Mayukh Chakrabarty

Mayukh is a doctoral researcher in the Department of History at SOAS, University of London, where he is supported by the prestigious Felix Scholarship. His PhD project, titled "Cashing Lives: A History of Indian Life Insurance (1800–2000)," offers a comprehensive institutional history of life insurance in India, tracing its evolution from a colonial financial instrument to a post-independence state monopoly. 

Working under the supervision of Dr Eleanor Newbigin, he examines how insurance companies, state actors, and policyholders collectively shaped the sector's development, and how financial practices were adapted, contested, and reimagined across significant cultural and political transitions. He is particularly interested in how everyday financial practices – such as risk pooling, actuarial classification, and savings – became entangled with broader questions of governance, social hierarchy, and citizenship in the Indian context. His work draws on diverse archival sources, including company records, government legislation, trade union documents, and vernacular print materials. He also incorporates oral history and textual analysis to explore how financial institutions were experienced, resisted, and reshaped by their users throughout colonial and post-colonial periods. Before beginning his doctoral studies at SOAS in September 2024, Mayukh conducted focused research on Indian life insurance history at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali. 

This preliminary work included extensive literature reviews and archive identification in both India and the UK, establishing critical connections with the Life Insurance Corporation of India, trade unions, and relevant professional bodies, providing the groundwork for his doctoral research. Mayukh holds a BS-MS Dual Degree in Mathematics with a minor in Science Society Studies from IISER Mohali, where he graduated in 2023. His master's dissertation investigated mathematical models across disciplines, with particular attention to insurance modelling and its historical development over four centuries. Throughout his academic career, Mayukh has demonstrated excellence in both research and engagement. He received the Professor S.N. Kaul Medal for best all-rounder performance in his graduating class and has been actively involved in teaching and public engagement, leading mathematics tutorials, organizing outreach events, and mentoring students from diverse academic backgrounds. He has also held leadership roles in student governance, serving as Convener on IISER Mohali's Student Representative Council, and cultural societies. His broader academic interests include the history of capitalism and financialization in South Asia, and the politics of science and technology. 

Through his doctoral research, Mayukh aims to foreground the role of financial institutions in shaping modern subjectivities and to contribute meaningful insights to ongoing conversations in critical finance studies and South Asian historiography.

• Institutional history of finance and insurance in South Asia,
• History of capitalism and financialization,
• Science and technology studies,
• Financial citizenship,
• Colonial and postcolonial governance