Current Research

I’m currently working on two book projects.

The first, A People’s History of Kashmir, provides an overview of the history of modern Kashmir, building on anti-occupation and anti-colonial interventions in Kashmir scholarship. It is geared towards a general audience that is interested in learning about the history of the Kashmiri freedom struggle, as well as contemporary developments.

The second book project, The Native and the Muslim: Islam and the Question of Indigeneity in Kashmir and Beyond, rethinks what it means to belong in a world where Islam is often imagined as foreign to a place. Through the case of Kashmir, the book argues that caste, cartography, and colonial governance together produced a hierarchy of belonging that privileges Hindu genealogies and renders Muslim presence foreign. By showing how Indian settler-colonial and international legal regimes have both erased Kashmiri Muslim indigeneity, the book situates Kashmir within global patterns that de-indigenize Muslims from Africa to Asia. Bringing together settler colonial and indigenous studies, Islamic studies, decolonial studies, and South Asian history, The Native and the Muslim foregrounds Islam as a conceptual resource for rethinking indigeneity—and suggests that Islamic ethics can open decolonial possibilities beyond the limits of the liberal, secular international order. 

In addition, I am interested in the ethics and methods of conducting research in conditions of occupation, militarization, and settler colonialism, especially given the immense amount of repression that academics who work on Kashmir face. In collaboration with other Kashmir scholars, some thoughts on this can be found here.

For those interested in further collaborations or workshops on this topic, please do get in touch.