B.A. (Hons.); M. A. (JNU); M. Phil. (JNU); Ph. D (Cantab)
Tel: (65) 6516 8740
Office: AS1 05 - 20

Having always been interested in history, I did my doctorate in South Asian history at the University of Cambridge. For my thesis I worked on the trading community of the Marwaris, a diasporic mercantile community which moved from the northern hinterland of India to the port cities of Calcutta and Bombay. My research and teaching interests are in the areas of business history, biography, South Asian diaspora and religious and cultural practices. I am now getting more interested in working on trading communities and networks in Southeast Asia. In the coming year, I am involved with an Honours level course on ‘Asian Business History’, a Level III course on ‘Asian Business: History and Networks’ and in a Singapore Studies module on ‘Chinese Business in Singapore and Beyond’. Though I have moved to the History Department only in January 2003, I have been with the University Scholars Programme for the last three years. In my free time, I like reading and enjoy traveling in the Himalayas. I am always happy to meet with students, so do drop in to see me.

TEACHING AREAS:

-	Asian Business History
-	South Asian History (1815-1945)
-	Indian Civilization
-	Visual Culture in India

CURRENT RESEARCH:

-	Business history of South and South-east Asia
-	South Asian Diaspora
-	Marwari Community and Diaspora

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

-	The Life and Times of G. D. Birla (Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2003)
-	'Reforms by Stealth' : Indian Economic Policy, Big Business and the Promise of the Shastri Years, 1964-66' in South Asia, Journal of the South Asian Studies Association of Australia, Special Issue on 'Society, Realm and Nation in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia' Volume XXV, No. 2, August 2002.
-	'G D Birla, Big Business and the Partition of India' in D. A. Low and Howard Brasted (ed.) North India and Independence : Freedom, Trauma and Continuity, New Delhi, Sage Publications for the Australian Association of Asian Studies, 1998. Also published in South Asia, Journal of the South Asian Studies Association of Australia, Special Issue, Volume XVIIII, 1996.
-	'Imperialism, Colonialism and Nationalism : A Theoretical Perspective (Teaching Unit EH 1- 01 for History Elective Course 1 on Modern India 1857-1964), New Delhi, Indira Gandhi National Open University, 1989.