Faculty at School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Samrat Choudhury

Samrat Choudhury

Associate Professor of Practice

School of Humanities and Social Sciences


Contact Information

Samrat’s research interests span questions of identity and belonging, the political history of Northeast India and its relation to the “idea of India”, and the Brahmaputra River, on all of which he has written or edited books and published numerous media articles. He is lately curious about artificial intelligence and its relation to writing and reading, and media and information literacy in an AI age.

Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical), Sardar Patel University, Gujarat

26+ years of experience as a journalist, author, editor, and now an academic.

  • Samrat was the sole Fellow selected from India for the Asian Leadership Fellow Programme run by the Japan Foundation and the International House of Japan in Tokyo in 2018.
  • He is also a Chevening South Asia Journalism Programme alumnus, and was one of six Indians selected for this prestigious fellowship at the University of Westminster, London, in 2019.
  • As an author, he was the recipient of writing grants from the Swiss Arts Council to work on Indo-Swiss collaborative projects with the Swiss writers Esther Banz and the late David Collin.

  • His authored books include Northeast India: A Political History, published in the UK and US by Hurst, London and in India by HarperCollins; The Braided River: A Journey Along the Brahmaputra, also published by HarperCollins, and The Urban Jungle, a novel published by Penguin which was nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize.
  • Books he has edited include But I Am One of You: Northeast India and the Struggle to Belong, and Insider Outsider: Belonging and Unbelonging in Northeast India.
  • He has also contributed several book chapters on very diverse topics, ranging from a chapter in an academic text published in the UK on the future of work, to short stories on varied themes in anthologies of Indian writing in English, to a graphic novella published in Switzerland and India that was later adapted into a play with an international cast and staged at the National School of Drama in Delhi.
  • Some of his writings have appeared in translation in German, Italian, and Spanish.

  • Samrat has been an invited speaker or panellist at literature festivals including the Jaipur Literature Festival, the Dhaka Literature Festival, the Apeejay Kolkata Literature Festival, the Shillong Literature Festival, the Hyderabad Literature Festival, and the Aizawl Literature Festival.
  • He has also given guest lectures at universities including Ashoka University, Ahmedabad University, and Delhi University.
  • Samrat was among the Indian delegates at a conference on South Asia at Wilton Park, UK, 2004.

  • Samrat’s byline has appeared in all major English language newspapers and magazines in India, including the Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Economic Times, India Today, Outlook, and Caravan, and journals including Economic & Political Weekly.
  • At various times, he has written regular columns for The Hindustan Times, The Asian Age, DNA, and Firstpost.
  • He has also written reportage and analysis for global publications including The New York Times (USA), Granta (UK), The Japan Times (Japan), Reportagen (Switzerland) and Le Monde Diplomatique (Germany/Europe).

Samrat has worked as Consulting Editor for various newspapers around India during his journalism career, advising the publications on editorial matters. He has also appeared as a commentator on national TV shows, international documentaries, and popular podcasts.