✍️ SIGNED COPY
This copy is hand-signed by Umar Khalid and carries the official “Signed Copy” seal — a collector's edition of a remarkable publishing story.
“One of the most accomplished doctoral dissertations that I have read.” — Ramachandra Guha, from his Foreword
Umar Khalid completed his PhD thesis on the history of the Adivasis of the Singhbhum region of Jharkhand under extraordinary circumstances. He was facing sedition charges, had spent time in jail and had been rusticated from the university. The thesis was submitted at Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for Historical Studies in July 2018. Since then, it has garnered significant attention among scholars and historians.
In Fractured Communities, published as a book for the first time, Khalid combines archival rigour with analytical clarity to illuminate the history of Singhbhum's tribal societies under British rule. The book is both a valuable work of history and a critique of histories written from positions of power, which tend to flatten differences among — and, more crucially, within — communities.
At a time when public debates are increasingly shaped by simplistic versions of the past, the inquiry at the heart of Fractured Communities acquires a contemporary relevance that few historical works can match. And running through the narrative is a political philosophy grounded in democratic values and genuine concern for the marginalised.
Inside this edition
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Foreword by Ramachandra Guha — India's foremost historian
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Afterword by Nandini Sundar — author of The Burning Forest
- Two hundred years of Singhbhum's Adivasi history, from national, state and district archives
- 400 pages | Juggernaut | Cover design by Bhavi Mehta
About the author
Umar Khalid is an activist and public intellectual who has engaged with questions of democracy, constitutional rights and minority rights in India. A PhD scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, he emerged as a prominent voice during the 2016 student movement, which sparked nationwide debate on dissent and free speech. In 2020 he was arrested under the UAPA in connection with the Delhi riots case and remains in jail without trial. Fractured Communities — his first book — brings his doctoral research to readers at last.
Perfect for readers of
Ramachandra Guha, Nandini Sundar's The Burning Forest, Sumit Guha, and anyone drawn to Adivasi history, colonial Jharkhand, and the question of who gets to write the past.
