Utkal University

About Buxi Jagabandhu Chair

The Buxi Jagabandhu Chair at the Utkal University, Bhubaneswar is an academic and research initiative established to honour the legacy of Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, the leader of the Paika Rebellion of 1817 in Odisha. As the earliest recorded armed uprisings against British colonial administration in Odisha, the Paika Rebellion holds immense historical and cultural significance both for Odisha and for the whole country, and Buxi Jagabandhu remains a symbol of resistance, patriotism, and regional pride. The establishment of the Chair was part of a broader effort by the Government of India and the Government of Odisha to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Paika Rebellion in 2017. Recognising the need for deeper academic engagement with one of India’s lesser-known but extremely important historical events, the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, in collaboration with the government of Odisha, initiated the creation of the Chair at Utkal University in 2019, the most prominent and the oldest university in Odisha.

Vision and Mission

To generate, preserve, and disseminate rigorous interdisciplinary research on the Paika Rebellion, the life, legacy and contribution of Buxi Jagabandhu, and the social, cultural and political history of Odisha and linking scholarly inquiry with public history, heritage practice, and community engagement.

Initiation and Purpose

To engage in research on this important event of Odisha.
To review the colonial discourses and rewrite postcolonial discourses.
To promote interdisciplinary research on the life, leadership, and legacy of Buxi Jagabandhu.
To explore the socio-political and cultural context of the Paika Rebellion.
To encourage scholarly study of regional resistance movements in colonial India.
To support curriculum development, seminars, workshops, and publications to raise awareness among students and the general public.

The Chair was envisioned as a platform not only to delve into Odisha’s historical narratives but also to integrate them into the broader national discourse on India’s freedom struggle. It aims to correct historical omissions by bringing regional heroes like Buxi Jagabandhu to the forefront of academic and public consciousness.

Objectives of the Buxi Jagabandhu Chair at Utkal University

To Promote Research on the Paika Rebellion and Buxi Jagabandhu : The Chair aims to conduct and support in-depth research on the 1817 Paika Rebellion, with a special focus on the leadership and contributions of Buxi Jagabandhu, thereby highlighting Odisha’s early role in India’s freedom struggle.
To Document and Preserve Odisha’s Historical Legacy : One of the key objectives is to collect, preserve, and disseminate historical records, oral histories, folk traditions, and archival material related to the Paika movement, Odisha’s resistance heritage, and local freedom fighters.
To Encourage Interdisciplinary Academic Work : The Chair will facilitate academic engagement across disciplines such as history, political science, sociology, anthropology, and literature to explore the broader implications of regional resistance movements in colonial India.
To Organise Seminars, Lectures, and Conferences : The Chair serves as a hub for scholarly dialogue by organising seminars, workshops, memorial lectures, and panel discussions that bring together historians, researchers, students, and the public.
To Publish Research and Educational Material : Through the publication of books, research papers, journals, and study modules, the Chair aims to enrich the academic discourse on Buxi Jagabandhu and related subjects, and to introduce these narratives into mainstream academic curricula.
To Promote Awareness Among Youth and the Public : A vital objective is to inspire nationalism and cultural pride among the younger generation by making the legacy of Buxi Jagabandhu more accessible through outreach activities, public events, and educational campaigns.
To Collaborate with National and International Institutions : The Chair will seek partnerships with other universities, research institutions, and cultural bodies in India and abroad to foster collaborative research and knowledge exchange.
To Advise on Policy and Curriculum Development : The Chair can contribute to the development of school and university-level history curriculum, ensuring inclusion of Odisha’s freedom struggle and unsung heroes like Buxi Jagabandhu.

About the Chair Professor

Dr. Tanutrushna Panigrahi is the first one to occupy the Buxi Jagabandhu Chair Professor position in the month of May 2025.With over three decades of dedicated service to higher education, Dr. Tanutrushna Panigrahi stands as a distinguished academician, and researcher whose career spans teaching, research, leadership, and international academic exchange and collaboration. Her teaching portfolio is extensive—ranging from Nineteenth Century Indian Culture and Literature, Indian Literature in the World, the Mahabharat Studies, Travel Writing, Modern English and American Novel, Indian Novel in English, Literary Theory, Business and Professional Communication, Cross-Cultural Communication, to Digital Humanities.

A J. William Fulbright Fellow, Dr. Panigrahi has represented India at multiple prestigious global platforms. Her engagements include academic exchanges, conference presentations and invited talks at University of Chicago, Harvard University, Brandeis University, Regis University, Samford University, Miles College and University of Chicago in USA, University of Sydney in Australia, University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia.

Her research expertise covers Nineteenth-Century Indian Literature and Culture, Indology, World Literature, Modern English Fiction, and Communication Studies. She has authored five books and contributed many book chapters to edited volumes. Her research publications have appeared in SCOPUS and Web of Science indexed journals and peer-reviewed international refereed journals.

Appointed as the Buxi Jagabandhu Chair Professor, Dr. Panigrahi leads an ambitious initiative to document, research, and promote the legacy of Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, leader of the 1817 Paika Rebellion. Under her stewardship, the Chair seeks to advance interdisciplinary research, preserve Odisha’s resistance history, and integrate regional narratives into the national freedom movement discourse.

Other Staff

Sl. No	Name	Designation
1		Research Associate
2		Research Assistant

Research Focus Areas of the Chair

Paika Rebellion (1817): archival reconstruction, military/social dynamics, causes and consequences, local–imperial encounters.

Buxi Jagabandhu’s life and legacy: biographical recovery, iconography, mythmaking, and political memory.

Memory, commemoration & public history: memorialization, school curricula, museums, monuments, festival cultures.

Comparative rebellion studies: situating Paika within wider anti-colonial and early modern revolt frameworks (South Asia and beyond).

Digital humanities & sources: digitization of manuscripts, GIS mapping of rebellion sites, databases of primary sources, oral-history archives.

Interdisciplinary approaches: history, literary studies, anthropology, archaeology, political science, museum studies and law.

Research Activites for the Year 2025-26

Publications

Research Article “Decolonising the Archive: Rereading Silences, Omissions and Erasures in Colonial Documentation of Odisha’s Paika Rebellion of 1817” in International Journal of Cultural Studies. https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ics ISSN: 1367-8779 Online ISSN: 1460-356X (Upcoming)
Research Article “Rhetoric, Diction, and the Colonial Construction of the Paika Rebellion.” In Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies. https://journals.upress.ufl.edu/ ISSN: 2643-8380 EISSN: 2643-8399 (Upcoming)
Research Article “The Colonial and Postcolonial Narratives: Buxi Jagabandhu as a National Hero” in Space and Culture in https://www.spaceandculture.in/index.php/spaceandculture (e-ISSN 2052-8396). (Upcoming)
Monograph with the title “Rebellion, Representation, and Resistance: Buxi Jagabandhu and the Paika Uprising” (Upcoming).
Research Article “Hero, Myth, Memory and Discourse: The Literary Afterlives of Buxi Jagabandhu and the Paika Rebellion” in Re- Markings ISSN 0972-611X , Vol.25 No.1, March 2026,https://www.re-markings.com/current-issue
Translation of the Odia play Buxi Jagabandhu by Manoranjan Das into English.
Research Article “Buxi Jagabandhu and the Paika Rebellion of 1817: Revisiting and Rewriting the Narrative in the Postcolonial Space” in the International Journal of Social Science Research and Review. ISSN: 2700-2497 Vol 8 No 11 (2025): IJSSRR VOL 8 NO 11 2025 November DOI: https://doi.org/10.47814/ijssrr.v8i11.3001
Bibliography on Paika Rebellion, Buxi Jagabandhu and Studies in Perspectives in “Buxi Jagabandhu Bibliography”
Research Article “Rise of Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Odisha and the Role of Magazines” in International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research Volume 7, Issue 2, March-April 2025 https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i02.38088

Seminars / Invited Lectures / Workshops

Sl. No	Title	Download
1	Invited Talk on “How Does the Rebellion complicate the elite/subaltern binary?” in April 2026
2	Invited Talk on “Reading the Paika Rebellion Narrative” in July 2026.
3	Buxi Jagabandhu Chair Lecture Series July 2025
4	Buxi Jagabandhu Chair Lecture Series October 2025

Seminars/Conferences

National Seminar on “Looking at Paika Rebellion from the Twenty-first Century Perspectives” in July 2026.
National Conference on “History, Literature and Collective Memory: Revisiting the Odisha 1817” in October 2026.
International Conference on “History, Literature and Collective Memory: Revisiting the Odisha 1817” in December 2026.

Upcoming Podcasts: The podcasts will appear here soon.

Collaborations: University of Chicago and University of Connecticut , USA
Maps of India in the precolonial and colonial period. Courtesy: University of Chicago
https://uchicago.box.com/s/yoiwfvpxxacx34bpfrk2r9dvomafqp5l

Outreach/Extension Activites for the year 2025-26

Buxi Jagabandhu Chair, Utkal University, in collaboration with Vani Vihar High School, organised academic and creative activites on 8 November 2025 to commemorate Buxi Jagabandhu and the Paika Rebellion of 1817.The programme included Odia and English essay writing competitions, poetry writing competition and painting competitions on the concerned themes. Students participated enthusiastically and presented their understanding of the life and sacrifices of Buxi Jagabandhu through thoughtful essays, expressive poems, and creative artworks depicting scenes of the Paika Rebellion. The collaborative initiative successfully enhanced students’ historical awareness, patriotism and creative skills. The event concluded on a meaningful note, reinforcing pride in Odisha’s struggle against the British and its heroic legacy.