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Books and Book chapters
What can social spaces tell us about social relations in society? How do everyday social spaces like teashops, reading rooms, and libraries reify—or subvert—dominant social structures like caste and gender? These are the questions that this book explores through a study of modern Kerala. Using archival material, discourse analysis, participant observation, and personal interviews, this book traces the transformation of public spaces through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The volume focuses on how "modernity" has also been a struggle for access to public spaces, and non-institutional spaces like teashops, markets, public roads, temple grounds, reading rooms, and libraries have all been crucial to how political culture was shaped, and how dominant hegemonies—caste, class, or capital—have been challenged. It suggests that the secular public sphere that emerged in the last century in Kerala was a result of the constant negotiations between conflicting ideas which were put to test in these social spaces. At a time when digital spaces are fast replacing physical ones, this book is a timely reminder of the struggles that led to the emergence of secular public spaces in Kerala. It contributes to similar studies on public space that have emerged from other parts of the world over the last decades.
A major contribution to understanding modern India, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of social history, political science, political sociology, gender studies, linguistics, and South Asian studies.
“Hinduism in Ireland” (co-author with Sweta Chakraborty), in Knut A. Jacobsen and Ferdinando Sardella (eds) Handbook of Hinduism in Europe, Leiden: Brill.
Handbook of Hinduism in Europe portrays and analyses how Hindu traditions have expanded across the continent, and presents the main Hindu communities, religious groups, forms, practices and teachings. The Handbook does this in two parts, Part One covers historical and thematic topics which are of importance for understanding Hinduism in Europe as a whole and Part Two has chapters on Hindu traditions in every country in Europe. Hindu traditions have a long history of interaction with Europe, but the developments during the last fifty years represent a new phase. Globalization and increased ease of communication have led to the presence of a great plurality of Hindu traditions. Hinduism has become one of the major religions in Europe and is present in every country of the continent.
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
(under review) “Which God’s Own Country? A Spatial History of Hindu-Christian Tensions in Modern Kerala”, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics.
2024 “Understanding the role of physical spaces in social de-segregations: Spatial lessons from Kerala and Northern Ireland”. (co-authored with John Doyle) Land Use Policy. 146.
2022 “Healing a fractured public: Everyday Shared Spaces in East Belfast”, Irish Studies in International Affairs, 33(02).
2022 “Making Space: Towards a spatial-history of modernity in caste-societies”, Social History, 47(03), 315-340.
2020 “Communicating Communism: Social Spaces and the Creation of a “Progressive” Public Sphere in Kerala, India”, tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique, 18(01), pp. 268-285.
2020 “Negotiating Caste: A Matter of the Public and the Home”, Interactions, 02(04).
2013 “The Dilemma of Decentralization: The ‘Problematic’ of Developmental Discourse in India”, (co-authored with Suraj Gogoi) KILA, Journal of Local Governance, 01(02).
2024 Why the legendary cartoonist Abu Abraham still matters, Himal Southasian
2023 Live Act: The unsettling colonial history of India’s Malabaris exhibited in human zoos, The Caravan.
2023 Kozhikode’s Kōlāya gatherings: Conversations that shaped Kerala modernity in ’60s, The News Minute, (co-authored with Prof. Dilip Menon)
2023 How political consciousness and protests for social justice emerged from Kerala’s streets, The Scroll.
2023 What's behind East Belfast GAA's struggle to find a home?, RTÉ Brainstorm.
2023 As simmering anti-immigrant sentiments spill over, Dublin sees worst riot in decades, The News Minute.
2022 A rereading of Kerala modernity, Frontline.
2021 ‘Innale’ to ‘The Great Indian Kitchen': How couple photos are used in Malayalam films, The News Minute.
2021 Kerala’s ongoing election is also a test of its Political Culture, IICRR Blog.
2021 Why playgrounds are finding space in Kerala’s election manifestos, The News Minute.
2021 Kerala's chayakkada: How the tea shop has shaped politics, cinema and culture, The News Minute, (co-authored with Cris Here).
2021 Two brothers and the many stories of Don Palathara's '1956, Central Travancore', The News Minute.
2020 ‘Munshi’: Success secrets of the longest-running Malayalam political satire, The News Minute.
2020 Coronavirus, social distancing, and the return of caste apologists, Newslaundry.
2019 Against Aachaaram: When is your cloth clean/pure/both? (co-authored with Prof. J. Devika), Kafila.
2019 A World in Motion: The Life and Times of the ‘Manchukkar’, Kerala Calling.
Opinion Pieces and Blogposts
2025 Photography and Social Issues, Arts and Culture Celebration, Dublin City University (March)
2025 Talking Texts Book Discussion Series, IShore (February)
2025 Visual Advocacy in Addressing Migrant Labour Issues, Christ University, Bengaluru (February)
2024 New spaces of everyday resistance, Kerala Studies Pre-conference at Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison (November)
2024 South Asian Studies Podcast, New Books Network (November)
2024 Exhibiting the Other: Colonial Subjects and human zoos in early 20th century France, Shiv Nadar University (September)
2023 A History of Kerala through its public spaces, Miranda House, Delhi University (November)
2022 Book Talk at English and Foreign Language University, Hyderabad (December)
2022 The Role of participatory spaces in crisis-management: Experiences from Kerala, India, PSAI Annual Conference, South East Technological University (October)
2021 Placing Modernity: A spatial-history of Modern Kerala, Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Kerala (November).
2021 Democracy and Public Space, University of Toronto Mississauga (October)
2020 Democracy in Crisis: A discussion on citizenship, identity and violence in India, IMSISS, Security Distillery, DCU
2020 Public Spaces and Civil Movements, Dublin Law and Politics Review Podcast. (June) (link)
2018 God’s Own Communists: The religious engagements of Communist Party in Kerala, India, ECPR General Conference, Hamburg
2016 Ethnic Mobilization and Identity: the Paradox of Kerala’s Hindu Nationalism, NORIA International Conference on South Asia, Sciences Po, Paris.