About the Trustees

Vikram Rajkhowa (Founder and Chairperson, CKRSD) is an advocate at the Gauhati High Court, who has been espousing various public causes, including in the areas of civil rights, rights of indigenous people, environment protection, among others. Some of the cases he has appeared are Protection of Elephants from Train hits in Assam, Big Dams of Arunachal Pradesh, Eco-Sensitive Zone of Amchang Wild Life Sanctuary, Local People of Kaziranga National Park, Flood & Erosion affected people of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia, Facilities for Disabled Persons at Kamakhya Temple, Illegal Coal Mining at Dehing Patkai, etc.

He has also been spearheading CKRSD’s legal interventions on various issues pertaining to the Koch-Rajbongshi community on a pro-bono basis (without any fees), including the following cases before Gauhati High Court – (i) Inclusion of the Koch-Rajbonghsi people in the S.T list of Assam, (ii) Challenging the Modalities for Scheduling, (iii) Rights of the Koch-Rajbongshi people in Tribal Belts & Blocks, (iv) Removal of encroachment from Chilarai Park at Amingaon, etc.

 ARUP JYOTI DAS, Managing Trustee and Founder Director, CKRSD,  arup@kochrajbanshicentre.org

A post Graduate in Economics from University of Pune, Das has years of experience working in the field of research, media and communication, conflicts and activism. He started his early carrier as a cine journalist and has written hundreds of articles on various aspects of films for Assamese dallies and magazines. His book ‘Asomiya Chabir Hazarta Samachyar Eta’ is considered as a serious work on cinema in Assamese.  He has also worked in the electronic media and cinema for a while. He has co-written  the popular Assamese film ‘Soru Bowari’ and worked in many television productions.  He is the writer of critically acclaimed Telefilm  ‘Axar Pratyush’.

He is a dedicated researcher on the issues of Koch Rajbanshi and considered as a Koch Rajbanshi expert. He has received various fellowships to work on the Koch Rajbanshis and has presented research papers/delivered talk at Centre for Policy research, Dibrugarh University, Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training and many more. His book ‘Kamatapur and the Koch Rajbanshi Imagination’ is an internationally acclaimed work. In 2011, Das took the initiative to build partnership between CKRSD and ‘International Institute of Social History’ of the Netherlands to archive the social history of the Koch Rajbanshis of South Asia and to create the Koch Rajbanshi archive at CKRSD.

Das has worked in international organization like Panos South Asia as Regional Manager and has provided consultancy to organizations like actionaid, Oxfam etc. Presently he is columnist and the correspondence of International Institute of Social History for Northeast India. Das has been invited by institutes like TISS, IGNOU and various NGOs to deliver talk on crucial issues.