Avinash Kumar, Assistant Professor in Political Studies, CIS&LS
E-mail: avinashmishra.jnu@gmail.com; avinashkumar@mail.jnu.ac.in

Avinash Kumar completed his Ph.D. from Jamia Millia Islamia and is an Assistant Professor of Political Studies in the Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Prior to this he has taught at Shahid Bhagat Singh College and Ram Lal Anand College (Eve), University of Delhi. He has also worked on the Religions and Development Research Programme, University of Birmingham, UK; National Commission of Minorities, Government of India, New Delhi, and Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi. His research interests include issues of land, labour and caste; politics of marginalization and informality; discrimination and exclusion, movements of the marginalized; labour market and Indian political economy.

Select Publications:

  • Indian Mass Media: Prejudices against Dalits and Muslims (co-edited with Yoginder Sikand: 2010), Hope India Publishers, Gurgaon.

  • Criminaslisation of Politics: Caste, Land and the State in Bihar, (forthcoming).

  • B. R. Ambedkar: Thoughts on Reorganisation of States and Contemporary Relevance (with Sudha Pai) (forthcoming).

  • The Indian Parliament: A Critical Appraisal (co-edited with Sudha Pai), (forthcoming).

  • 'Religious Mobilizations for Development and Social Change: A Comparative Study of Dalit Movements in Punjab and Maharashtra, India; (with S. S. Jodhka). Working Paper, University of Birmingham, UK (2010).

  • Land Acquisition for SEZs: Contrasting Case Studies from the National Capital Region (with Sudha Pai) in Rob Jenkins, Partha Mukhopadhyay and Loraine Kennedy The Politics of Special Economic Zones in India, (eds.) (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

  • "The Battle for Land- Unaddressed Issues" Economic and Political Weekly, June 18, 2011, 20-23.

  • "Fallacy of the State in Bihar", Economic and Political Weekly, November 3, 2012, Vol. XLVII, No 44, 23-25.

  • "Mass Media and Muslims in India: Representation or Subversion", Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Routledge, London, Vol. 31:1, March 2011, 59-77.

  • "Illegitimacy of the State in Bihar?, Economic and Political Weekly, October 31, 2009, 8-12.

  • "Internal Classification of Scheduled Castes: The Punjab Story?, (with S S Jodhka), Economic and Political Weekly, October 27, 2007, 20-23.