India, June 20 -- Umar Khalid chose for his PhD thesis the history of the Adivasi tribes of the Singhbhum region of Jharkhand. He wrote it under extraordinary circumstances. He faced sedition charges, had spent time in jail and been rusticated from university. (Now 38, he has been in jail as an undertrial since 2020.) The thesis was eventually submitted at Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for Historical Studies. Since then, it has gained attention among scholars and historians. In Fractured Communities, now published in book form, Khalid combines archival rigour with analytical clarity to tell the story of Singhbhum's tribal societies under British rule. The book is a valuable work of history and a critique of histories written from positions of power. At a time when public debate is increasingly shaped by simplistic versions of the past, the inquiry at the heart of the book acquires a contemporary relevance....