Hello! जिंदाबाद!
I am a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at Yale University. My research is in comparative politics and the political economy of development, with a focus on indigenous representation and governance, democratic resilience and parties, and South Asia.
My dissertation examines how granting property and representational rights transforms forests and self-governance among indigenous (Adivasi) communities in India. In parallel, I study how citizens, civil society organizations, and political aspirants are linked to parties and elected institutions, and how these relationships shape political representation and democratic resilience.
I bring several years of observing governance, elections, and claim-making in western India, across Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, to my research. My work combines field research, interviews, survey experiments, and original datasets on rural governance in India.