Education
MA, University of Pennsylvania, 2020
BA, University of Chicago, 2015
Biography
I am interested in the role of language in the conception of Northeastern India in modern South Asian history. Focusing in particular on Meiteilon ("Manipuri"), I intend to look at the interaction between scholarship, policy, and language politics in constructing the political and sociocultural space of the Northeast within the colonial and postcolonial Indian state. In doing so, my project will examine the continuities and shifts in the understanding of Northeastern languages from efforts at colonial knowledge production (like the Linguistic Survey of India), to initiatives of the independent Indian state (like the Sahitya Akademi), to the politics of linguistic recognition in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. My languages of research are Meiteilon and Bangla.