Departments & Courses
Oyndrila Sarkar
About-
I hold undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in History (Honours, BA 2007, Presidency College, University of Calcutta; MA 2009, through Presidency College, University of Calcutta) and an M.Phil degree in History (Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2012), and a doctoral degree (D.Phil, 2019), University of Heidelberg). I have taught as a Lecturer at the Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi, before joining Presidency University as Assistant Professor of History, in July 2012.
I am currently working on two scientists who crossed paths in the Eastern Himalayas in the late 18th century. I am also currently working on the administrative survey operations for the upcoming Volume 5 of the History of Cartography Project, Chicago.
Qualifications+
BA with Honours in History (Presidency College, University of Calcutta, 2007): Ranked First Class.
MA in History (University of Calcutta, through Presidency College, 2009): Ranked First Class.
M. Phil in History (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2012): Ranked First Class.
D. Phil in Transcultural Studies (University of Heidelberg, 2019): Graded Magna cum Laude
Biography+
I graduated from Presidency College, Calcutta, with a BA in History, ranking First class First (2007), and was awarded an MA in History, with a special focus on Social History of Modern India, ranking First class Second, from the University of Calcutta (2009). I have an MPhil from the Centre for Historical Studies, at the School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The MPhil thesis was titled, "Cartographic Conquests: Men, Machines, Methods 1830-1870".
I qualified in the National Eligibility Test (Lecturership: 2009, and JRF/Junior Research Fellowship: 2010). I was awarded the prestigeous University Grants Commission Award for the The Post-Graduate Merit Scholarship for University Rank Holder, 2007-2008.
I have also been recepient of the DFG Fellowship (Deutsche Forschungs Gemeinschaft/ German Research Foundation) in 2013-2016 to pursue a Doctoral degree (Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies), at the Cluster of Excellence-Asia & Europe in a Global Context, at the University of Heidelberg. My doctoral thesis at the University of Heidelberg, explores the antecedents of the construction of the Indian state through a study of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India (GTSI) and its survey operations. My supervisors at the Cluster of Excellence: Graduate Programme For Transcultural Studies (GPTS) at Heidelberg, were Prof. Dr. Joachim Kurtz (Professor of Intellectual and Global History), and Prof. Hans Harder (Professor and Head of the Department of Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures, South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University). I was awarded a D.Phil with Magna-cum Laude.
During my postgraduate years at JNU, I have also taught as a Lecturer at Department of History, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi (w.e.f 19th September 2011 – 5th May 2012). In July 2012 I joined the Department of History, Presidency University as an Assistant Professor at the Department of History.
I am currently a member of the International Cartographic Association, with my specific research interests lying in the areas of the various Histories of Cartography and Mapping, History & Philosophy of Science, History of Technology, and 18th-19th c Scientific Explorations. I have been recipient of a number of prizes and grants in my Undergraduate and Graduate years:
Kalyan Kumar Dasgupta Memorial Award, University of Calcutta, 2008-2009.
Kuruville Zachariah Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2008.
Himani Devi Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2008.
Ajoy Banerjee Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2008.
Punyalekha Banerjee Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2007.
Ashin Dasgupta Memorial Prize, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2006.
Presidency College Alumni Association Scholarship, Calcutta, 2006.
Ila Mukhopadhyay Memorial Medal, Presidency College, Calcutta, 2006.
Research / Administrative Experience+
Geographical knowledge may not be just limited to the discipline of hardcore geographers and cartographers. Much of my love for geography comes from my parents who are both established academics in the field. The history of mapping in India and its evolution during its colonial administration was not a compact and enclosed space. It was a fluid system of practices, institutions, concepts. The core of my research and specialization, (if that can be a justifiable term), is on the history of mapping in India.
My published research looks at different survey operations in the 18th-19th century, various intellectual engagements between scientists and scientific institutions. I have worked on German and Indian surveyors working in the Indian subcontinent, Administrative Cartographic processes in 19th c. British India, Geopolitical Border-Relations between British India and China, and on the history of Indian surveying operations during the interwar years.
My allied research interests are in the Histories of Science and Technology, Geocriticism & the Importance of Spatiality in autobiographical Graphic Novels, and in the representations of the various histories of Time.
Teaching / Other Experience+
I have taught the following Undergraduate courses:
1) Aspects of Antiquity, A History of Greece, Rome and China: Politics and Society
I have taught the following Postgraduate courses:
1) Establishment and Consolidation of Colonial Rule in India 1757-1857
2) Early Colonial Rule in India: Issues and Responses 1757-1857
3) Industrial Transformations in the Modern World
4) Social History of Modern India
5) History and Philosophy of Science: Early Beginnings
I was on extra-ordinary leave for completing my doctoral studies at the University of Heidelberg, Germany from 2013 - 2016.
I have taught the following Undergraduate courses
1) Early Modern Europe
2) History of Science, Technology and Medicine: 19th - 20th c.
I have taught the following Undergraduate course:
1) Modern India: A political, social and cultural history 1700-1947
I have taught the following Postgraduate course:
1) Research Methodology: Approaches to the Study of History
1) History and Philosophy of Science
2) Aspects of literature and Literary History in Modern South Asia.
1) An Environmental History of India.
Post Graduate Supervision+
I am currently not supervising any doctoral candidate.
I have supervised a number of Undergraduate & Postgradute dissertations at the Department of History, Presidency University (2016 on). Some of them are as follows:
BA Dissertations
Isti Bhattacharya - A Troubled State: Political Turmoil in Post-Partition West Bengal.
Mrinmoy Pal: Football & Politics in Bengal: Colonialism, Nationalism & Communalism.
Sangay Yankee Bhutia - The Problems faced by the South Asians in Britain: A detailed analysis.
Debopam Sen – Reception of Modern Science in India.
Doyel Thakur – If it exists, there's a Meme on it.
MA Dissertations
Shourjya Das - The Naked Truth: Situating Women In Culture During Partition
Sabarna Dasgupta - Refugee Rehabilitation In West Bengal And The Untouchables: A Case Of Failure (1947-79)
Nilanjan Chattyopadhyay - Programming The Signification Of Horror In The Language Of Time: A Case Study Of Bengali Horror Stories In Colonial Period (Second Supervisor)
Bipasha Bhattacharyya: Reclaiming Distortion: An eclectic study of men, methods & meanings in colonial contexts
Debmalya Ghosh: Cartography, Politics and Propaganda in the Cold War
Icchamati Sarkar: Partition of the Korean Penninsula & the Untold Origins of the Korean War
Bishwadeep Sarkar: The Impact of Kashmir Conflict: The New Intifada & Solution
Aneek Sarkar: 1971 & Cinema
Neelashree Dasgupta – Colonial Cuisine
Vivek Singha Roy – Adi Ganga Porikroma: The Exploration of its concept
Anik Rakshit – History of Military Technology and Warfare in Ancient India
Academic Memberships+
Member of the International Cartographic Association (ICA),
Member of the British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS), UK
Member of the New Zealand Asian Studies Society (NZASIA), NZ
Library Member of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), London
Library Member of the Royal Society, London
Affiliated member of the Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Transcultural Studies, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Sarkar, O. (2019) Administrative Cartography in South Asia, in The History of Cartography: Volume Five - Cartography in the Nineteenth Century, University of Chicago Press (forthcoming 2019).
Sarkar, O. (2019) War Cartography in the Survey of India: 1920-1946, History of Cartography, Publications of the International Cartographic Association, Springer (forthcoming 2019).
Sarkar, O. (2018) How Everest Colonised, Book Review of The Last Englishmen: Love, War & the End of Empire Deborah Baker, Penguin RandomHouse, Outlook Magazine, Reviews.
Sarkar, O. (2017) Science, Surveying and Scientific Authority: The Brothers Schlagintweit in 'India and High Asia, 1854-1857, South Asia Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol. 40, Issue iii, p. 544-565.
Sarkar, O. (2014) Geopolitics and the GTSI: The Schlagintweit Brothers in India 1854-1857, Indian Journal Of Spatial Science, EISSN 2249-4316, Vol. V, No.1.
Sarkar, O. (2012) The Great Trigonometrical Survey - Histories Of Mapping 1790-1850, eTraverse: The Online Indian Journal Of Spatial Science, The Geographical Institute, ISSN: 2249-4316, Vol. III No. 1, Article 4.
Sarkar, O. (2011) Book Review of The Archaic and the Exotic: Studies in the History of Indian Astronomical Instruments, Sreeramula Rajeswara Sarma, New Delhi, Manohar Publ. Contemporary South Asia, 2011, ISSN 0958-4935 Vol 19, Issue 4, pages 471-479
Presidency University,
86/1 College Street, Kolkata - 700073,
Email: Oyndrila.his at presiuniv.ac.in