Alexander Mackenzie and Evolution of British Policy in the Hills of North East Frontier of India

Dr. S.K. Barpujari, M.A., is a product of the Universities of Calcutta and Dacca of the pre-partition days.  For a little over three decades he taught history in the Collegiate and University levels, till his retirement in 1981 as Reeder in Modern History of the University of Gauhati.  As his area of research and specialization was tribal studies of North East India, he enrolled himself for his Ph.D. degree on a particular period of Naga history under the supervision of Prof. (Dr.) A.C. Banerjee, Centenary Professor of International Relations, Calcutta University and the degree of the Doctor of Philosophy was conferred on him in 1970 on his thesis “Anglo-Naga Relations, 1835-1890” by the Gauhati University.  Dr. Barpujari was one of the Editors of the Political History of Assam, Vol. 1, published by the Government of Assam in 1977.  He also contributed two important chapters in The Comprehensive History of Assam, Vol. IV and V published by the Publication Board, Assam.  In both these projects he teamed with his elder brother the late Prof. H.K. Barpujari, the doyen of historians of North-East India, whose last book North East India: Problems, Policies and Prospects recently won the first Srikant Dutt Memorial Award for the best book on North-East India.  Dr. S.K. Barpujari was Chief Editor of the book History of the Dimasas (from the earliest times to 1896 A.D.) published in 1997.  Besides contributing about forty original papers on subjects of regional history, he has been actively associated with several learned bodies, such as Indian History Congress, Indian Council of Historical Research, Indian Institute of Public Administration, North East India Council for Social Science Research and North East India History Association.