I hold undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in History (Honours, BA 2007, Presidency College, University of Calcutta; MA 2009, through Presidency College, University of Calcutta) and an M.Phil degree in History (Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2012), and a doctoral degree (D.Phil, 2019), University of Heidelberg). I have taught as a Lecturer at the Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi, before joining Presidency University as Assistant Professor of History, in July 2012.
I am currently working on the history of river and marine cartographies, geocriticism in textual production, and history of instruments in colonial literature
BA Honours in History (Presidency College, University of Calcutta, 2007): Ranked First Class First.
MA in History (University of Calcutta, through Presidency College, 2009): Ranked First Class.
M. Phil in History (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2012): Ranked First Class.
Dr. Phil in Transcultural Studies (University of Heidelberg, 2019): Graded Magna cum Laude
I graduated from Presidency College, Calcutta, with a BA in History, ranking First class First (2007), and was awarded an MA in History, with a special focus on Social History of Modern India, ranking First class Second, from the University of Calcutta (2009). I have an MPhil from the Centre for Historical Studies, at the School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The MPhil thesis was titled, "Cartographic Conquests: Men, Machines, Methods 1830-1870".
I qualified in the National Eligibility Test (Lecturership: 2009, and JRF/Junior Research Fellowship: 2010). I was awarded the prestigeous University Grants Commission Award for the The Post-Graduate Merit Scholarship for University Rank Holder, 2007-2008.
I have also been recepient of the DFG Fellowship (Deutsche Forschungs Gemeinschaft/ German Research Foundation) in 2013-2016 to pursue a Doctoral degree (Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies), at the Cluster of Excellence-Asia & Europe in a Global Context, at the University of Heidelberg. My doctoral thesis at the University of Heidelberg, explores the antecedents of the construction of the Indian state through a study of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India (GTSI) and its survey operations. My supervisors at the Cluster of Excellence: Graduate Programme For Transcultural Studies (GPTS) at Heidelberg, were Prof. Dr. Joachim Kurtz (Professor of Intellectual and Global History), and Prof. Hans Harder (Professor and Head of the Department of Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures, South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University). I was awarded a D.Phil with Magna-cum Laude.
During my postgraduate years at JNU, I have also taught as a Lecturer at Department of History, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi (w.e.f 19th September 2011 – 5th May 2012). In July 2012 I joined the Department of History, Presidency University as an Assistant Professor at the Department of History.
I am currently National Representative of Imago Mundi, and a member of the International Cartographic Association, with my specific research interests lying in the areas of the various Histories of Cartography and Mapping.
I have been recipient of a number of prizes and grants:
- Kalyan Kumar Dasgupta Memorial Award, University of Calcutta, 2008-2009.
- Kuruville Zachariah Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2008.
- Himani Devi Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2008.
- Ajoy Banerjee Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2008.
- Punyalekha Banerjee Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2007.
- Ashin Dasgupta Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2006.
- Presidency College Alumni Association Scholarship, Calcutta, 2006.
- Ila Mukhopadhyay Memorial Medal, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2006.
Geographical knowledge may not be just limited to the discipline of hardcore geographers and cartographers. Much of my love for geography comes from my parents who are both established academics in the field. The history of mapping in India and its evolution during its colonial administration was not a compact and enclosed space. It was a fluid system of practices, institutions, concepts. The core of my research and specialization, (if that can be a justifiable term), is on the history of mapping in India.
My published research looks at different survey operations in the 18th-19th century, various intellectual engagements between scientists and scientific institutions. I have worked on German and Indian surveyors working in the Indian subcontinent, Administrative Cartographic processes in 19th c. British India, Geopolitical Border-Relations between British India and China, and on the history of Indian surveying operations during the interwar years.
My allied research interests are in the Histories of Science and Technology, and in the representations of the various histories of mapping and mapmaking.
Courses Taught/Teaching: 2012-2024
Undergraduate Courses:
2012-2013: Old Syllabus
1. Aspects of Antiquity: A History of Greece, Rome & China: Politics & Society
2. Aspects of Antiquity: A History of Greece, Rome & China: Religion & Culture
3. Early Medieval India c.1200-1500
2016-2024: New Syllabus and CBCS
1. Early Modern Europe
2. History of Modern India 1757-1947
3. History of Science, Technology & Medicine: 19th-20th Centuries
4. HIST-131: Understanding South Asian Cultures
5. HIST C6: Rise of the Modern West – I
6. HIST C8: Rise of the Modern West – II
7. HIST DSE-3C: History of Science, Technology & Medicine in 19-20th century
8. HIST156MDC03: Women in Indian Society
Postgraduate Courses:
2012-2013: Old Syllabus
1. Establishment & Consolidation of Colonial Rule in India 1757-1857
2. Early Colonial Rule in India: Issues & Responses 1757-1857
3. Industrial Transformations in the Modern World
4. Social History of Modern India
2016-2024: New Syllabus
1. HIST 0703B: Religious and Cultural Nationalisms
2. HIST 0791: Research Methodology: Approaches to the Study of History
3. HIST 0891: Research Methodology: Reading Texts in History
4. HIST 0902B: History and Philosophy of Science
5. HIST 0904B: Aspects of Literature & Literary History in Modern South Asia
6. HIST 1004B: An Environmental History of India
PhD Coursework:
1. HIST-C2: Research and Publication Ethics
2. HIST-C3: Research Methodology: Reading Texts in History
I currently supervise four doctoral candidates.
I have supervised a number of Undergraduate & Postgradute dissertations at the Department of History, Presidency University (2016-2024).
Board Member, National Representative, Imago Mundi: The International Journal for the History of Cartography
Member, The International Cartographic Association (ICA)
Member, International Society for the History of the Map (ISH Map)
Member, Paschimbanga Itihash Sansad, Kolkata.
Member, European Society for the History of Science (ESHS).
Affiliated member of the Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Transcultural Studies, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
(2024) “Visualizing Spaces of Knowledge in the Himalayas, 1830-1917”, in Soumen Mukherjee (ed.) Empire, Religion and Identity: Modern South Asia and the Global Circulation of Ideas. (Brill Indological Library, Vol. 59, Brill Publications, ISBN: 978-90-04-68515-4, DOI: 10.1163/9789004694330_008)
(2023) “A Weather in the Empire’s Cap: Henry Francis Blanford & the Indian Meteorological Observatories 1875-1890”, Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences. (Quest Journals, Vol. 11, Issue xii, 186-192, ISSN: 2321-9467)
(2020) “War Cartography in the Survey of India, 1920–1946”, in Alexander Kent, Soetkin Vervust, Imre Demhardt, Nick Millea (eds.) Mapping Empires: Colonial Cartographies of Land and Sea. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. (Springer International Publishing, ISBN: 978-3-030-23447-8, Series ISSN: 2195-1705, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-23447-8)
(2019) “Mapping the Brahmaputra Narratives 1820-1890” in ‘Language, Literature and Sacred Texts’, 8th South and Southeast Asian Association for the Study of Culture and Religion (SSEASR) Conference Abstract Volume, Rivers and Religion-Connecting Cultures of South and Southeast Asia, p. 150. (Centre for Archaeological Studies, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, Nymphea Publication, Dhaka, ISBN: 974-984-93853-0-1)
(2017) “Science, Surveying and Scientific Authority: The Brothers Schlagintweit in ‘India and High Asia’, 1854-1857”, South Asia Journal of South Asian Studies. (Vol. 40, Issue iii, 544-565, ISSN: 0085-6401, DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2017.1340110)
(2014) “Geopolitics and the GTSI: The Schlagintweit Brothers in India 1854-1857”, Indian Journal of Spatial Science, (Vol. V, No. 1, ISSN: 2249-4316)
(2012) “The Great Trigonometrical Survey - Histories of Mapping 1790-1850”, eTraverse: The Online Indian Journal Of Spatial Science, The Geographical Institute, (Vol. III, No. 1, Article 4, ISSN: 2249-4316)
(2011) Book Reviews “The Archaic and the Exotic: Studies in the History of Indian Astronomical Instruments”, Contemporary South Asia, (Vol. 19, No. 4, 471-479. ISSN: 0958-4935, DOI: 10.1080/09584935.2011.622105)
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“Administrative Cartography in South Asia”, in Roger P. Kain (ed.) The History of Cartography: Volume Five - Cartography in the Nineteenth Century, University of Chicago Press (In Press 2025).
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