# Bishnu Mohapatra

Bishnu N Mohapatra (born 16 July 1960) is a political scientist, poet, educator, and academic. He is a professor of politics and the founding director of the Moturi Satyanarayana Centre for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Krea University. He was also the first dean of the School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences (SIAS) at Krea. He is a political commentator on society, governance, policy, and culture.
Mohapatra's research interests are diverse and include identity politics, democracy, minority rights, urban politics, civil society, governance, social exclusion, and social capital. He is currently researching cities and their multiple imaginings in history identity construction in Odisha, and is initiating a collective research project to understand the conceptual universe embedded in India’s Bhasa literatures. Following his work on the World Humanities Report, he is researching the idea of the University in Indian history.

## Early life and education

Bishnu Mohapatra was born in Odisha, India. He spent his formative years in Odisha's rural hinterlands, especially in the coastal and tribal parts of Odisha. He completed his schooling from Cuttack. Mohapatra holds a Master's degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi, an MPhil in Politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a DPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford.

## Work and reception

He has taught politics for over twenty-five years at the University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Azim Premji University. He later held visiting appointments at institutions such as Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris, the National University of Singapore, the University of Kyoto in Japan, and the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore. He has served as the Local-Global Governance Program Officer at the Ford Foundation's South Asia office in New Delhi.
Bishnu Mohapatra was invited to anchor the project of the World Humanities Report (WHR) for India/ South Asia initiated by UNESCO and CIPSH (The International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences, Paris) and coordinated by CHCI (Consortium of Humanities Centres and Institutes) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 2019.
The India/South Asia section of the World Humanities Report, anchored by Bishnu Mohapatra, provides an overview of the humanities' role in the region. The report includes thirteen critical essays and twelve video conversations, highlighting the humanities' presence in various forms and languages across the region. It emphasizes the humanities' ability to critically interrogate social practices, despite challenges such as limited public policies, economic resources, and social status.

### Understanding culture and the construction of identity

Mohapatra’s doctoral work at Oxford examines how Odia identity was shaped by colonial legacies, language politics, cultural movements, and the process of modernization. He explores how the development of a collective Odia identity has been intricately linked to the state's political and social history. His research investigates how social, cultural, and political factors intersect in the construction of this regional identity and how it has been used to mobilize people for both political and social purposes. He has explored, how myth and legend are pressed into the service of imaging and shaping Odia’s identity. Ways of ‘Belonging’: The Kanchi Kaveri Legend and the Construction of Oriya Identity (1996) is such an essay which moves away from an essentializing narrative of the legend towards a more fluid interpretation and its influence in the construction of contemporary imaginings of the Odia identity.

### Minority rights

In his writings, Mohapatra highlights the challenges faced by minority communities in asserting their rights especially educational status of Muslims and decline of Urdu in North India and the role of the state in protecting these rights. He argues that Indian state and civil society organizations often prioritize cultural rights over the socio-economic needs of the Muslim community. The authors argue that it is crucial for civil society to advocate for the socio-economic rights of Muslims to ensure their well-being and inclusion in society.

### As a Poet

Mohapatra is an Odia poet and translator. He has published five poetry collections in Odia, including his most recent Barshabatara (Rain Incarnations) in 2021. He has also translated two volumes of Pablo Neruda’s poetry in Odia. A volume of his poetry in English translation, "A Fragile World," was published in 2005. His poetry has also been translated into Hindi (Buddha aur Aam, 2022). His poetry carries the sensibilities of his early life spent in rural Odisha into his later life, which took him on travels across the world. His poems braid together both measured distance and an unbounded intimacy of a poet enchanted with the world.
His poetry has space for freedom and imagination through which he challenges the anthropocentric views and emphasising the importance of relationships and shared experiences.
His book, "Ranapare Jahan" (The Moon on Stilts), is a collection of Odia poetry. This book explores themes of love, life, and politics, blending them seamlessly into his poetic expressions.

## Publications
### Books

Interrogating Social Capital: The Indian Experience (Co-edited With Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, Niraja Gopal Jayal, and Sudha Pai), 2004; Sage Publications, New Delhi, ISBN 9788132103349

#### Poetry

In Odia
* Barsabatara (Rain-Incarnations), 2021; Paschima Publications, Bhubaneswar

##### In English Translation

* A Fragile World, translated from Odia, 2008; Poetry Connect, Allahabad
* Rain Incarnations, translated from Odia, 2025; Speaking Tiger, New Delhi
In Hindi Translations
* Buddha Aur Aam, poems translated into Hindi by Dr Rajendra Prasad Mishra, 2022; Pralek Prakashan, Mumbai
Reports /Articles
* Intimacy of Distance, (a poem) in Singing in the Dark: A Global Anthology of Poetry Under Lockdown, edited by K. Satchidanandan and Nishi Chawla, (Penguin Random House, 2020). ISBN 9780143457213
* Anatomy of Disagreement, Seminar, Number-716, April,2019
* Minority Question in India, in Jyotirmaya Tripathy and Sudarsan Padmanabhan (eds.) Becoming Minority: How Discourses and Policies Produce Minorities in Europe and India, 2014; Sage Publications, London and New Delhi,
* India’s Federalism and the Practice of Politics: Challenges and Possibilities, in Lok Raj Baral and Krishna Hachhethu (eds.) South Asia: Nation Building and Federalism, 2014; Vij Books India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi
* Ways of Democracy: Making Politics Work for the Urban Poor, in Akio Tanabe and Taberez Ahmed Neyazi (eds.) Democratic Transformation and the Vernacular Public Arena, 2014; Routledge, London
* Introduction to a Global Conversation on Democracy and the Democracy Manifesto, OpenDemocracy (www.opendemocracy.net), 7 and 11 May 2011
* Minorities and Politics, The Oxford Companion to Politics in India, Niraja Jayal Gopal and Pratap Bhanu Mehta (eds.), 2010; Oxford University Press, Delhi
* Self-Definitions and/in Colonial Contexts: Sources of Early Imaginings in Nineteenth-Century Orissa in History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, vol. 5, part- 5, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya (ed.), 2007; Oxford University Press
* Self Definitions and Otherness: Contexts and Sources of Early Imaginings in late Nineteenth-Century Orissa in Region, Culture, and Politics in India, Rajendra Vora and Ann Feldhaus (eds.), 2006; Manohar, Delhi
* A View from the Subalterns: The Pavement Dwellers of Mumbai in Rajesh Tandon and Ranjita Mohanty (eds.) Does Civil Society Matter: Governance in Contemporary India, 2003; Sage Publications, Delhi
* Democratic Citizenship and Minority Rights: A View from India, in Catarina Kinnvall and Kristina Jonsson (eds.) Globalization and Democratization in Asia: The Construction of Identity, 2002; London and New York, Routledge
* Social Connectedness and Fragility of Social Capital: View from an Orissa Village, Economic Political Weekly, Vol. XXXVI, No. 8, 24 February 2001.
* Politics in Post-Cyclone Orissa, Economic and Political Weekly, 15 April 2000
* Elections and Everyday Politics: Local Narratives of a National Present, Economic Political Weekly, volume xxv, Number 4, 22 January 2000
* Understanding Indignities, Seminar, number 471, November, 1998.
* Languages of Corruption in Foul Play: Chronicles of Corruption edited by Shiv Visvanathan and Harsh Sethi,1998; Delhi: Banyan Books
* The Problem, (Rethinking Institutions: A Symposium on state, civil society and mediating structures), Seminar, No. 456, August 1997.
* Tribal-Dalit Conflict in Orissa: Electoral Politics in Phulbani, co-authored with Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya,1996; Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXXI, Nos. 2 & 3, January, 13 – 20
* Ways of ‘Belonging’: The Kanchi-Kaveri Legend and the Construction of Oriya Identity, Studies in History, vol. 12, no. 2, July -December 1996
Journal
Bishnu Mohapatra has also published several book reviews in journals including Indian Economic and Social History Review, and Studies in History.