Abhilash T

Assistant Professor

Email: abhilash@cds.edu

Area of Specialization: Politics and Development, Human Development Health and Education, Labour,, Employment and Social Security

Education

PhD. in Politics and International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2013

Employment

  • Research Assistant at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road, New Delhi : 2007-08.
  • Research Associate, UNDP-Ministry of Panchayati Raj, New Delhi ( 2008)
  • Assistant Professor, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune ( 2012-2017)
  • Assistant Professor at CDS since 2017

Teaching

  • Political Economy of Development and Governance, Optional course, MA Semester IV.
  • Co-teaching PhD Semester I, Course 303: Qualitative Research Methods.

Supervision

  • Two PhDs have been submitted under my supervision

Fellowship

  • Inequality and Poverty Programme Fellowship, hosted by the Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics (LSE) and the Department of Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London (2017).

Research Projects

  • Nomadism and Uneven Inclusion: A case study of Malai Pandaram in Kerala, funded by ICSSR, 2014-15.
    Social Exclusion and Inclusion of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in Kerala, funded by ICSSR, 2016-17.
  • Institutional Support for Management of Agrobiodiversity in Kerala, funded by UN-FAO with Sunil Mani , V Santhakumar and S. M. Mohanakumar (2018-19).
  • Intergenerational Mobility and Collective Articulation of Rights: Interrogating the developmental dilemmas of Hill Tribes in Kerala, funded by ICSSR, (ongoing)

Publications:

Chapters in Books

Political Articulations of Adivasis in Kerala (2020), in Handbook of Tribal Politics in India (eds), VirginusXaxa and Jagannath Ambagudia, New Delhi: Sage.

Journal Articles

  • Tribal Rights and Kerala Model Development: Exploring New Trends (2024), Indian Journal of Political Science (forthcoming)
  • M Kunhaman (1949–2023) A Radical Academic Who Saw Things Others Could Not, Economic and Political Weekly (2024)  59 (5): 22-25.
  • Access to Education in Tribal Areas: Evidence from Mayurbhanj District of Odisha, with Susama Handah (2023),  Social Science in Perspective, 15 (4): 369-390.
  • Another Wave of Forest and Adivasi Land Alienation? Revenue versus Forest Pattayam and Adivasi Land Question in Kerala” with Amita Bachan K H, (2022) Artha Vijnana: 64 (1):75-87.
  • Access to sanitation and risk of developing urinary tract infections among women from low socio-economic settings”, Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health, With  Rama Kawade, Anjali Radkar, and  Deepa Thakur (2019), 6 (7): 2939-2943.
  • Persisting Exclusion? Contextualising the Tribal Welfare Policies of Kerala State, Research Review Journal of Social Sciences, 3 (2): 1-7.
  • Adivasi Claims over Sabarimala Highlights the Counter Narratives of Tradition, Economic and Political Weekly, (2019), 54 (1), https://www.epw.in/engage/article/adivasi-claims-over-sabarimala-highlight-the-importance-of-counter-narratives-of-tradition
  • “Anthropological Solution to a Socio-Economic Problem: A Critical Analysis of the Colonial Literature on Travancore Hill Tribes, (2014) Social Action, .64 (4),397-407.
  • “Claiming Land; (Re)claiming Identity : Ãdivãsi Gōtra Mahã Sabha and the Indigenous Modernity in Highland Kēraļa (2013), Artha Vijnana, 55 (2),.210-227.
  • Ashram Schools: Need for a New Approach (2017), Economic and Political Weekly ,52(49):25-28.

CDS Working Paper

Scheduled Tribes and School Education: Analysis of a Household Survey in Mayurbhanj District of Odisha, (2020) with SusamaHansdah, CDS Working Paper Series 501.

Newspaper and other forums

  • On the intellectual contributions of M Kunhaman , Chandrika Daily (Malayalam) December 10, 2023, http://epaper.chandrikadaily.com/viewpage.php?edn=Varanthappathippu&isid=CHANDRIKA_VAR_20231210&pid=CHANDRIKA_VAR#google_vignette
  • Community Rights and forest conservation | Explained, The Hindu, Nov 13, 2023.
  • Land Rights and Survival, Malabar Journal (Malayalam), 07 Nov 2023, https://themalabarjournal.com/post/tmj-outlook-land-rights-and-livelihood-dr-abhilash-t?fbclid=IwAR0iJeY9eD_-f_wDiPOob5fBkkAn5hVDr_8R-fYzHwDIn-5IusDINxXdxu4
  • Tribal Welfare policies and Kerala State, (Malayalam) Trucopy Webzine , 29 Jul 2021, https://www.academia.edu/116497656/Tribal_welfare_adn_state_policy_in_Kerala_Truecopy_Webzine_
  • Jungle Raj:Confusion over ‘joint management’ of forests, Businessline, 24 January,2018.
  • Flood of Schemes: Revisiting The Adivasi Schemes on World Indigenous Day, 23 September, 2015 (https://countercurrents.org/thadathil230915.htm)
  • Community rights and forest conservation | Explained,  The Hindu, Nov 13, 2023