Hello/Namaskar!

I am a student and researcher of political representation and development in rural India. My academic and experiential work grapples with questions of how political representation and development is realized in unexpected and divergent ways, particularly among rural tribal communities in India. As of Fall 2025, I am a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at Yale University.

My research explores three different lines of inquiry in areas of comparative politics. First, my primary dissertation project examines how granting of property and self-governance rights to tribal communities transforms forest governance in India. Second, across coauthored articles I study responses to democratic backsliding, exploring when and how civil society, opposition parties, and citizens collaborate and mobilize in response to institutional erosion. Third, in solo and co-authored work, I investigate pathways and challenges to securing political candidacy in developing contexts.

I graduated with a MA in Political Science (Development Studies) in May 2024 from McGill University, Canada. I have been a member of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship (CSDC) and the Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID) in Montreal, as well as a fellow at the Consortium on Analytics for Data-Drive Decision-Making (CAnD3). Prior to my MA, I completed a BA (First Class Honours) in Political Science at McGill University.