I am a third-year PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. I completed my MPhil and MA in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. I was awarded the New India Foundation fellowship (2018-19) to write a book on “Songs of Dalit Assertion: Culture, Identity, and Politics.” Recently, I was awarded the Adam Smith fellowship (2024-25) to study Dalit cultural production in relation to political economy. I have been working on protest music since my master’s degree (2013) to the present. I have presented papers at conferences and seminars both nationally and internationally, and I have published papers in Indian and international journals.
Current Research:
My PhD thesis focuses on protest music in relation to political mobilization in the context of Dalits. The Dalit movement largely relies on cultural resources, with music playing a central role in the contemporary Dalit movement of Maharashtra. I am examining how music constructs identity and strives to achieve the goal of the annihilation of caste, which is a major objective of the Dalit movement.
Areas of Study:
Music, Dalit, Social Movement, Caste, Ethnography