Kaustav Chakrabarti is a Visiting Assistant Professor of political science at Ashoka University. His research focuses on conflict and armed group-community relations in South Asia. His book project examines how armed groups influence the regulation of everyday life during civil wars. He explores the puzzling occurrence of “Underground governance”, or rules-based taxation and administration of justice by armed groups in Northeast India. In a related project, Kaustav examines the variation in armed groups’ response to state intervention in local governance in the region. His research relies on a variety of qualitative methods, including interviews, archival research, and comparative historical analysis. Kaustav received a PhD from Brown University in 2021. He also holds a masters degree in political science from Binghamton University and a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Pune University. Previously, he was based at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi where he worked on insurgency and national security policy in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. His work on Kashmir has been published in the Economic and Political Weekly and The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy and his work on Pakistan was featured in Foreign Policy.
