Dr Biswaranjan Tripura | Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Dr Biswaranjan Tripura

Assistant Professor
Mumbai Campus, Centre for Social Justice and Governance, School of Social Work - Mumbai Campus

Qualification

PhD(IEE-RUB,Germany)
M.A (TISS, Mumbai)
B.A (Loyola College, University of Madras)

Contact

biswaranjan.tripura[at]tiss[dot]ac[dot]in

Mumbai | India
Tel: 91-22-2552 5419

Biswaranjan Tripura is a faculty member in Indigenous and Tribal Studies at the Centre for Social Justice and Governance, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India. He holds a BA in Economics from Loyola College, Chennai, affiliated with the University of Madras, an MA in Social Work with a specialization in Tribal Studies from TISS, and a PhD (magna cum laude) in International Development Studies from the Institute of Development Research and Development Policy (IEE), Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.

Dr. Tripura was awarded the Brot für die Welt Development Scholarship to support his doctoral research. At TISS, he teaches postgraduate courses focusing on tribal and Dalit studies and is also available for supervising PhD research projects.

His research interests encompass the anthropology of state and development, Indigenous studies, decolonial studies, governance, Indigenous education, political economy, Tiprasa Studies, and Northeast India studies. His scholarly work has been published in several notable journals, including the Journal of Asian and African Studies, Economic and Political Weekly, Indian Journal of Social Work, Social Action, Frontiers in Political Science, Intersectionalities: A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Policy and Practice, Social Work with Groups, Journal of Tribal Intellectual Collective India, and Indian Journal of Dalit and Tribal Social Work. He is the author of 'Educational Experiences of Indigenous Peoples' (2014, Mittal Publication, New Delhi) and his latest single authored book is 'Everyday State and Development in Northeast India' (2025, Routledge, London). Currently he is working on an edited volume.

Dr. Tripura is also an active member of several academic and advocacy organizations, including Tribal Intellectual Collective India, LAYA Resource Center for Adivasis, United Tiprasa Forum, and the British Association for South Asian Studies.

ORCiD id:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2406-7213

Anthropology of State and Development, Political Economy , Social Movement, Autonomy Movement, Governance, Indigenous Education, International social work, Indigenous/Tribal Studies, Tiprasa Studies, Northeast India, decolonizing ethnography and methhodologies

Books

2025. Everyday State and Development in Northeast India, London, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.https://www.routledge.com/Everyday-State-and-Development-in-Northeast-India/Tripura/p/book/9781032818160#:~:text=Description,in%20contemporary%20Tripura%2C%20Northeast%20India.

2014. Educational Experiences of Indigenous Peoples, New Delhi, Mittal Publication. https://mittalbooks.com/products/educational-experiences-of-indigenous-peoples

Peer-Reviewed Articles/Chapters

2023. Decolonizing Ethnography and Tribes in India: Toward an Alternative Methodology.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2023.1047276/full

2022. Negotiating the Everyday State in Contemporary Tripura, Northeast India. Journal of Asian and African Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00219096221113580

2022. Tribal Identity and Governance in Northeast India: The Case of Tripura Tribal Areas. Indian Journal of Social Work. https://journals.tiss.edu/ijsw/index.php/ijsw/article/view/847

2022. Forming an alumni association relief group to address the needs of Indigenous peoples in Tripura, India during the COVID-19 pandemic, Social Work with Groups, 45:1, 74-80, 2022, DOI: 10.1080/01609513.2020.1840191, Routledge Publications. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01609513.2020.1840191

2021. “We have become microscopic in our ancestral land”: The negotiation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 by the Indigenous peoples of Tripura. Social Action, 71(3), 297–310,2021. http://isidelhi.org.in/ckfinder/userfiles/files/File%2010/SA%20JULY-SEPT%202021%20(FOR%20WEB).pdf

2021. COVID-19 and the Everyday Challenges of Indigenous Peoples of Tripura, Economic and Political Weekly, November, 20, Vol LVI No 47. https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/47/insight/covid-19-and-everyday-challenges-indigenous.html

2021. Necropolitics and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Indigenous Peoples of Tripura, Northeast India, Intersectionalities: A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Polity, and Practice, Vol.9, No.1,2021. https://intersectionalities.mun.ca/index.php/IJ/article/view/2252

2019. Revisiting the Method of Social Welfare Administration in Social Work Education, Indian Journal of Dalit and Tribal Studies and Action, Vol.4, Issue 1, No.5 pp.63-75, 2019.

2015. Indigenous peoples question in Tripura: Dialogue between its past and present. In Alex Akhup 'Identities and their Struggles in North-East’. Kolkata-Adivaani Publishers, pp.151-179.

2015. “Tribe Centric Education and Pedagogy-From the Lived Experiences of Tribes within a multicultural society” in Vulli Dhanaraju “Debating Tribal Identity: Past and Present”, pp.309-321, Dominant Publishers, New Delhi.

2015. Structure, Consciousness and Social Transformation-The Adivasis in Thane District, Maharashtra, by Denzil Saldanha,2015, New Delhi: Aakar Books, pp 593, Price: 1695/- in Indian Journal of Social Work. Vol.76 (3),481-484, July,2015

2013. "International Social Work-An Indian Experience" in Indian Journal of Dalit and Tribal Social Work Vol.1, Issue 3 No.1 pp.1 to 24, October (ISSN 2320-2130).

2013. “Tribal Question in Tripura: Dialogue between its Past and Present”, in Journal of Tribal Intellectual Collective India, Vol.1, Issue 2, No.3 pp. 41 to 65, December (ISSN 2321-5437).

2012. Educational Experiences of Indigenous People with Special Reference to Tripura, North- East India, Asian Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities, Volume 2 (6), 217-227, June (ISSN:2249-7315).

2013. The Uttarakhand Disaster-Impact Assessment Report”, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, August, 2013, (Contribution in a Report)

Newspaper Columns/ Magazine Articles/Academic Lectures (Select)

From Tripura Upajati Juba Samity To TIPRA Motha: The Journey Of Indigenous Politics In Tripura. https://www.outlookindia.com/national/from-tripura-upajati-juba-samity-to-tipra-motha-the-journey-of-indigenous-politics-in-tripura-news-261517

Vision 2047 of Tribes in India (Series 1-Talk 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVK073wA054&t=43s

Upcoming Writings

Anthropology of state/Development

Politics of Accord

Script Politics and Language Hegemony

Trends in Social Work Education and Social Research

Methodolgies of the Peripheries

Environment and Garbage Politics

Political Economy/ Extractivism (Politics)

Book Proposal Submitted

The Anthropology of State and Development (Accepted by Routledge, London, Taylor and Francis Group).

Social Work Research: Methodologies of Sites of Practice (Submitted to Springer).

Governance and Development in Tribal Areas of North-East India-A Comparative study between Manipur and Tripura, Sponsored by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, 2016 to 2018

Situating violence against women within gender system-A study among tribes of North East India(Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya), Sponsored by ICSSR, New Delhi,2013-2016

Uttarakhand Disaster ImpacSocial Audit Assessment Team as part of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Sponsored by Ministry of Rural Development, India, 2013

Social Audit Assessment Team as part of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Sponsored by the Ministry of Rural Development, India

Tribe, State, and Governance

Foundation Course: Tribal Situation in India

International Social Work and Indigenous Peoples

Adivasi and Dalit Movement: Theory and Practices

Social Welfare Administration

Rural, Rurality, Caste, and Tribe (Theory and Fieldwork Practicum)

Social Entrepreneurship Among Dalits and Tribes

Academic Writing (B A Social Work)