Early romantic crushes rarely endure, but early scholarly interests often do. I began my career as a historian of forest communities whose lives were rudely disrupted by British colonial rule. Though I have since meandered off into other directions, I have always retained a connection to the field I first began to till. In fact, I have spent the past week reading a doctoral thesis by a young scholar which explores the social and environmental history of what is now the state of Jharkhand. I was so struck by how good the thesis is that I thought I should write about it in this column.

The thesis focuses on the transformations of Adivasi society in the region of Singhbhum under British rule. It first documents how the East India Company steadily acquired military and administrative control over the territory. It then examines how colonialism radically reshaped the natural landscape, the legal framework, and the economic and political structures of Singhbhum.

Among the important themes covered are the commercial biases of colonial forest policy, the changing status of village headmen who had to negotiate with the new order, and the responses of the tribal communities to the transformation in their lives that colonial rule wrought. While focusing on ecology, society, and politics, the scholar also pays due attention to intellectual history, presenting sharp analyses of the works of both European officials and Indian anthropologists on the tribals of Singhbhum.

There were six significant attributes that this young historian’s work displayed which I discuss below:

First, an authoritative command of the literature on Adivasis by previous writers, both well-known and obscure, whether on the tribes of Jharkhand or on the tribes of other parts of India;

Second, the ability to locate and use a wide range of primary sources. The thesis rested on a staggering amount of research in national, state and district archives, and in obscure essays and books published more than a century........

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