Profile

My training is in theoretical analysis of international relations, which I do with an eye to practice. Much of my research examines how power and hierarchy, embodied in western colonialism, have permeated and shaped modern South Asian international relations. My work thus contests the anarchy-oriented theorising of world politics and considers history a key axis to map the playing out of this politics. My doctoral research examined ideas and practices of territoriality and sovereignty in modern South Asia. As the scope of this interest has widened, I have begun working on the emergence of the subcontinent’s modern inter-state system. Alongside, I am interested in the 19th century origins of Indian international thought, which was occasioned by the colonial encounter. A third area of continuing interest is select aspects of contemporary Indian foreign policy. I seek to account for the departures in Indian foreign policy in the past three decades and profile its regional and global ambitions.