Angana P. Chatterji facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Angana P. Chatterji
Born	November 1966 (age 58) Calcutta, India
Citizenship	Indian
Education	MA (political science) PhD (humanities)
Alma mater	CIIS, San Francisco
Notable work	Violent Gods, Buried Evidence
Partner(s)	Richard Shapiro

Angana P. Chatterji (born November 1966) is an Indian expert in anthropology, a person who works to improve society (activist), and a historian who studies women's roles. Her research and advocacy work mostly focus on India. She helped start the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir. She was also a co-leader for this group from 2008 to 2012.

Currently, she is a researcher at the Centre for Race and Gender. This center is part of the University of California at Berkeley.

Early Life and Education

Angana Chatterji was born in November 1966. Her father, Bhola Chatterji, was a socialist and an Indian freedom fighter. Her mother was Anubha Sengupta Chatterji. She is also related to Gooroodas Banerjee, who was a judge and the first Indian Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta.

She grew up in Kolkata, India. Her family was quite diverse. Her parents and grandparents came from different castes. She also had aunts who were Muslim and Catholic.

In 1984, Chatterji moved to Delhi. Later, in the 1990s, she moved to the United States. She is still an Indian citizen. She is also a permanent resident of the United States. She earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and a Master of Arts (MA) in Political Science. She also has a PhD in Humanities from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). She later taught anthropology at CIIS.

Career and Advocacy Work

After finishing her studies, Angana Chatterji worked as a research director. This was at the Asia Forest Network, a group that helps the environment. She also worked with other important Indian organizations. These included the Indian Institute of Public Administration.

In 1997, Chatterji started teaching at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). She taught about social and cultural anthropology. She worked with her partner, Richard Shapiro, to create a new academic center. This center focused on studying cultures after colonial rule.

Important Publications and Research

Chatterji has written many research papers, reports, and books. In 1990, she wrote a report about the rights of immigrant women. This report focused on women living in slums in Delhi. In 1996, she wrote about land rights for indigenous people and Dalit communities.

She also co-edited a special issue of Cultural Dynamics in 2004. It was about violence against women in South Asia. In 2005, she co-edited a book for the general public called Dark Leaves of the Present.

In 2009, she published Violent Gods. This book was about Hindu nationalism in India. It received good reviews. She also contributed to other books. These include Kashmir: The Case for Freedom (2011) and South Asian Feminisms (2012).

Fighting for Human Rights

In 2002, Chatterji worked on a report called Campaign to Stop Funding Hate. This report looked into how certain groups in India were funded.

In 2005, she helped form the Coalition Against Genocide in the United States. This group worked to raise awareness. They protested the visit of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to the U.S.

She also helped organize a People's Tribunal in 2005. This tribunal gathered stories from people affected by the rise of Hindu nationalist groups in Orissa. The tribunal released a report in 2006. It warned about future violence.

After religious violence in Orissa in 2007, Chatterji spoke out. She warned about more violence. She also wrote articles criticizing groups that promote Hindu nationalism. This was after more violence broke out in 2008.

Investigating Graves in Kashmir

Chatterji was the main author of a 2009 report. It was called Buried Evidence: Unknown, Unmarked, and Mass Graves in Indian-administered Kashmir. This report found many unknown graves in Kashmir. The United Nations Human Rights Commission later confirmed these findings in 2011.

In 2010, she joined the advisory board of the Kashmir Initiative. This is part of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. In 2019, she spoke to the U.S. Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs. She talked about human rights issues in Kashmir.

In November 2010, her husband, Richard Shapiro, was not allowed to enter India. Many people believed this was because of Chatterji's work on human rights in Kashmir.

Recent Work and Projects

In 2011, Verso Books published Kashmir: The Case for Freedom. Angana Chatterji was one of the authors who contributed to this book.

She also co-edited Contesting Nation: Gendered Violence in South Asia. This book was released in April 2013.

In 2012, she co-founded the Armed Conflict Resolution and People's Rights Project. This project is based at the University of California, Berkeley. The same year, it published a paper called Conflicted Democracies and Gendered Violence: The Right to Heal.

In 2019, Chatterji co-edited a book called Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is Changing India. This book discussed how Hindu nationalism has affected India's government and society since 2014.

In 2021, Chatterji wrote BREAKING WORLDS. This book looked at how citizenship laws in India are used. It focused on how these laws might affect the citizenship rights of minorities, especially Bengali Muslims.