Research Interest: Ethnography, Archives, Populism, Democracy, Intellectuals, Social Movements and Party Politics

I am a qualitative sociologist and an ethnographer. I study democratic politics through the lens of political and historical sociology. My work explores the everyday life of intellectuals and political activists engaging in anti-authoritarian politics in India. Through ethnography, oral history and personal archives I document the current and historical trajectories of this politics and assess their strengths and shortcomings.

My research studies populism in India. I use a Gramscian lens to document ‘interregnum politics’ in India from 2014 onwards. Through an ethnography of the Communist Party in Bihar and the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch in Gujarat I explore how activists and intellectuals confront the challenges of repression and state violence to preserve constitutional and democratic values. Methodologically, my research also engages with oral histories and personal archives to explore questions of historiography in post-colonial India.

Currently, I also serve as the Scholarly Publishing Fellow, NUS Press.