Umar Khalid's PhD Thesis on Jharkhand's Adivasis Is Now a Book. Read What It Is About

New Delhi - Umar Khalid’s doctoral research, completed under extraordinary circumstances at Jawaharlal Nehru University, has been published as a book for the first time. Titled Fractured Communities: Adivasi Histories and the Politics of Power, the work is now available from Juggernaut Books, with its official launch scheduled for June 27.

The book is based on Khalid’s PhD thesis submitted in July 2018 to JNU’s Centre for Historical Studies. It provides a rigorously researched history of Adivasi communities in the Singhbhum region of present-day Jharkhand (part of the larger Chotanagpur plateau). Drawing on archival sources, it examines tribal societies under British colonial rule and challenges simplified narratives of unified indigenous resistance. Instead, it reveals internal fractures within communities where some resisted the colonial state, others collaborated, and many negotiated power with neighbours and authorities.

Renowned historian Ramachandra Guha, who wrote the foreword, has described the book as “brilliantly argued” and “richly readable.” In a post on X, Guha stated: “Umar Khalid’s brilliant PhD thesis has just been published as a book. It is a rigorously researched and richly readable history of Adivasis in Chotanagpur. May his cruel incarceration end soon, and Dr Khalid write more fine works of historical scholarship.”

An afterword is contributed by Nandini Sundar. To mark the release, the Kindle edition is available for free on Amazon India from June 20–27. The print edition is approximately 400 pages long.

Khalid, a former JNU student, activist, and historian, completed his thesis while facing legal challenges, including prior sedition charges and rustication. He has been in pre-trial detention since September 2020 in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots conspiracy case under UAPA and related charges. His trial is still ongoing.

Fractured Communities stands out not only as a significant academic contribution to subaltern and environmental history but also for its critique of histories written from positions of power, offering timely relevance amid contemporary debates on identity and the past.

Readers can access the free Kindle version during the promotional window by searching for the book title on Amazon.