Memory, violence
and the oral archive

Ph.D. Research

Folklore and Politics: A Study of the Khalistan Movement in the Oral Traditions of Punjab

My doctoral research interrogates the intersections of memory, violence, and resistance through vernacular oral forms. Positioned at the confluence of Folkloristics, Memory Studies, and Cultural Trauma Studies, it foregrounds orality as a counter-historiographical mode through which subaltern communities narrate trauma and assert agency. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and textual analysis of forms such as dhadi var, qissa, and kavishri, the study elucidates how political memory is inscribed in everyday cultural expression.

M.Phil. Research

Punjabi fiction from the insurgency era as an archive of counter-memory

My M.Phil. research examined Punjabi fiction from the insurgency era as an archive of alternative epistemology, with emphasis on translation as both method and metaphor. It articulates a sustained engagement with literature as a critical site for counter-memory and knowledge production in post-colonial, conflict-ridden contexts.

Research Interests

• Folkloristics & Oral Traditions
• Memory Studies & Cultural Trauma
• Subaltern Studies (Punjab)
• Post-colonial Literature
• Translation as Method & Metaphor
• Vedantic Philosophy & Comparative Thought
• Sikh Hermeneutics & Janam Sakhi Studies

Academic History