Debraj Ghatak

Guest Faculty
Department of History
Darjeeling Hills University

BIO

Debraj Ghatak, is currently working as a Guest Faculty, Department of History, Darjeeling Hills University, Mungpoo, Darjeeling. He is also a Doctoral Student at the Department of History, Jadunath Sarkar School of Social Science, Assam University Silchar. His Doctoral work is on Retracing Akhras: A History of Bodybuilding and Training Institutes in Bengal 1867-1947. His specialisation is in modern South Asian history, and the primary interest lies in the political and social history of Bengal.

EDUCATION

PhD (Pursuing), Department of History, Assam University.

MA History, Presidency University, 2018.

BA (Honours) Hist., University of Kalyani, 2016.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Debraj Ghatak’s specific areas of interest include the history of physical exercise, physical culture, bodybuilding and training institutes in Bengal and India during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is also interested in the history of nationalism in India, culture of sports in colonial India, and the history of revolutionary terrorism in colonial Bengal.

EXPERIENCE

Research Assistant for the ‘George Michell’s photographs digitisation project’ at Centre for Studies in Social Science Calcutta, Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, from 16th October 2023 to 28th February 2024.

Research Assistant to Professor Dr. Suranjan Das, Vice-Chancellor, Adamas University (former Vice-Chancellor, Jadavpur University), on his report write-up in association with the Government of West Bengal Higher Education Department, ‘The History of Higher Education in Colonial and Post-Colonial Bengal.

Research Assistant to author Dr. Tapti Roy on her book project Deben De: A Forgotten Freedom Fighter (published in 2024)—from April to November 2019.

Research Assistant to Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharya (Resident Fellow, CEMIS, Göttingen) on her research project, “On the History of the Consumption of Coffee in India in the 19th and 20th Centuries,” from November 2018 to March 2020.

Research Assistant to Dr. Rahul Mukhopadhyay on his project Early Language and Literacy Education in Colonial India: A Socio-Cultural History during the period October 2017 to September 2018.

Research Fellow of the ‘Alipore Jail Project’ of Jadavpur University, a Heritage Conservation Initiative of the Government of West Bengal, November 2021 to April 2022.

PUBLICATIONS

“In search of a forgotten martial society: Group rivalry and class conflict in Bengal, 1900-1910” was published in a peer-reviewed journal, International Journal of Humanities & Social Science Studies (IJHSSS), Vol. XI, issue I (January 2025): 80-92.

“Goyenda Nathite Ranajit Guha (1947-1959)” in a Trimonthly Bengali Journal Anustup (ISSN No-0974-2697, in UGC CARE LIST from January 2020 to present) in their Anustup Ranajit Guha Bisesh Sankhya (Anustup Special Issue on Ranajit Guha), Vol. 57, no. 4, September 2023.

“Banglay Bayam Prabandha O Bayam Pranalir Bibartan 1930-1970, Bibhinna Khanda Itihaser Kahini,” Harappa Likhan Chitran, Vol. 1, Issue 2, (February 2022), 201-207, ISSN 2583-1364.

“In Search of the Hydra: The Physicality of the Dacoits in the Early Nineteenth-Century Nadia District” has been published in April 2025 in an edited volume titled Heard and Unheard: Miscellany of Marginalities, edited by Prasanta Ray and Apalak Das, with a foreword by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, by HYPHEN Publishers, Kolkata. ISBN Number: 978-81-969366-6-2

[Forthcoming] “Governing’ Subjects to Citizens: The Uses of ‘governmentality’ from the Bratachari Movement to Post-independent India” has been communicated to an edited volume. This chapter has been accepted and will be published in a forthcoming edited volume by the Bloomsbury soon. 

CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS

To be updated.

GRANTS AND AWARDS

Awarded Assam University UGC-Non-NET scholarship in February, 2023.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

To be updated.