Biography

My research interests span pre-modern South Asia from the years 1000-1800 CE, covering society, politics, religion and cultural interactions in this region. I focus on the Indo-Persianate world through the history of Sufism. I am closely interested in Sufi rituals and practices, devotional exercises, regional interactions, and transregional networks. My wider research interests are informed by the global histories of the Persianate world, cosmopolitan cultures, Asian interconnections, Muslim networks across South, West and Central Asia, and inter-religious interactions.

I teach courses on pre-modern South Asia, survey courses on history of Asia; along with specialized courses on Sufi traditions, Indo-Persian history writing, Asian interconnections and societies, pre-modern West and Central Asia.

I have supervised Master’s dissertation on topics ranging from local religious cults, Mongol history, history of women, history of the Malabar region, Sufi and Bhakti traditions, cultural and religious history of Bhutan, textile manufacturing and trade, merchant communities, history of weapon production and and warfare, social history of poet Annamacharya, history of Assam, Sufi shrines and architecture, and Gross National Happiness among else.

I was trained in history from Presidency College (Calcutta), and the University of Calcutta. I completed my PhD in History from the University of Calcutta. Thereafter I held research positions at the Asiatic Society, Kolkata as the first Sir Amir Ali Fellow; postdoctoral research positions at the University of Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris, as the inaugural Perso-Indica fellow, at the Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin as Visiting Fellow, and at the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata as Project Fellow. I have traveled extensively to deliver lectures in universities across Asia and Europe.

Prior to joining Nalanda, I held teaching positions at the Aliah University, Kolkata and the University of Calcutta. In 2016, I have been the co-instructor in a course on Global Asia jointly conducted by Nalanda University-India, New York University-Shanghai and New York University-Abu Dhabi.

I have been the United States Department of State Academic Visitor in 2018 supported by the Educational and Cultural Bureau to study religious pluralism in the U.S. I also received the SUSI Scholarship Follow-on Grant from the United States Department of State in 2020.

My publications range from monographs and edited volumes to articles in peer-reviewed journals, encyclopedia entries, essays in books and conference volumes.

I have been a part of SEPHIS program (South-South Exchange Programme for Research on the History of Development, Netherlands) for close to a decade from 2006.