Associate Professor

BA (Hons)(Delhi), MA M.Phil (JNU), Ph.D (Cambridge)

Contact Information

Telephone: 6516 4701

Email: sasgk@nus.edu.sg

Location:

South Asian Studies Programme

National University of Singapore

5 Arts Link, AS7-04-02, Singapore 117570

Research Interest

Uttar Pradesh as a Regional Society in Colonial and Post-Colonial South Asia; The Aftermath of Partition and Post-Colonial South Asia

Modern history of South Asia; Postcolonial history & politics of South Asia

I was born in a North Indian town and grew up in New Delhi and completed my schooling and undergraduate studies there. I then joined Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) for a M. A. in Modern and Contemporary History. I also pursued a two-year M. Phil programme there. I then worked with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in New Delhi for three years as an Editor and Corporate Communications professional.

The award of a Commonwealth Scholarship made it possible for me to study for a Ph D at the University of Cambridge in UK. I have held post-doctoral research positions at the Indian Council of Historical Research and the Centre for Contemporary Studies of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi. Prior to joining the South Asian Studies Programme, of which I have been a member since its inception in June 1999, I was an Assistant Professor at the School of Arts in Nanyang Technological University.

I have also held visiting research appointments at the Asia Research Institute in NUS and the Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies of the Australian National University.

At SASP I am involved in a range of courses where the challenge of talking as an ‘insider’ about one of the most exciting and dramatically changing regions in the world continues to inspire me.

When I am not teaching, I lead a ‘double life’ as a researcher, looking at old records in dusty archives, interviewing informants in the field, or simply chasing writing deadlines! Outside of work I love to travel and have a serious interest, both spectatorial and critical, in popular Hindi cinema!

• The Making of a 'Political Heartland': Uttar Pradesh as a Regional Society in Colonial and Post-Colonial South Asia

• The Aftermath of Partition and Post-Colonial South Asia

• Media and Communications in Contemporary India

• GEK1035 Nations and Nationalisms in South Asia

• SN3262/HY3236 The Struggle for India, 1920-1964

• Region, Nation, ‘Heartland’: Uttar Pradesh in India’s Body-Politic, (Sage Series in Modern Indian History), New Delhi, Sage Publications, 2006)

• ‘Servants, Not Masters’: Colonial Officials, Congress “Raj” and the Question of Loyalty in Northern India, 1937-1939’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, forthcoming.

• "In Aid of Civil Power": The Colonial Army in Northern India, c. 1919-1942’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 32, No. 1, January 2004 Frank Cass Publishers, London, UK

• ‘Constructing the “Heartland”: Uttar Pradesh in India’s Body-Politic’, South Asia, Journal of South Asian Studies, New Series Vol. XXV, No. 2, August 2002, Special Issue, pp. 153-182. Taylor & Francis Publishers, London, UK.

• ‘India's New Mantra: The Internet’, Current History, A Journal of Contemporary World Affairs, 100, 645 (April 2001): 162-169.

• Foreshadowing "Quit India": The Congress in Uttar Pradesh 1939-1941’, in Mapping Histories, Essays Presented to Ravinder Kumar, edited by Neera Chandhoke, New Delhi: Tulika, London, 2000, pp.225-254. (Re-published by Anthem Press, London, 2002, ISBN: 1843310368.)

• (co-authored with Tai Yong Tan) The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia, (Routledge Series in the History of Modern Asia 3) New York & London, Routledge, October 2000 (Hardback edition ISBN: 0-415-17297-7). (Paperback edition published in February 2002, ISBN: 0-415-28908-4)

• From displacement to 'development': the East Punjab countryside after partition, 1947-67. in Freedom, Trauma and Continuities, Northern India and Independence, edited by D A Low and Howard Brasted, pp.73-90. New Delhi, Sage Publications, 1998. (Republished by Alta Mira Press, Walnut Creek, CA, 1998, ISBN:0761992251)

• Divided Landscapes, Fragmented Identities: East Bengal Refugees and their Rehabilitation in India, 1947-79’, in Freedom, Trauma, Continuities, Northern India and Independence, edited by D A Low and Howard Brasted, pp.105-132. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998. (Republished by Alta Mira Press, Walnut Creek, CA, 1998, ISBN:0761992251)