Research Interests:

Indian social, cultural, economic and religious history; History of Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism; History of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal; World history

Recent Publications:

Missionary Education and Empire in Late Colonial India, 1860-1920 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2007).

‘Missionary Education, Religion and Knowledge in India, c. 1880-1915’, Modern Asian Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 41:2, March 2007, pp. 373-398.

Book review of Amir Mufti, ‘Enlightenment in the Colony: The Jewish Question and the Crisis of Postcolonial Culture’, in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East (Duke University Press), forthcoming 2008

Book review of Manu Bhagavan, ‘Sovereign Spheres: Princes, Education and Empire in colonial India’, in Journal of the Oxford University History Society (Oxford) 2005

Current research:

Currently I am working on two books. The first is a co-authored general history of the Indian Ocean region (with Dr Thomas Burgess and Dr Rick Ruth), from 800 to the present. Secondly, and more specific to India, I am also working on a book which explores the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, examining the transition from precolonial forms of learning and knowledge to the emergence of English and Anglo-Vernacular education.   

Current Projects:

Emigrations, Empires and Encounters: a History of the Indian Ocean from 800 to the Modern Age, co-authored with Dr Thomas Burgess, Dr Richard Ruth, Department of History, US Naval Academy, anticipated completion 2011.

Students, Saints and Scholars: Learning and Education in the Emergence of Modern India, c.1760-1870, anticipated completion 2012.

‘Religion, Law and Pedagogy in India: The Politics of Secularising Knowledge, 1760-1950’, co-authored with Nandini Chatterjee, Cambridge University, anticipated completion 2008.

Professional Associations:

American Historical Association, Association of Asian Studies, The Asia Society, British Association for South Asian Studies

Seminars and Conference Papers:

'The Raj, religion and "contracting out" secularism in colonial India, 1850-1950', Religion and Modern States Conference, King's College, London, January 2009.

'Islam, Hinduism, the public sphere and modernity in colonial India, 1850-1920', for 48th International Association of Historians of Asia (IAHA) Conference, New Delhi, India, November 2008.

“Learning, Education and Knowledge in the Transition to Colonialism in India, c.1750-1850,” Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, 6 April 2008.

“Aesthetics, Education and the Environment in Colonial North India, c.1840-1940,” South Asia Seminar Series, St. Antony's College, Oxford, 29 May 2007.

“Education and Indian Society in the Emergence of Modern Knowledge and Religions,” Imperial History Seminar, Kings College, University of London, 16 October 2006.

“Education and Indian Secularism in Colonial India,” panel with Professor C.A. Bayly, N. Chatterjee, Religion and the Public Sphere in Colonial India, 74th Annual Anglo-American Conference of Historians, Institute of Historical Research, London, 7 July 2005.

“Education, Religion and "Colonial Knowledge" in North India c.1880-1915,” Centre for South Asian Studies, Edinburgh University, 17 March 2004.

“Missionary Education, Knowledge and North Indian Society, c.1880-1915,” panel organizer for Colonial Knowledge and Empire, 20th Annual South Asian Studies Conference, University of California at Berkeley, 11-12 February 2005.

“Education, Religion and Colonial Knowledge in North India c.1880-1915,” to South Asian Seminar Series, St. Antony's College, Oxford University, 16 November 2004.

“Religion, Education and Colonial knowledge in North India, c.1880-1915,” Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge University, 3 November 2004.

“The Indian Mutiny of 1857: Revolution or Re-evaluation?” South Asian Studies Seminar, Oxford University, 28 February 2002.

Research Languages:

Hindi (written, advanced; intermediate, oral); Urdu (intermediate, oral and written); English (fluent, oral and written); French (intermediate, oral and written).