New Books Network Sourit Bhattacharya, "Postcolonialism Now: Literature, Reading, Decolonising" (Orient BlackSwan, 2024)
Feb 13, 2026
Sourit Bhattacharya, a lecturer in global anglophone literatures and author of Postcolonialism Now, grew up in Alipurduar and researches colonial/postcolonial South Asian texts. He discusses defining postcolonial, decolonizing as active practice, and anti-colonial resistance. He focuses on reading as a politicizing method and connects literature to social movements and pedagogy.
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Refugee Roots Shaped His Intellectual Path
- Sourit Bhattacharya recounts growing up in Alipurduar and discovering his family's refugee origins through school names and family stories.
- This personal history shaped his ongoing interest in migration, identity, and postcolonial questions.
Reading As A Political Practice
- Bhattacharya frames postcolonialism as alive in everyday life and tied to reading as a politicizing practice.
- He argues reading can both energize public action and revise theory through iterative practice.
Postcolonial, Decolonizing, Anti-Colonial Defined
- He distinguishes postcolonial as ongoing colonial legacies, decolonizing as a verb, and anti-colonial as resistance movements.
- Decolonizing is a continual educational process fueled by anti-colonial struggles.
