Welcome! I am a historian of cities, mountains and modern South Asia. My current research focusses on urban capitalism in the global South, the postwar concept of urban crisis, and the history of international development. I am an Assistant Professor of History, Department of History, Ashoka University, India.

I am working on two book projects. The first, Profit Against Development shows how the interaction between place contingent investments by business elites, and the abstract state-held assumptions about self-interest and its relationship with public interest, shaped the divergent urban and economic trajectories of twentieth-century Calcutta and Bombay. My second book project Foundations of Development will be a history of Ford Foundation’s involvement in postcolonial Indian development.

My teaching and research interests include but extend far beyond cities, South Asia, and international development. I am part of the NYU Abu Dhabi Himalayan Water Project— a multi-disciplinary team that considers the centrality of the Himalaya in shaping Asia’s, and indeed, the world’s past, present and future. I particularly enjoy teaching a course I designed on the history of Mountains and Mountaineering that explores the central but often ignored place of mountains in the making of the modern world. I plan to develop this interest into a full-length book project in the future.