Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Santhosh Abraham

Associate Professor

  • Ph.D.,History, University of Hyderabad, 2008
  • M.Phil.,History, University of Hyderabad, 2003
  • M.A.,History, University of Calicut, 2002
  • abraham[at]iitm[.]ac[.]in
  • Colonial Animal Histories
  • Legal and Medical History
  • Colonial Medicine, Psychiatry, Asylums
  • Sociology of Law
  • Department of Humanities and Social Sciences – 2012 –  Current Indian Institute of Technology Madras
  • Department of Humanities and Social Science  – 2018 (January – December) Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad (On Deputation)
  • Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad – 2010 – 2012
  • Department of History, University of Hyderabad   –  2009 -2010
  • History of the Modern World
  • Indian National Movement
  • Law and Society & Modern India
  • Ancient Civilizations
  • History of Science and Technology
  • Contemporary India (IIT Palakkad)
  • International Relations (IIT Palakkad)
  • Approaches to World History (University of Hyderabad)
  • Colonial Animal History -ICSR, IIT Madras – Exploratory Research (2022-23)
  • Medical Humanities Research Award  –  Wellcome Trust, London (November-January 2015)
  • Medical Humanities Research Award  –  Wellcome Trust, London  (June-July 2014)
  • Medicine and British Empire in South India –   Indian National Science Academy (INSA)  New Delhi
  • Psychiatry and Mental Asylums   -ICSR, IIT Madras – Exploratory Research
  • Colonial Courts, Trials and Conflicts in Early British Malabar  –  ICSR, IIT Madras
  • Visakh M.S – Islamic Traditionalism in a Globalizing World (Completed and Awarded in 2020)
  • Suramya T.K – Regulation and Resistance in the Beedi Industry of Malabar – (Completed and Awarded in 2021)
  • Mathew Joseph – Cartography in British Malabar (Currently Pursuing).
  • Melody Hmangaimawi – Access to Justice (Currently Pursuing).
  • Sreedevi K.C – Colonial Railways (Currently Pursuing).
  • Vardhaman Sai Krishna – Medicine in Princely States (Currently Pursuing).
  • Navaneetha P – Colonial Medicine and Epidemics (Currently Pursuing).
  • Anupama Sinha – Shamanism and Traditional Healing Practices (Currently Pursuing).
  • Editorial Board Member South Asia Research (A peer-reviewed International, Multi-disciplinary Journal which covers the History, Politics, Law, Economics, Sociology, Visual culture, Languages and Literature of the countries in South Asia. (Published by Sage Journals International)
    https://journals.sagepub.com/home/sar
  • Sheela Raj Memorial Award for Best Ph.D Thesis in History in the year 2010, University of Hyderabad, 2010.

Published Articles in International / National Journals

  • (2023), Abraham, Santhosh and Susy Varughese, ‘Madras Kraals, Animal Labour and Veterinary Corps: Colonising Wild Elephants in British South India, Published online First in  – Labour History – https://doi.org/10.1080/0023656X.2023.2268557​
  • (2022) Abraham, Santhosh and S.S.Mathew, ‘Becoming Coolies and Supervisors: Continued Indebtedness, coercive intermediaries and new Governmentalities in Colonial South Indian Plantations, 1830-1895’, Labour History, Vol.63, Issue: 2, 2022, pp.279-296. https://doi.org/10.1080/0023656X.2022.2073343​
  • (2020) Suramya T.K & Santhosh Abraham, ‘Regulation and resistance: Defactorisation in the beedi industry of colonial Malabar, 1937–1941’, Labor History, Vol.61:5-6, pp. 658-676,   https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0023656X.2020.1844874
  • (2017) Santhosh Abraham, ‘The Keyi Mappila Muslim Merchants of Tellicherry and the Making of Coastal Cosmopolitanism on the Malabar Coast’,  Asian Review of World Histories (Brill, Leiden), Vol. 5, Issue 2, 2017, pp. 145-162. http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/22879811-12340009
  • (2014) Santhosh Abraham, ‘Constructing the ‘Extraordinary Criminals”: Mappila Muslims and Legal Encounters in Early British Colonial Malabar’, Journal of World History, Volume 25, Issue 2-3, 2014, (University of Hawai’i Press), pp. 373 – 395. http://muse.jhu.edu/article/579925
  • (2013) Santhosh Abraham, ‘Formal Writing, Questionnaires and Petitions: Colonial Governance and Law in Early British Malabar’, Indian Historical Review, Vol.40, No.2, December 2013, (Sage International) pp. 285 – 305. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0376983613499681
  • (2011) Santhosh Abraham, ‘Colonial Law in Early British Malabar: Transparent Colonial State and Formality of Practices’, South Asia Research, Vol.31, No.3, November, 2011, (Sage International), pp.249-264. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/026272801103100304?journalCode=sara
  • (2011) Santhosh Abraham, ‘The Making of Colonial Law in British India: A Historiographical Analysis’, Indian Law Review, Vol. 3, 2011, pp.116-128.
  • (2011) Santhosh Abraham, ‘Classical Legal Traditions: Some Historiographical Interpretations’, Journal of History and Social Sciences, Vol.2, Issue I, January-June 2011.
  • (2011) Santhosh Abraham.,‘Classical Legal Traditions: Some Historiographical Interpretations’, Journal of History and Social Sciences, Vol.2, Issue I, January-June 2011 (Online only).
  • (2011) Santhosh Abraham., ‘Colonialism and the Making of Criminal Categories in British India, NALSAR Law Review, Vol.6, No.2, 2011, pp.151-165.
  • (2010) Santhosh Abraham., ‘The Making of Colonial Law, Discipline and Corruption in British India’, Journal of Indian Law and Society, Vol.2 (Winter), 2010, pp.64-82.
  • (2009) Santhosh Abraham., ‘Making of Jungle Mappilas: Colonial Law and the Construction of Native Criminality in Early British Malabar’, TAPASAM (A Quarterly Journal for Kerala Studies), Vol.V, Issue 1, 2010, pp.118 -140.
  • (2022), Santhosh Abraham, ‘Moments of New Legalities in British Colonial India: A Brief Review’, in Santhosh Abraham and P. Kumar, Indian Legal History: Issues and Perceptions, Tamil Nadu National Law University, 2022, pp. 97-110.
  • (2020) Santhosh Abraham, ‘Mappilas’, in Kate Fleet and Gudrun Kramer (Eds), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol 3, Brill: Leiden, 2020, pp. 118-121.
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_36192
  • (2017), Santhosh Abraham, Culture Summary: Kerala, in  Human Relations Area Files, New Haven, 2017
    http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=aw11-000.
  • (2007) Santhosh Abraham., ‘From Negotiation to the Making of Dominance: Colonial Law in Early British Malabar’ (1792 – 93) in Rattanlal Hangloo and A.Murali (Eds.) New Themes in Indian History: Art, Politics, Gender, Environment and Culture, New Delhi: Black & White, 2007, pp.160-174.
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  • (2022), Santhosh Abraham and P.Kumar (Eds.), Indian Legal History: Issues and Perceptions, Published by Tamil Nadu National Law University, 2022.
  • (2023), Santhosh Abraham, Sojourners, Sultans and Slaves: America and the Indian Ocean in the age of abolition and Empire, by Gunja Sen Gupta and Awam Amkpa, South Asian Diaspora, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2 https://doi.org/10.1080/19438192.2023.2257496
  • (2021) Santhosh Abraham,  Indian Migration and Empire: A Colonial Genealogy of the Modern State​ by Radhika Mongia, South Asia Research, Vol.41, Issue :1, 2021, pp.140-143. https://doi.org/10.1177/0262728020973
  • (2017) Santhosh Abraham, Book Review: Harris Solomon, Metabolic Living: Food, Fat and the Absorption of Illness in India, South Asia Research, Vol.37, Issue:3, pp.359-362. https://doi.org/10.1177/0262728017725978
  • (2023) Santhosh Abraham and Susy Varughese, Madras Kraals, Veterinary Corps and Ivory Trade: Colonising Wild Elephants in British Colonial South India, Paper presented at the International Workshop on Commodities of Empire, University of York, United Kingdom, 6-7 July, 2023.
  • (2016) Santhosh Abraham, “Making of Madras Coolies: Labour Migration, Legislations and Resistances in Colonial South India’, International Conference on After Slavery? Labour and Migration in the Post-Emancipation World, University of Leeds at Leeds, UK, 27 -28 June 2016.
  • (2015), Recasting and Reimagining the Islamic Law and Jurisprudence: Colonial and Post-colonial Discourses on Muslim Law in Malabar, Kerala, International Conference on Ocean of Law: Intermixed Legal Systems across the Indian Ocean World, Organised by Ledien University, The Netherlands at Leiden, 7-9, December, 2015.
  • (2015) Santhosh Abraham, “Keyi Mappila Muslims of Colonial Malabar: Making of Coastal and Vernacular Cosmopolitan Order”, International Conference on Wild Spaces and Islamic Cosmopolitanism in Asia, Organised by Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, at Singapore, 14-15 January, 2015.
  • (2012) Santhosh Abraham, ‘Jungle Mappilas as Criminal Bandits in Colonial Malabar’ in the Workshop on European Encounters with Islam in Asia, 1500-1800, University of Hawai’i (USA), September 28 – 29, 2012.

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Room No.: HSB 333
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
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Email: hsoffice[at]iitm[.]ac[.]in

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