South Asia Studies
PhD student
Education
MPhil Inclusive Development and Social Justice, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (2021)
MA Medieval History, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (2019)
BA Honors History, Bharati College, University of Delhi (2017)
Bio
I am an incoming PhD student focused on socio-economic mobility, marginalized histories, caste, and social justice in India. My research extends to people-centered histories of diasporic identity formation and transnational networks of exchange. I am particularly interested in examining the circulation of indentured and extra-indentured labor between North India, Mauritius, and other Indian Ocean islands during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
In 2021, I completed my MPhil thesis titled Where are the Modern Jajmans?: Continuities and Changes in the Sociohistorical Position of the Bhumihars from the Pre- to Post-Mandal Era in Bihar. Before joining UPenn, I worked as a Research Associate at the University of Sussex’s School of Global Studies, contributing to projects on pilgrimage, economics, and human rights using creative and critical ethnographic methods. As a research and teaching assistant, I have also conducted archival and policy research, as well as public knowledge exchange, in collaboration with institutions like UCL, TISS Mumbai, UCLA (MEAP), IPE Global Ltd., ECI New Delhi, and ICSSR.
Research Interests
Diaspora and Identity Formation (overlapping diasporas; Jahajis/Girmitiyas; Creolization); Indian Ocean World (exchanges and networks of circulation; migration and remigration); Labor and Society (labor and servitude in colonial India; intermediaries and zamindars); Histories of caste, class, and gender exclusion in medieval and contemporary India; Research Methods and Approaches (problems and possibilities in ethnohistorical research; movement, mobilization, mobility and memories)
Languages: English, Hindi, Sanskrit, French, Bihari (including dialects such as Angika, Bhojpuri, Magahi and Maithili)
Selected Publications
“Linking the Past with the Present: The Gurdwaras and Public Spaces of Nanded”, and “Of Loud Speech and Silences Louder Still”. Published on the Pilgrimonics website, University of Sussex, January 2024.
“Book Review: Jan Breman. The Poverty Regime in Village India: Half a Century of Work and Life at the Bottom of the Rural Economy in South Gujarat, 2007, 544 pp., Rs. 795.00 (Paperback)” in Urbanisation, SAGE Journals, May 2023, Vol.8, Issue 1 (ISSN: 2455-7471), Pp.81-88.
“Resisting and Contesting Inclusion, Inverting Existing Social Realities, and Forging Counter-Hierarchies in the Lower-Caste Narratives of Bihar” in The Presidency Historical Review (ISSN: 2454-5058), Vol.3, No. 1- April 2023 issue, Pp.49-72.
Book review titled “Critical Analysis of ‘Post-Hindu India, A Discourse on Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolution’ by Kancha Ilaiah’ “ in All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis (ISSN 2582-9785), 31 December 2022, General Issue, Vol.3, No.2, Pp.212-225.
“Rama with an A(x)e: The Role played by Caste Sabhas in Fission, Fusion and Identity-creation amongst Urban, Migrant Bhumihars Historically” in Past Afoot: Histories of Migration, Belonging and Diaspora, Tarikh, the annual journal of the History Society, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi (2021-2022 issue), Pp.87-95.
“State and Religious Violence: Rethinking Communal Riots in India” in The Bankura University Journal of Political Science, Volume 01, No. 1, January, 2021 issue, Pp.63-72.