In my 35 years of varied professional experience, including teaching, journalism, writing, research, evolving programs, working in institutes and universities, international-national voluntary organisations, government agencies and media, I have mainly focused on issues of environment, labour, poverty, people’s lives and livelihoods, social movements, human rights and sustainable development, in India and South Asia. Combining the disciplines of political science, history, environment studies, including climate change and energy, development studies and media studies, I have published 18 books and booklets, more than 5000 articles, and have received 12 national-international awards for my writings. My recent books are Dalit Ecologies: Caste and Environment Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2024) and Green and Saffron: The RSS, Modi and Indian Environmental Politics (Permanent Black, 2024).
I have research motivation in transition politics, political institutions, governance and conflicts in countries in the realms of natural resources, climate change, environment and sustainable development.Further, I have an interest in exploring environmental issues and changes, and their intersections with political, economic and social factors. In particular, I wish to capture the complex interplay between power, authority, political ideologies, environment and social movements. I am keenly interested in a study of concepts such as politics, justice, property and rights from the perspective of marginal communities, especially in the realm of environment, and how and why they have different views, ethics, political believes and attitudes towards nature and natural resources.
2020 onwards: Professor, Environmental Studies, Ashoka University, India
Sep 2019-Dec 2019: Dean, Academics; Head, Department of Development
Communication, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi,
India
Apr 2014-Aug 2019: Professor & Head, Department of Development
Communication, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi,
India
Taught various courses on Environment, Development, Media and Communication.
Single Authored Books:
2024 Dalit Ecologies: Caste and Environment Justice, Cambridge University Press.
Green and Saffron: The RSS, Modi, and Indian Environmental Politics,
revised and new edition, Permanent Black, Ranikhet and Ashoka
University.
2020 Dalit aur Prakriti: Jati aur Paryawaran Aandolan (Dalit and
Nature: Caste and Environment Movements, in Hindi), Vani Prakashan,
Delhi.
2017 Caste and Nature: Dalits and Indian Environmental Politics,
Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
2014 (first paperback printing) Green & Saffron: Hindu Nationalism
and Indian Environmental Politics, Permanent Black, Ranikhet. First
published in hardback 2012.
2010 Human Rights in a Globalised World: An Indian Diary, Sage,
Delhi & London.
2006 No Borders: Journeys of an Indian Journalist, Daanish, Delhi, 2006.
2002 Landscapes and Lives: Environmental Dispatches on Rural India,
Oxford University Press, Delhi.
Select Research Papers:
2025 ‘Modi the “Solar Superman”: Hindutva, Climate Change and
Renewable Energy,’ India Review, 24:1, 2025, pp. 55-86.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14736489.2025.2454795
2023 ‘Hindu Nationalism and Right-wing Ecology: RSS, Modi and
Motherland Post-2014,’ Studies in Indian Politics, 11 (1), 2023, pp.
102-117.
https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231166197
2022 ‘Caste, Environment Justice, and Intersectionality of Dalit-Black
Ecologies’, Environment and Society: Advances in Research, Vol. 13,
2022, pp. 78-97.
https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2022.130106
‘Caste of Labour: Dalits, the Industrial Ecosystem and Environmental
Politics in Delhi’, Social Change, Vol. 52, No. 1, March 2022, pp.
7-23.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00490857221079467
‘Governing Sacred Groves: Religion, State, and Institutions in
Indigenous Jharkhand’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. LVII, No.
2, January 8, 2022, pp. 42-49.
https://www.epw.in/journal/2022/2/special-articles/governing-sacred-groves.html
2021 ‘ “God of Humans”: Dina-Bhadri, Dalit Folktales and Environmental
Movements’, South Asian History and Culture, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 1-18.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19472498.2020.1866365
2020 ‘Dalit on Earth: River Titash, Malo Commons and Cultural
Affirmation’, Man in India, Vol. 100, Nos. 3-4, 2020, pp. 209-228.
Dec 2015 Foreign Travel Grant under the Scheme ‘Data Collection
Abroad’ from the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi,
to do archival research in London, for 10 days.
2011-12 Visiting Fellow, Center for the Study of Developing Societies
(CSDS), Delhi. Topic: Environmentalism, Conservatism, Democracy and
Peoples’ Rights in India.
Mar 2010-Apr 2011 Research Fellow, Research Center of Health
Economics, Mahidol University, Bangkok. Topic: Access to Treatment:
HIV and AIDS in Asia.
Jan 2004-Dec 2006 Director, Research Project, ActionAid International.
Topic: Positive Voices: Emerging Governance Issues on HIV and AIDS in
Asia.
Dec 2004-Jun 2005 Coordinator, Research Project, ActionAid
International and Institute of Human Development, New Delhi. Topic:
Free Trade Agreements, Food Security and Development in Asia.
2001-2003 United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Washington,
Research Grant. Topic: Towards a Peaceful Indian Ocean: A Study of
Coastal Conflicts in South Asia.
