Welcome! I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies  (MESAAS) at Columbia University.

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My dissertation, titled Anticolonial Constitutionalism: Islam, Caste, and Democratic Possibilities in India, examines why, how, and what kind of constitutionalism emerged from anticolonial political thought. In particular, it turns to Islamic and anti-caste political thought from South Asia to ask how minority justifications of constitutionalism shape democratic possibilities for deeply diverse postcolonial democracies. By examining anticolonial Islamic and anticaste justifications of constitutionalism via the concepts of worldmaking, secularism, progress, justification of laws, and civil disobedience, I examine the limits and potentials of constitutionalism in countering majoritarian politics, particularly that of the Hindu Right in India. 

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My research interests lie at the intersection of political philosophy, political theory, and conceptual history with a focus on theories of empire and imperialism; anticolonialism and decolonized publics; religion, secularism, and nationalism; progress and equality; Islam, caste and constitutionalism; and South Asian intellectual history and politics.

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I am currently a Core Preceptor at the Columbia Core Curriculum, where I teach the Columbia Core Curriculum in Contemporary Civilization, a course on texts and issues in 'the West' and places colonized by it. Prior to my Ph.D. at Columbia, I completed an M.A. and M.Phil. in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and a BA (Hons) in Economics from St. Stephens College, Delhi.