Join the Honourable Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Shri Hemant Soren, in conversation with Professor Alpa Shah and Professor Maya Tudor as they examine how an Indigenous-majority state, endowed with mineral and natural resources, can chart a development journey balancing harmony with nature.

Focusing on Jharkhand’s development, the conversation will explore questions of sustainable and green industrialisation, mineral-based manufacturing and investment-led growth.

The event is hosted in coorporation with the Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme (CSASP).

Please note this event takes place in person only.

Speaker biographies

Shri Hemant Soren is the Honourable Chief Minister of Jharkhand, an eastern Indian state known for its mineral wealth, forests, and industrial significance, currently serving his fourth term after being sworn in on 28 November 2024. He is the President of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). Widely regarded as a key Indigenous political voice in India, he has consistently foregrounded questions of identity, constitutional rights, and inclusive development in national and international conversations. He is spearheading an agenda of inclusive and sustainable growth in one of India’s most mineral-rich and industrially strategic states. His priorities include tribal empowerment, employment generation, ease of doing business, infrastructure expansion, skill development, and green industrialisation.

Alpa Shah is the Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford University and a Fellow of All Souls College. She has lived for four and a half years as an anthropologist among the Adivasis of Jharkhand, India and is the award winning author of four books and many articles including The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the Search for Democracy in India, Nightmarch: Among India’s Revolutionary Guerrillas, Ground Down by Growth: Tribe, Caste, Class and Inequality in 21st Century India and In the Shadows of the State: Indigenous Politics, Environmentalism and Insurgency in Jharkhand, India.

Maya Tudor is the Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and Fellow at St Hilda's College at the University of Oxford. Her research investigates the origins of effective and democratic states with a regional focus on South Asia. She is the author of two books: The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan (2013) and Varieties of Nationalism (with Harris Mylonas, 2023), and has authored over twenty peer-reviewed articles in Comparative Politics, Party Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Annual Review of Political Science, and Indian Politics and Policy.