Indrani Chatterjee

Indrani Chatterjee is a Professor of History and Distinguished Chair on Democracy and the History of South Asia at the University of Virginia. Her research explores intersections of gender, religion, and politics in South Asia from the late 17th to 20th centuries, with a focus on caste dynamics, monastic networks, and colonial governance.

• Educated at St. Stephen’s College, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London)
• Previous teaching roles at Delhi University, SOAS, UC Davis, Rutgers, and UT Austin

Her scholarly work includes Gender, Slavery and the Law in Colonial India (OUP, 1999) and Forgotten Friends: Monks, Marriages and Memories of Northeast India (OUP, 2013), the latter winning the Srikanth Dutt award. She has received grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and a fellowship at the Yale Agrarian Studies Colloquium.

Recent publications analyze caste systems, postcolonial historiography, and Afro-Asian connections. She is currently revising a manuscript on caste, gender, and wealth in South Asian subjectivities and will teach a seminar on India’s electoral democracy at the Karsh Institute of Democracy.

Key Research Themes

• Slavery and bonded labor in South Asia
• Monastic institutions and governance
• Colonial legal systems and gender
• Decolonial historical methodology

Awards & Grants

• Srikanth Dutt award (2013)
• American Council of Learned Societies grants
• Yale Agrarian Studies Colloquium fellowship