Kavita Datla

Assistant Professor of History

Specialization
Modern South Asia and the British Empire

Kavita Datla's research interests include the political, social, and cultural history of nineteenth and twentieth century South Asia. She is currently completing a manuscript, titled From National to Minority Subjects, which focuses on negotiations over language, education, and religion in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Hyderabad.  She is especially interested in how these negotiations relate to the history of Indian and Pakistani nationalism.  The book, grounded in close attention to historical evidence in South Asia, has broad ramifications for larger issues currently being debated in the humanities and social sciences today, from the significance and legacies of European colonialism, the inclusions and exclusions enacted by nationalist projects, to the place of minorities in the forging of nationalism, and ultimately also to discussions of the relationship between religion and modern politics and hence also of secularism in colonial and post-colonial societies.

Datla's work has been published in Modern Asian Studies and has been funded by fellowships from the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) and Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad.

At Mount Holyoke, Datla teaches introductory courses on Modern South Asia and the British Empire, as well as courses on gender, religion and politics, and nationalism. She is also affiliated with the Program in Critical Social Thought.