And for the longer history see James Vernon’s great piece in @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social academic.oup.com/past/article...

giving a rare (these days) lecture online in the spring (6th March 2026): Studio Ilankai: A Tamil Photographic History of Sri Lankan Citizenship. Info and registration: www.byforcollective.com/programs/vin...

Graduate of the American Studies programme that the University of Nottingham wishes to close wins 2025 Wolfson History Prize for Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade. History, it's a long game. Divest in haste, repent for the longue durée.

The Belonging Project is off to a fantastic start today! It was wonderful to host Mohsin Alam Bhat, Shardul Gopujkar, and Arushi Gupta, the co-authors of the "Unmaking Citizens: The Architecture of Rights Violations and Exclusion in India’s Citizenship Trials": www.nls.ac.in/wp-content/u...

Debs. Nehru. Dhoom Machale. I’m in danger of believing good things might be possible again

My book Coolie Migrants, Indian Diplomacy is out with @hurstpublishers.bsky.social. It has been shaped by the support of a great community of scholars - grateful for generous endorsements from @rahulraothariel.bsky.social @katesde.bsky.social @kalramnath.bsky.social Order here - shorturl.at/55NjW

📚 🇮🇳 OUT NOW: Coolie Migrants, Indian Diplomacy: Caste, Class and Indenture Abroad, 1914–67 by @kalathmika.bsky.social ‘Transforms our understanding of diplomatic history.’ @rahulraothariel.bsky.social 25% off w/code COOLIE25 tinyurl.com/59246yu5

Rathod & Ranganathan: "flooding exacerbates the marginalization that many Dalits already face"

I have a new article out. TLDR: Actively courting deportation by air is a way to claim rights as a stateless person and even as a refugee. academic.oup.com/past/advance...

A short piece on "forgotten" histories of citizenship for @scroll.in scroll.in/article/1087...

The cover for my book, The Future That Was, is now live! It features the MacArthur genius artist Shahzia Sikander's Infinite Woman (2021), where earth is surrounded by an infinite series of women marching around the globe who, from afar, become rays of the sun ☀️ press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

A privilege to work with Vineet Thakur & Pavan Kumar on this first of its kind special issue on Caste in Indian Diplomacy & IR for @haguediplomacyjrnl.bsky.social. Do read, share and cite! Grateful to the brilliant @deepaknair.bsky.social , @janmdiplo.bsky.social & team at HJD for their support.

Glad to share this article co-authored with Medha (SNU) on the widespread, uncritical international usage of the highly derogatory caste slur ‘pariah’. We unpack how caste hierarchies long permeate diplomacy/IR and shape foundational categories like the ‘pariah state’. brill.com/view/journal...

A superb special issue on caste and Indian diplomacy. Well done @kalathmika.bsky.social and the other editors! brill.com/view/journal...

So happy to see this excellent Special Issue out in The Hague Journal of Diplomacy @haguediplomacyjrnl.bsky.social on Caste & IR edited by @unileiden.bsky.social colleague Vineet Thakur, Pavan Kumar & @kalathmika.bsky.social after having learned so much from the workshop in Leiden a few years ago

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy's Special Issue on Caste in Indian Diplomacy & IR is out. Edited by Vineet Thakur, Pavan Kumar & Kalathmika Natarajan @kalathmika.bsky.social @haguediplomacyjrnl.bsky.social brill.com/view/journal...

From spy planes to satellites, archaeology has long shared a sky with empire. What does that mean for the knowledge it produces? Benjamin Thomas White (@btwhite.bsky.social) considers the colonial history of aerial archaeology.

Just a reminder that in the midst of waves of anti-migrant, anti-refugee and anti-asylum-seeker rhetoric and activism, there are also many charities working quietly, stoically and hard to fuel a better conversation and a better future. Actively supporting them makes a difference.

Absolutely delighted to have been awarded the Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar medal by the @royalsociety.org for my research on science, race, and empire, including my book Vanished. An enormous thanks to everybody who made this possible, especially the Royal Society. royalsociety.org/medals-and-p...

African prisoners made sound recordings in German camps in WW1: this is what they had to say theconversation.com/african-pris...

Excited to see the website is now live for my forthcoming book, The Future That Was: A History of Third World Feminism Against Authoritarianism (PUP, March 2026) press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

A. Sivanandan wrote When Memory Dies in his 70s. His memories of experiencing violence as a Tamil in Ceylon shaped the novel and was central to his thought. I wish this would be foregrounded in contemporary analyses of Siva - this is not just background trivia largely forgotten among the aphorisms.

Ki. Rajanarayanan (1923-2021) was South India's most renowned folklorist, recording tales especially from the Karisal Kaadu, the dry black-soil region of Tamil Nadu around Kovilpatti. In translation by Pritham K. Chakravarthy, with illustrations by Trotsky Marudu www.blaft.com/products/whe...

This is an amazing scheme! I would love to see more historians applying, as well as anyone in the humanities more broadly. Best of luck if you apply.

Roses from the garden, and a reading list for summer, when all the marking and manuscript proofs are done.

Please see this @radhistreview.bsky.social call for proposals on Mobility Regimes | Edited by Amy Chazkel, Jecca Namakkal, Evan Taparata, and myself | Deadline June 15, 2025.

In honor of his 100th birthday, sharing the only photo from Malcolm X’s visit to Gaza in 1964. He was welcomed by Gaza’s chief judge and scholar, Muhammad Khulusi Bseiso. When Malcolm X visited Gaza, he wept for the refugees, and as he departed he chanted “we shall return!”

Archive days.

I wrote about the forever war between India and Pakistan and the silencing of Kashmir. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

'After failed attempts to buy land in Ecuador and Paraguay – and even signing an agreement with the US city of Newark, which was later scrapped when officials realised Kailasa did not exist – the fake country turned to Bolivia.' A new, 21st-century colonialism.

How did the caste system function aboard ships in the twentieth century? Shagnick Bhattacharya explores the history of lascars. www.historyworkshop....

Migrants have been paying 7 to 10 times the actual processing costs of visas for years, and many have been forced into destitution by extortionate fees. Now this government has increased them again. Migrants are not a magic money tree for politicians to keep exploiting. www.gov.uk/government/p...

"New Yorkers are looking to us, to their leaders for courage and conviction and what they are finding instead is collaboration." Mamdani is a NYS Assemblyman representing Astoria who is running for NYC mayor.

Nearly a decade on from beginning the PhD, we have a book cover! Out later this year - my book exploring caste, migration and indenture as foundational to Indian diplomacy. @hurstpublishers.bsky.social t.co/bUTfpFncmk

Such a privilege to have a week of inspiring conversations with Nivedita Menon (JNU), one of India’s leading feminist political thinkers, as part of the Societies & Cultures Institute's Visiting Professor programme!

The Royal Observatory Greenwich is holding an online moon watch for Ramadan tonight when there will also be a planetary parade! This is so wonderful. May the blessed month bring you an abundance of blessings, especially for those enduring hardship and oppression. www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/onl...

The Public Domain Image Archive is a newly launched “curated collection of more than 10,000 out-of-copyright historical images, free for all to explore and reuse”. Careful, you could lose some hours in here… [kottke.org]

From the brilliant Harini Kumar on Chennai Shaheen Bagh: "Although the protests were about a citizenship law, Muslim women were in fact pointing to various modes of belonging that cannot be captured by the bureaucratic apparatus of the state." journals.openedition.org/samaj/9727

Notes from the archives as my chapter on caste and quarantine at Mandapam camp hopefully nudges towards completion 🤞🏽

Midnight sky today - phone camera can’t do justice, but what a joy.

Today's soundtrack for writing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKU7...

‘Today, Nataraja is one of the most recognisable symbols of Hinduism. But to the medieval Indian mind, Nataraja was really a symbol of the Cholas.’ Fascinating little article by Anirudh Kanisetti www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The manuscript is still coming along but the first reviewer is here 😆

A resource I've been working on for over a year with Clare Horrie at The National Archives, Kew intended primarily for upper secondary school students has gone live. It's based on research for my current book project. Do take a look: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/re...

Oxford University Press will be awarding as many as 10 ECRs the opportunity to publish their first book in fully open access as well as in hardback. Today the website was revised to make clear that independent/unaffiliated scholars are eligible. Deadline March 3. academic.oup.com/pages/early-...

Richly deserved award for a phenomenal book! Many congratulations @kalramnath.bsky.social

இனிய பொங்கல் நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள் - with this glorious Nadaswaram tune by ARR. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgt0...

We are please to announce that the new issue of History Workshop Journal 98 is now live! This issue features articles along the theme of 'Unbordered Histories', with many articles available open access. academic.oup.com/hwj...

Little moments of calm from a difficult year that has been entirely overwhelmed by work. Don’t know how I’d have gotten by if not for the incredible support of friends and family during bleak writing days. Here’s hoping 2025 is kinder on us all.

on PL-480 and the amassment in US libraries of the “developing world”