Book Reviews – At the Margins: Discourses of Development, Democracy, and Regionalism in Orissa

Jayanta Sengupta, At the Margins: Discourses of Development, Democracy, and Regionalism in Orissa, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2015, xiv + 441 pages,
Rs 1195

This book has its roots in a Cambridge University thesis titled ‘Politics in Orissa, 1900–1956: Regional Identity and Popular Movements’, that was ‘approved’ in 1994. One remembered an old Hindi film, Bees saal baad, while reading the book. The publication of a book that has its origins 21 years ago is indeed intriguing, especially since it has been ‘locked’ by the scholar in the University Library at Cambridge, since usually scholars lock their theses for five to six years. Besides, a work that was originally a history thesis coming out of the ‘Sociology’ list of Oxford University Press is mysterious.