Spring-Summer 2002 (translated in French also), also on <bbf.enssib.fr/bbf/html/2003_48_5/2003-5-p66-hersent.xml.asp>; and as “Colonial Constitutionalism”, www.codesria.org/Links/Publications/icp/july_2002.htm

23. “A History of Care and Power”, review essay in The Economic and Political Weekly, 37 (25), June 2002;|

24. “South Asia – Self-Determination and the Democratic Argument” in Girin Phukon (ed.), Ethnicity and Polity in South Asia" (Delhi: South Asian Publishers, 2002);

25. “Crime and Punishment in Genoa", Himal, the South Asian Magazine, August 2001; also on, www.himalmag.com/august2001

26. "Absence de lois - Globalisation de lois’ (translated in French by Francesca Gee and François de Bernard), Ref: 000000823, French online annotated dictionary on globalization, subsequently republished in Liberation, April 2001;

27. (With Shahid Fiaz), "Peace Process in Sri Lanka – An Audit Report", SAFHR Paper 8, Kathmandu, 2001;|

28. "The Last Hurrah that Continues", Transeuropeennes, 19-20, 2001 (translated in French also); subsequently published as a chapter in Ghislaine Glasson Deschaumes and Rada Ivekovic (eds.), Divided Countries, Separated Cities – The Modern Legacy of Partition (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003);

29. "Friends, Foes and Understanding", The Economic and Political Weekly, 36 (10), March 2001;

30. "The Strange Case of Lines that Got Mixed Up", Security Dialogue, 32 (1), March 2001;

31. "Tales of War, Tales of Peace – Continuing War through Peace Process", La Mazarine, February 2001;

32. "Leaders and Publics – Stories in the Time of Transition", Indian Economic and Social History Review, 37 (4), October-December 2000;

33. "Governing through Peace Accords", Hagar – International Social Science Review, 1 (2), 2000; also as “Governing Through Peace Accords: A democratic Inquiry”, www.bg.ac.il/humphrey/seminar/

34. "Reforms, Democracy and Justice – Some Issues of State and Market in South Asia" in Helmut Reifeld et.al (eds.) Pluralism and Equality – Values in Indian Society and Politics (Delhi: Sage, 2000);

35. "Autonomy, Self-determination and the Requirements of Minimal Justice in South Asia" in Heikki Patomaki (ed.), Politics of Civil Society – A Global Perspective on Democratisation (Nottingham and Helsinki: Network Institute for Global Democratisation in Nottingham Trent University and Finnish Institute of International Affairs, 2000); also as “Requirements of Minimal Justice in South Asia”, www.greekhelsinki.gr/bhr/english/special_issues/CEDIME-unwgm2001/G01121…

36. "Inside/Outside" in Pradip Kumar Bose, Refugees in West Bengal – Institutional Practices and Contested Identities (Calcutta: Calcutta Research Group, 2000); reprinted in Omprakash Mishra (ed.), Forced Migration in the South Asian Region – Displacement, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (Delhi: Manak Publications, 2004)

37. "Legacies and the Nation - Maulana Maniruzzaman Islamabadi and Maulana Akram Khan" in Perween Hasan and Mufakharul Islam (ed.), Essays in Memory of Momtazur Rehman Tarafdar (Dhaka: Centre for Advance Research in Humanities, University of Dhaka, 1999);
38. (Co-authored) "Indo-Bangladesh Cross-border Migration and Trade", Economic and Political Weekly, September 1999;

39. “Those Accords – A Bunch of Documents”, SAFHR Paper Series 4, Kathmandu, 1999;
40. "India's Minorities after Fifty Years of Partition and Independence" in Sumanta Banerjee (ed.), Shrinking Space - Minority Rights in South Asia (Kathamndu & Delhi: SAFHR and Manohar Publications, 1999);

41. "The Long and Short of Peace", Calcutta Journal of Political Studies, Special number of the Department of Political Science of the University of Calcutta, 1999;

42. "Germany unto France – A Matter of How Nations Meet", Special issue on Fifty Years of Germany of Liberal Times, 7 (2), 1999;

43. "Forced Population Movements in South Asia – The Humanitarian Question" in Tapan K. Bose and Rita Manchanda (eds.), States, Citizens and Outsiders (Kathmandu and Delhi: South Asia Forum for Human Rights and Manohar, 1998);

44. "The Failed Dialectic of Territoriality and Security, and the Imperatives of Dialogue", International Studies, 35(1), 1998;

45. "Ethnicity, Fragmented Politics and Labour Market in South Asia -- Issues in Transborder Migration" in Arun Kumar Banerjee (ed.), Secutiry Issues in South Asia -- Domestic and External Sources of Threats to Security (Calcutta: Minerva, 1998);

46. "Nation Building -- Interpretations of the Bangladesh War," India International Qurterly,

24 (2 & 3), Monsoon 1997, reprinted in Geeti Sen (ed.) Crossing Boundaries -- Culture and Identity (Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1997);

47. "Flowing Waters and the Nationalist Metaphors", Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 20 (2), April-June 1997;

48. "The History that Partition Creates" in Reflections on Partition in the East, 1997, cited above;

49. "Still They Come -- Migrants in Post Partition Bengal" in Reflections on Partition in the East, 1997, cited above;

50. "Waiting for the Historian: Issues in the Historiography of 1971 in Bangladesh", Azad Institute Working Paper 5, 1997;

51. "Elementary Aspects of Nationalism in Bangladesh" in S.R. Chakraborty (ed.), Bangladesh – Society, Politics and Economy (Delhi: Har Anand Pub., 1997);

52. "Knowing the Worker -- The Tannery Majdur of Tangra" (with Debjani Datta) in Parthasarathi Banerjee and Yoshihiro Sato (eds.) Skill and Technological Change -- Society and International Perspective (New Delhi: Har Anand, 1997);

53. "Sources or Texts? The Issue of Intertextuality in Understanding Jamboni" in Chittabrata Palit (ed.), Political Economy and Protest in Colonial India" (Calcutta: Firma KLM, 1997);

54. "Marginal Nation and the Reasons of State" in Nauman Naqvi (ed.), Rethinking Security, Rethinking Development (Islamabad: Sustainable Development Policy Institute, 1996);

55. "Bengal Women in Politics -- An Argument Against Essentialisms of Home and The World", Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, 41 (2), December, 1996);

56. "Disciplining Historical Memory of a People" in Partha Chatterjee (ed.), Texts of Power - Emergence of Disciplines in Bengal (Minnesota, 1995 and Calcutta: Stree Pub, 1996);

57. "Migrants, Refugees and Human Rights in South Asia", in Jurgen Axer (ed.), The Human Rights Community and Conflict Resolution in South Asia -- The Applicability of European Examples (Proceedings of the Strasbourg Conference, European Commission of Human Rights, Council of Europe, Strasbourg and Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, Brussels), 1996;

58. "Preparing for a Peace Studies Syllabus in South Asia", UNESCO International Textbook Research Network Newsletter 5, George Eckert Institute,Germany, 1996;

59. "Distant Guns and Enchanted Minds" in Cannons into Ploughshares -- Militarization and Prospects of Peace in South Asia, cited above, 1995;

60. "Towards the National Agenda of a Bengali Muslim Literature", Theoretical Perspectives, 1 (2), 1995;

61. "Many Histories and Few Silences -- The Nationalist History of Nationalism in Bangladesh" in State, Development and Political Culture, 1997, cited above and first published as Azad Institute Working Paper 1, 1995;

62. "New Technology, Knowledge and Power - A Tale of Some Agencies", The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 35 (3), July-September, 1992; also included in L.K. Deshpande and Gerry Rodgers (eds.), The Indian Labour Market and Economic Structural Change (Delhi: B.R. Publishers, 1994);

63. "The Making of A Nation - The Quest for a Paradigm", in N.R. Ray (ed.), Problems of National Integration (Calcutta: Puthi Pustak, 1993);

64. "Indo-U.S. Relations after the Cold War: Agenda for Research", Indian Journal for American Studies, 21 (1), 1993;

65. "Ethnicity in World Politics: Requiem for the Nation-State?" in Radharaman Chakrabarti and Gautam Kumar Basu (eds.), Theories of International Relations - Search for Alternatives (New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1992);

66. "Reflections in Another Mirror -- Fictional Genealogies of Chilkigarh", Indian Economic and Social History Review, 29 (1), 1992;

67. "The Lengthening Shadow of New Technology over the Institutionalised Process of Wage Settlement", Occasional Paper No.126, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, 1991;

68. "In Search of Hindu Vote - A Wild Goose Chase Across The Heartland", Science and People, 1 (3), 1991;

69. "New Technology in Indian Newspaper Industry - A Critical Appraisal", Occasional Paper No.121, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, 1990;

70. "Peasant and the Commissar - A Study in Agrarian Relations" in N.R. Ray (ed.), Modern Bengal (Calcutta: Naya Prakash, 1990);

71. Culture and India's Foreign Policy", Asian Studies, 8 (3), July-September, 1990.

72. "The Changing Language of the Rights of Man in the United States", Quarterly Review of Historical Studies, 29 (3), 1989-90;

73. "The Lost Decade of Bihar", Calcutta Journal of Political Studies, 9 (1 & 2), 1990;

74. "India's Foreign Policy: A Hitherto Ignored Aspect", Asian Studies, 7 (4), October-December, 1989;

75. "Rebellious and Non-Conformist Students and Youth in Bengal - 1966-70" in Pradip Sinha (ed.,) Calcutta in Urban History (Calcutta: Riddhi-India, 1988);

76. "From Sales To Marketing - The Forward March of Market", Conference Proceedings of All West Bengal Sales Representatives Association, Calcutta, 1988;"

77. "Party, Mass Organisations and Mass Movements", Economic and Poltical Weekly, 23 (25), 1988;

78. "The Puzzles That Perestroika will Have To Solve", Society and Change, 5 (4), 1988;

79. "The Dying of A Colonial Metropolis: A Note on The Decay of Calcutta", Socialist Perspective, 13 (4), 1987;

80. (Review Article) "Shamsul Alam's Critique of China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-76", Society and Change, 5 (1), 1987;

81. "Environmental Pollution and People's Struggle: A Brief Note Towards Understanding It", Seminar Proceedings of Environmental Pollution and Health Hazards in West Bengal, Forum of Professionals, Calcutta, 1986;

82. "Health Administration in India Since 1947: A Critique", Socialist Perspective, 12 (4), 1985;

83. "The Indian Agrarian Question: A Note on its Various Dimensions", Socialist Perspective, 11 (4), 1984.

Select Publications (in Bengali)
Monographs

1. Bharatiyo Rajnitir Samajik Bhitti (in Bengali - Social Bases of Indian Politics; Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1986).

2. Bharater Jatiyo Andolan O Jatiyo Sanghatir Samashya (in Bengali - Indian National Movement and Problems of National Integration; Calcutta: West Bengal Book Board, 1985).

Papers

1. "Ajker Sylhet Ebong Ek Bismritaprai Kabi" (An Almost Forgotten Poet and Today's Sylhet), Chaturanga, 57 (2), 1997.

2. "Pakistan Bharat Samparka" (Pakistan India Relations Today), Baromas, Summer, 1997.

3. "Jungle Mahal" (Jungle mahals - A Story of Culture and Power), Yogasutra, autumn number, 1992.

4. "Sampradayikata Ke Bojha Ar Rokha" (Understanding and Resisting Communlism), Anushtup, Saradiya, 1991.

5. "Bhotbabuder Pechane Pechane" (In Pursuit of Vote Catchers), Baromas, autumn number, 1991.

6. Review Article on Hena Das' Autobiography, "Sritimoy Dingulo", Baromas, October, 1990.

7. (with Debjani Datta) "Manikuntala Sener Atmajibani O Nari Andolaner Ekti Dik"
(Manikuntala Sen's Autobiography and An Aspect of Women's Movement), Anushtup, 25(1), 1990.

8. "Dharma Nirapeksha Rajnitir Samashya" (Problems of Secular Politics), Baromas, April, 1990.

9. "Sthaniay Sayatta Sasaner Sekal O Ekal" (Local Self-Government -- Yesterday and Today), Anushtup, 23 (2), 1987.

10. "Karl Marx - Ek Shaw Bachar Agey O Pare" (Karl Marx -- Hundred Years Before and After), Parichaya, Karl Marx Death Centenary Number, 1984.

11. "Bhupendra Nath Datta - Jiban O Smriti" (Bhupendra Nath Datta - Life and Memories), Parichaya, Autumn Number, 1983.

12. "Bangler Bidrohi Yuba-Chatra Andolan" (Rebellious Students and Youth of Bengal), Anushtup, 18 (2), 1981.

13. "Biplaber Samalochana O Samalochanay Biplab" (Criticism of Revolution and Revolution by

A Course on the Politics of Dialogue (2004)

A Course on Neighbours, Neighbourhood and India in the Age of Globalisation, (2005)

A Course on Sovereignty, Territory and Citizenship: SOUTH ASIA in an Age of Globalisation (2006)

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