Robert Lunkhopao Haokip is the Mittal Institute India Fellow 2025-26. He is working with Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs, Department of History, Harvard University. His project titled, “The North-East Frontier in the Second World War: Empires and experiences at the Imperial margins, 1942-1945,” explores how global events such as the Second World War was experienced at the empire’s margin. Focusing on the British Assam-Burma borderlands, the study looks at the ways in which local societies encountered and responded to the war. It investigates the local contacts, connections, and negotiations that emerged during the war period and examines the representation and memories of war experiences of not just military officials, soldiers, intermediaries and porters but also by drawing upon oral forms such as songs and stories of societies in the imperial frontier. Taking this as a point of departure, the study closely probes how violence shaped the frontier and borderland geographies, generally seen as unruly spaces.
Robert completed his PhD in History, Specialization in North East India and MPhil in North East India Studies from the Special Centre for the Study of North East India, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His area of research interest includes the study of frontiers and borderlands, war experiences and memories, military history, technologies and infrastructure, India-Burma borderlands, and peace and conflict studies. He received his M.A Social Work in Dalit and Tribal Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and B. A (Hons.) in Social Work with specialization in Rural Development from TISS Tuljapur campus. He had earlier served with Kudumbashree – Government of Kerala as a young professional.
