Centre for World Environmental History

Arnab Roy

Email: arnabroy.ciefl@gmail.com

Education

2006:   University of North Bengal    BA in English Honours

2008:   The English and Foreign Languages University         MA in English Literature

2010:   Tata Institute of Social Sciences         M.Phil (History of Science)

Pursuing: Jawaharlal Nehru University           PhD (History of Science)

Research Interests

In my ongoing PhD research, I am interested to study the complex phenomenon of modernization of agricultural knowledge and practice in late 19th and early 20th century Bengal. The project looks into the manner through which the knowledge of modern agriculture was both critically assimilated and disseminated in a divergent ecological, environmental and economic setting, different from that of the colonizers. The research explores the view and the participation of the Bengali population, especially of the literati, in the prevailing agricultural discourse. The scheme also delineates with the issue of livestock production in colonial Bengal.   

In addition to the current research project on agriculture, from the view point of history of science, I have also been interested in the history of co-operative movement and production, peasant revolt of divergent natures and the debates on land reform in twentieth century Bengal that includes both the colonial and postcolonial scenarios.     

Publication

Roy, Arnab. "Introduction of Modern Science into Agriculture: Early Debates in Colonial Bengal." In Tilling the Land: Agricultural Knowledge and Practices in Modern India, by Deepak Kumar and Bipasha Raha. Forthcoming.