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About Shatrunjay Mall

I am a transnational historian of Asia with interests in both modern Japan and modern South Asia. My dissertation is an exploration of political, intellectual and cultural connections between Indian anti-colonial nationalism and the Japanese Empire in the first half of the twentieth century. I am interested in individuals, ideas and movements that spanned the world, and my research attempts to demonstrate connections between places and regions usually considered disconnected.

Shatrunjay Mall is a PhD candidate at the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He works on transnational Asian history, and his dissertation explores intellectual, political, and cultural intersections and affinities that emerged between Indian anti-colonialism and imperial Japan in the twentieth century.

NBN Episodes hosted by Shatrunjay:

Japanese Studies July 21, 2022

Japan’s Occupation of Java in the Second World War

A Transnational History

Ethan Mark

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Japan's Occupation of Java in the Second World War: A Transnational History (Bloomsbury, 2018) by Ethan Mark draws upon written and oral Japanese, Indonesian, Dutch and English-language sources to narrate …
South Asian Studies July 11, 2022

Ploughshares and Swords

India's Nuclear Program in the Global Cold War

Jayita Sarkar

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Ploughshares and Swords: India’s Nuclear Program in the Global Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2022) by Jayita Sarkar challenges this received wisdom by narrating a global story of India's nuclear …
East Asian Studies June 28, 2022

From Policemen to Revolutionaries: A Sikh Diaspora in Global Shanghai, 1885-1945

Yin Cao

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Shanghai became a cosmopolitan hub with communities of Japanese, British, Russians, Jews, and others including Indians – most of whom were Sikhs …
South Asian Studies June 21, 2022

The 24th Mile

An Indian Doctor's Heroism in War-torn Burma

Tehmton S. Mistry

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
The story of India and Indians in World War II has been overshadowed by other historical events of the 1940s, a busy decade that included such historical watersheds as Indian …
Japanese Studies April 26, 2022

Post-Fascist Japan

Political Culture in Kamakura after the Second World War

Laura Hein

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
After Japan’s devastating defeat in World War II, by late 1945, local Japanese turned their energies towards creating new behaviors and institutions that would give young people better skills to …
South Asian Studies April 12, 2022

Rebels Against the Raj

Western Fighters for India's Freedom

Ramachandra Guha

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Rebels Against the Raj: Western Fighters for India’s Freedom (Knopf, 2022) by Ramachandra Guha tells the extraordinary but little-known story of seven individuals, foreigners to India, who chose to struggle …
South Asian Studies March 8, 2022

Policing ‘Bengali Terrorism’ in India and the World

Imperial Intelligence and Revolutionary Nationalism, 1905-1939

Michael Silvestri

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Policing ‘Bengali Terrorism’ in India and the World (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) by Michael Silvestri examines the development of imperial intelligence and policing directed against revolutionaries in the Indian province of …
Japanese Studies February 25, 2022

Liminality of the Japanese Empire

Border Crossings from Okinawa to Colonial Taiwan

Hiroko Matsuda

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Okinawa, one of the smallest prefectures of Japan, has drawn much international attention because of the long-standing presence of US bases and the people’s resistance against them. In recent years …
South Asian Studies February 2, 2022

Flying Blind

India's Quest for Global Leadership

Mohamed Zeeshan

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
In recent years, India has repeatedly expressed its ambitions of becoming a global power – or ‘jagat guru.’ Yet, many believe that India’s economic troubles at home are far more …
South Asian Studies January 27, 2022

Tata

The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism

Mircea Raianu

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Nearly a century old, the grand façade of Bombay House is hard to miss in the historic business district of Mumbai. This is the iconic global headquarters of the Tata …
South Asian Studies January 20, 2022

Gentlemanly Terrorists

Political Violence and the Colonial State in India, 1919–1947

Durba Ghosh

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Gentlemanly Terrorists: Political Violence and the Colonial State in India, 1919-1947 (Cambridge University Press, 2017) by Durba Ghosh uncovers the critical place of revolutionary terrorism in the colonial and postcolonial …
Japanese Studies January 3, 2022

Kenkoku University and the Experience of Pan-Asianism

Education in the Japanese Empire

Yuka Hiruma Kishida

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Kenkoku University and the Experience of Pan-Asianism: Education in the Japanese Empire (Bloomsbury, 2019) by Yuka Hiruma Kishida makes a fresh contribution to the recent effort to re-examine the Japanese …
East Asian Studies December 24, 2021

Diaspora’s Homeland

Modern China in the Age of Global Migration

Shelly Chan

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Diaspora’s Homeland: Modern China in the Age of Global Migration (Duke University Press, 2018) by Shelly Chan provides a broad historical study of how the mass migration of more than …
Japanese Studies December 14, 2021

Indian Migrants in Tokyo

A Study of Socio-Cultural, Religious, and Working Worlds

Megha Wadhwa

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Japan is often imagined as a homogeneous society with few immigrant communities, but it is increasingly home to migrants from across the world. How does an extended stay in Japan …
Japanese Studies November 11, 2021

Tokyo Boogie-Woogie

Japan's Pop Era and Its Discontents

Hiromu Nagahara

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Tokyo Boogie-Woogie: Japan's Pop Era and its Discontents (Harvard University Press, 2017) by Hiromu Nagahara is the first English-language history of the origins and impact of the Japanese pop music industry. The …
Japanese Studies October 27, 2021

British Engagement with Japan, 1854-1922

The Origins and Course of an Unlikely Alliance

Antony Best

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Antony Best's British Engagement with Japan, 1854-1922: The Origins and Course of an Unlikely Alliance (Routledge, 2020) reconsiders the circumstances which led to the unlikely alliance of 1902 to 1922 between Britain …