From Village Elder to British judge: Custom, Customary Law and Tribal Society

Dr. Asoka Kumar Sen is an independent researcher in the field of Tribal history of Jharkhand with special focus on the Ho. He is also the Editor of Manwa Katha, a journal of Ashin Dasgupta Institute of Tribal History, Kolkata and UGC Nominee for the SAP, Bengali Department, Jadavpur University, Kolkata entitled: Eastern Indian Society, Culture, Literature & Language: A Comprehensive and Comparative Study (with special reference to the indigenous ethnic groups of this region). He studied at Tata College, Chaibasa, Patna College and Patna University and completed his researches for Ph. D. degree in 1972 from Patna University under Dr. K.K.Datta on The Role of the Middle Class Intelligentsia in the Growth of Nationalism in Bengal between 1800 and 1885. He taught History at Tata College Chaibasa under Ranchi University, from where he retired as University Professor in 2002. A founder member of the Indigenous Research Forum Chaibasa, Dr. Sen actively associates himself with local and outside scholars studying tribe and participates with likeminded academics and activists in the diffusion of consciousness and seeking remedies of the problem of the marginalization of Kolhan and West Singhbhum and the people living here, through newspapers, seminars and workshops.