Umar Khalid Book Fractured Communities (img. credit: X)
New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has denied permission to book the SSS-1 auditorium for a discussion on Umar Khalid’s book Fractured Communities, which was scheduled to be held on 10th August 2026.
The event was supposed to be held from 3 PM to 6 PM and was to be organised by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) as a public discussion marking Tribal Day, or Adivasi Diwas.
Who is Umar Khalid?
Umar Khalid is an Indian social activist and former student leader and research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University who became popular in Indian politics in February 2916 when he was arrested by the Delhi Police for his alleged involvement in the JNU sedition row, in which anti-India slogans were raised by an unknown protester. However, Khalid became a household name during CAA-NRC protests.
Khalid has been arrested several times, but he was re-arrested in September 2020 for his alleged involvement in a “larger conspiracy” in the 2020 Delhi riots. He has since been imprisoned in Tihar Jail and has been denied bail consistently.
What is the book about
Fractured Communities: Adivasi Histories and the Politics of Power is a non-fiction historical book by researcher and activist Umar Khalid published by Juggernaut Books on 27 June 2026. The book was written upon Khalid's PhD dissertation from the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The book takes as its lens Adivasi history of the Singhbhum region in what is now Jharkhand, focusing on the Ho people and their connection with land, forests, and changing patterns of governance in South East India for the last 200 years. The book argues against romanticised or simplified depictions of indigenous societies. The writer considers that colonial records, and dominant powers in general, also ignore local differences and conflicts between indigenous peoples.
The book is also very detailed about colonial rule, contending that the British did not replace indigenous institutions but adopted and employed them to support their own rule.
The book has attracted the interest of historians, such as Ramachandra Guha, who wrote the foreword, and Nandini Sundar, who wrote the afterword. The book was released because Khalid wrote it while a subject in legal proceedings, and also because he was released while he was detained under the UAPA since 2020.
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