Author Profile – Mahmudul Sumon

Ethnicity and Adivasi Identity in Bangladesh

Alumnus, Mahmudul Sumon, who completed a PhD in Antrhoplogy with us has released his latest book ‘Ethnicity and Adivasi Identity in Bangladesh’.  

The book is based on his work done at Kent as part of his PhD in Anthropology (2014).This book explores the transitions in the adivasi identity as well as in the political representation of adivasi communities in Bangladesh.

It traces the use of categories such as “primitive”, “tribe”, and “adivasi” in post-colonial Bangladesh, both in the political discourse and in everyday life. The volume studies the history of these essentialized categories used for indigenous communities within the hierarchies of power and identity. It also analyses the diverse articulations of indigeneity through ethnographic narratives, exploring the formations of newer traditions and identity. The author highlights the persistence of the terms “simple” and “primitive” in contemporary discourses while also sharing examples of complex mediations and appropriation of these categories by adivasi groups in Bangladesh.

This book will be of interest to researchers and students of sociology, social ethnography, social and cultural anthropology, indigenous studies, exclusion studies, development studies, political sociology, and South Asian studies.

Find out more about his book and how you can purchase it here.