Ph.D. student Ammrito Roy, a Ph.D. student (English) presented his paper, “Land, Story, and Community in Kanthapura: A Comparative Reading Through Critical Indigenous Theory,” at the 10th Annual Global Souths Conference. The paper applies Comparative Indigenous Theory to Raja Rao’s novel Kanthapura to examine how land, oral storytelling, communal memory, and collective voice function as forms of anti-colonial resistance.

By bringing South Asian anti-colonial literature into conversation with Indigenous theoretical frameworks, the paper studies how narrative practices can sustain cultural continuity under colonial rule while also maintaining the historical and political differences between these contexts. The writing contributes to conversations on comparative theory, postcolonial literature, Indigenous studies, and the role of storytelling in preserving community identity.