About Satyaki Barua

My name is Satyaki Barua, and I'm from a town in West Bengal called Chandannagore. I'm doing my PhD in political science at the University of Hyderabad, India, and I have completed my master's in political science at the same university. I work on party organisation to understand party institutionalisation patterns and networks that culminate locally. My research aims to nuance the existing assumptions of a weak party thesis and show how parties use innovative methods to strengthen and build party organisations in India. Through my work, I also aim to look at questions of professionalisation of politics, its impact on the working of party machinery and the mobilisation of the political parties at the local level. Before this, I had worked on understanding Indian political dynasties, their expansion and survival in electoral democracies. I have conducted extensive fieldwork around the districts of West Bengal, India, for my research. Besides these specific interests, my disciplinary interests also revolve around political anthropology, political philosophy and sociology.

Satyaki Barua is a doctoral student in Political Science at the University of Hyderabad. His research explores party organisation, party institutionalisation, networks, and political mobilisation, focusing on the intersections of state, society, and political parties in India. Apart from specific interests, his disciplinary interests include sociology, anthropology of power, political philosophy, and, more recently, the politics of religion. Beyond academia, Satyaki enjoys watching cinema and practising Hindustani classical music.

NBN Episodes hosted by Satyaki:

Ishita Dey, "Sweet Excess: Crafting Mishti in Bengal" (Routledge, 2025)

January 21, 2026

Sweet Excess

Ishita Dey
Hosted by Satyaki Barua

Sweet Excess: Crafting Mishti in Bengal (Routledge, 2025) by Ishita Dey is an ethnographic work on excess. Based on a decade-long fieldwork of a singl…