ABSTRACT
This chapter recounts the author’s personal experience as an academic in a peripheral region for more than the last two decades. It foregrounds the conditions under which the author had to take the responsibility of institution building as a young teacher in a new university. It also highlights the challenges faced and lessons learnt from such engagements, which the author views as part of his larger social and political commitments. The author believes that social scientists cannot remain disinterested observers of the social processes around them. They are expected to bring their academic rigour to the analysis to these processes and play a critical role in social transformation.
