South Asian Studies

South Asian Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of South Asia about their new books.

Rahul Mukherjee, "Unlimited: Aspirational Politics and Mobile Media Distribution" (MIT Press, 2026)

June 2, 2026

Unlimited

Rahul Mukherjee
Hosted by Priyam Sinha

Around 2016, buoyed by so-called data kranti ("data revolution"), an aspirational neo-middle class of users in India accessed internet for the fir…

India’s 2026 State Elections and Indian Democracy?

May 29, 2026

India’s 2026 State Elections and Indian Democracy?

Gilles Verniers and Yamini Aiyar

This week on Democracy Dialogues, Maya Tudor speaks with two keen observers of Indian politics, Gilles Verniers and Yamini Aiyar, about what India’s 2…

Shefalee Vasudev, "Stories We Wear: Status, Spectacle and the Politics of Appearance" (Westland Non-Fiction, 2025)

May 28, 2026

Stories We Wear

Shefalee Vasudev
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is known for his outfits. Since rising to become India’s head of government in 2014, photographers and journali…

Patrick S. D. McCartney, "Sanskrit-Speaking' Villages, Linguistic Utopias and the Metaphysics of Development" (Routledge, 2026)

May 28, 2026

Sanskrit-Speaking' Villages, Linguistic Utopias and the Metaphysics of Development

Patrick S. D. McCartney
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Sanskrit-Speaking' Villages, Linguistic Utopias and the Metaphysics of Development (Routledge, 2026) is a recollection of the McCartney's journey acro…

Kanika Singh, "The Story of a Sikh Museum: Heritage, Politics, Popular Culture" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

May 27, 2026

The Story of a Sikh Museum

Kanika Singh
Hosted by Harleen Kaur

The Story of a Sikh Museum: Heritage, Politics, Popular Culture, published by Cambridge University Press in July 2025, is a pioneering study on Sikh m…

Dalit Feminism with Thenmozhi Soundararajan

May 25, 2026

Dalit Feminism

Thenmozhi Soundararajan

This episode features a conversation with Thenmozhi Soundararajan, founder Equality Labs and author of The Trauma of Caste. We discussed her own comin…

Erica Bornstein, "A Revolution of Rules: The Regulatory Reform of India's Nonprofit Sector" (Stanford UP, 2025)

May 21, 2026

A Revolution of Rules

Erica Bornstein
Hosted by Lilly Goren

Erica Bornstein, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oregon (and Divisional Associate Dean), has a new book that delves into the regulatory…

Shyam Ranganathan, "Moral Philosophy and De-Colonialism: The Irrationality of Oppression" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026)

May 21, 2026

Moral Philosophy and De-Colonialism

Shyam Ranganathan
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Why have moral philosophers largely ignored colonialism? In Moral Philosophy and De-Colonialism: The Irrationality of Oppression (Bloomsbury Academic,…

Sumana Roy, "Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 19, 2026

Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal

Sumana Roy
Hosted by Arnab Dutta Roy

Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal (Oxford UP, 2024) by Sumana Roy takes an unexpected cast of writers and artists and, in studying their work…

Nayantara Srinivasan, "The Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore in Contemporary India" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

May 17, 2026

The Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore in Contemporary India

Nayantara Srinivasan
Hosted by Karishma Koshal

The Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore in Contemporary India (Cambridge UP, 2025) explores the landscape of anglophone trade bookselling in India, aiming to i…

T. V. Paul, "The Unfinished Quest: India's Search for Major Power Status from Nehru to Modi" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 14, 2026

The Unfinished Quest

T. V. Paul

From a Distinguished International Relations Scholar comes The Unfinished Quest: India's Search for Major Power Status from Nehru to Modi (Oxford UP, …

Kenneth G. Zysk, "South Asian Animal Divination: A Critical Anthology" (Brill, 2025)

May 14, 2026

South Asian Animal Divination

Kenneth G. Zysk
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

South Asian Animal Divination: A Critical Anthology (Brill, 2025) examines the history and practice of animal omen divination in South Asia, comparing…

Caste and Urbanization with Malini Ranganathan and Juned Shaikh

May 11, 2026

Caste and Urbanization

Malini Ranganathan and Juned Shaikh

This episode features a conversation with urban geographer, Malini Ranganathan, and historian, Juned Shaikh, on the centrality of caste to urbanizatio…

Sumita Mukherjee, "Imperial Footprints: A History of South Asian Child Migrants in Britain" (Hurst, 2026)

May 11, 2026

Imperial Footprints

Sumita Mukherjee
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Between 1857 and 1947, over 28 million Indians left the subcontinent to live, work and study elsewhere. Today, India has the largest diaspora in the w…

Vindhya Buthpitiya, "A Volatile Picture: War and the Political Work of Photography in Sri Lanka" (U Washington Press, 2026)

April 29, 2026

A Volatile Picture

Vindhya Buthpitiya
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

A Volatile Picture: War and the Political Work of Photography in Sri Lanka (U Washington Press, 2026) by Dr. Vindhya Buthpitiya is a groundbreaking et…

Caste and Race: Ambedkar and King with the Ambedkar King Study Circle

April 27, 2026

Caste and Race

S. Karthikeyan and S. Subbulakshmi

This episode features S. Karthikeyan and S. Subbulakshmi, the Convenor and Secretary of the Ambedkar King Study Circle, an anti-caste organization bas…

The MANTRAMS Project: Mantras in Religion, Media, and Society in Global Southern Asia

April 23, 2026

The MANTRAMS Project

Carola Lorea
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Carola Lorea discusses the MANTRAMS project, a major ERC Synergy Grant initiative jointly hosted by Oxford, Vienna, and Tübingen dedicated to producin…

Shameem Black, "Flexible India: Yoga's Cultural and Political Tensions" (Columbia UP, 2023)

April 23, 2026

Flexible India

Shameem Black
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Yoga has offered the Indian state unprecedented opportunities for global, media-savvy political performance. Under Modi, it has promoted yoga tourism …

Gautamiputra Kamble, "The Seekers" (Blaft Publication, 2025)

April 18, 2026

The Seekers

Gautamiputra Kamble
Hosted by Jessica Zu

The seekers in these stories travel through worlds both ancient and modern, worlds of symbol and fantastical allegory, on their paths to greater truth…

Gudrun Bühnemann, "Scholar, Serpent, Yogin, and Devotee: The Many Faces of Patañjali in Indian Traditions" (Brill, 2025)

April 16, 2026

Scholar, Serpent, Yogin, and Devotee

Gudrun Bühnemann
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Scholar, Serpent, Yogin, and Devotee: The Many Faces of Patañjali in Indian Traditions (Brill, 2025) illuminates the many faces of Patañjali in Indian…