Dr Padma Anagol

Biography

Education and qualifications

BA History, Economics and English Literature (University of Mysore, India)

MA Modern and Contemporary Indian History (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

MPhil International Relations (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

PhD School of Oriental and African Studies, (University of London, 1995)

Career overview

1993-95 Lecturer, South Asian History, Bath Spa University, Bath, UK

1995-Present Senior Lecturer in History, Dept of History/Welsh History, Cardiff University

Honours and awards

AHRC (UK) One year Research Leave Award (2005-6).

Indian Council of Social Science Research, Delhi. A 5 year scholarship awarded in 1987 for a PhD in History. I declined this in favour of the Commonwealth Scholarship.

ACU Commonwealth Scholarship for PhD programme in Modern Indian History at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in September 1987.

Professional memberships

• Social History Society, UK (2006 - )
• Women's History Network, U.K (1994 - )
• American Association of Asian Studies, USA (1994 – 2000)
• British Association of South Asian Studies, (1991 - )
• London Library, UK, (2000 – 06)
• Royal Asiatic Society, London (1998 – 2009)
• Royal Society for Asian Affairs, London, (1995-2006)
• The Nehru Centre, High Commission of India, London (1994 – 2008)

Speaking engagements

• Plenary Address: '"In the interest of the nation ":   Women's role and participation in the birth of the Hindu Right in colonial India.', Conference on 'Women, State and Nation: Creating Gendered Identities', Cardiff University, 7-9 September 2012.
• 'Race, Religion & Gender: A nineteenth-century Indian woman's treatise and the dominant themes of modern Indian history', Centre for the History of Medicine Seminar Series. 7 Dec. 2010, Warwick University, UK
• Chair of Panel, 'Narratives of Enslavement and Empowerment: Representing Gender, Family, Community, Race and Nation in Colonial India', BASAS Annual Conference, University of Edinburgh, 30-3-2009 to 1-04-09.
• Keynote Address, 'Indian Women and the Growth of the Hindu Right at the turn of the century', 09-05-09, LEARN, Cardiff University.
• 'What women did for Gandhi?' Invited Talk, Howell's School, Cardiff.16-03-08.
• Plenary Lecture, 'Women's agency and historical change in modern India'. Invitation of and hosted by Social History Society of the UK, Annual Conference of Social History Society held at University of Exeter, 30 March to 1 April 2007.
• 'Periodization, agency and change in Indian gender and women's history', Paper at Gender and Change' workshop hosted by Gender and History Journal at Christ College, University of Cambridge, 16-18 April 2007.
• 'Britishness and Indianness: Indian Women's Perceptions of the Raj', Invited Talk at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 13 Apr.2005.

Publications

Teaching

I welcome undergraduate students interested in gaining an in-depth knowledge of Modern South Asia with specific reference to Modern Indian history. The contents of the courses can be found below:

Undergraduate year one modules

• History in Practice: Fury, Folly and Footnotes - 20 credits (HS1107)
• Making of the Modern World (HS1105)

Undergraduate year two modules

• India & the Raj 1857-1947 - 30 credits (HS1765)
• Exploring Historical Debate - 30 credits (HS1711)

Undergraduate year three modules

• Race, Sex & Empire: Britain & India 1757-1929 - 30 credits (HS1855)
• Dissertation - 30 credits (HS1801)

Postgraduate

I welcome postgraduate students to work with me on aspects of British imperial history in relation to race, sexuality, women and gender. The courses listed below give a flavour of the contents and substance of the MA in Asian History. Students can also combine Modern China and Modern India in this particular pathway: MA in Asian History

• Modern India, 1757-1947: Gender and Women's History - 20 credits (HST631)
• Modern India, 1757-1947: Political and Social History - 20 credits (HST661)
• Sources for New Imperial Histories - 10 credits (HST819)
• Indian Gender and Women's History: Sources and Interpretation - 10 credits (HST820)
• Historiographical Study I: Key themes - 10 credits (HST698)
• Historiographical Study II: Key debates - 10 credits (HST699)
• Historical Theory and Historical Methods - 30 credits (HST644)
• Key Research Skills - 10 credits (HST643)

Postgraduate supervision

Suitably qualified doctoral students are very welcome to apply to study their PhD with me. Themes and topics that cover broadly British Imperial History in relation to India and the political, social and cultural history of Modern and Contemporary India. Knowledge of Indian languages is an asset but not compulsory. A flavour of the kind of topics and themes from completed and on-going research projects and a list of students working with me is given below.

Doctoral students

• Ved Prakash BARUAH

Title:  'Opium-eaters and Opium Peddlers: Cultural Manifestations of Opium in Northeast India and its Echoes in a Transnational Age, 1750–1950', (Start date: April 2012). Candidate holds a SHARE Studentship.

• Ceri-Anne FIDLER

Title: 'Lascars, c.1850 – 1950: the lives and identities of Indian seafarers in Imperial Britain and India', (Completed Jan 2010). Candidate was an AHRC Award holder and held a post doc fellowship titled 'Power Fellowship' at the Economic History Society, UK from 2010-2011.

• Sohini DASGUPTA

Title: 'Contending Authenticities: Representations of 'Hindu Custom' in Late Nineteenth century Colonial Bengal'.  (Completed March 2010, External Examiner)

• Kieth D WHITE

Title: 'Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922): A Re-Evaluation of her Life and Work.' [Completed 2003]

Current Research Projects

• Indian Women Patriots on Caste, Community, Race and the Political Economy of Nationalism
• Critical edition and translation of three volumes containing the eye witness accounts of Kannadiga participants in the Indian national movement

Research networks

I am a member of the following interdisciplinary networks:

• Centre for the History of Religion in Asia (CHRA)
• The West of England and South Wales Women's History Network (2010 – present)
• Families, Identities and Gender Research Network (FIG)
• Gender and Sexualities Research Cluster (SHARE)

Supervision

Suitably qualified doctoral students are welcome to apply to study their PhD with me. Themes and topics that cover broadly British Imperial History in relation to the Indian sub continent and the political, intellectual, social and cultural history of Modern and Contemporary India fall within my expertise. Knowledge of Indian languages is an asset but not compulsory. A flavour of the kind of topics and themes from completed and on-going research projects and a list of students working with me is given below.

CURRENT DOCTORAL STUDENTS

• Tim Moore
• Serena Rattu
• Jonathan Hitchman
• Thomas Keegan-Hobbs

PAST DOCTORAL STUDENTS [Completed]

• Dyuti CHAKRAVARTY  ‘” Break the Cage: Women's Body Politics of Respectability and Autonomy in India and Ireland’ [Completed from UCD, Dublin in 2022 and I was one of the internal supervisors on the dissertation committee]
• VINEETA KUMARI  ‘Gender Violence and Cultural Trajectories in Colonial and Contemporary Haryana’ [Completed from JNU, Delhi in March 2021, I was the external examiner]
• PRIYAMVADA ‘The Education of Women in Colonial United Provinces in the late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries' [Completed in 2021. I was the External Examiner]
• Lloyd Edward PRICE [AHRC award]  ‘Workers, mothers, pests: Co-evolutionary perspectives on domesticated cattle in early twentieth century North India.’ (Completed January 2019 under my primary supervision)
• Ghee BOWMAN [AHRC Award] ‘‘‘No Pakis at Dunkirk’: Forgetting and Remembering Force K6 in Europe, 1939-1945’, [Completed in Nov. 2019. Co-supervised with Dr Gajendra Singh, Exeter]
• Arya SAKET KUMAR  ‘Removing the Lid: Propaganda and Cinema in Colonial India, 1910-1930.’ [Completed MPhil from JNU, Delhi in November 2018. I was the External Examiner]
• Ved Prakash BARUAH ‘Addicts, Peddlers and Reformers: The Local, National and Transnational Politics of Opium—A Study of Colonial Assam, 1826–1947’, [Candidate held a SHARE Studentship during the duration of his doctorate and completed under my primary supervision in 2016].
• Elena BORGHI  ‘Feminism in Modern India: the experience of the Nehru Women (1900-1930)’, [Completed in 2015 from EUI, Florence, Italy. I was on her dissertation committee as a primary supervisor].
• Ceri-Anne FIDLER 'Lascars, c.1850 – 1950: the lives and identities of Indian seafarers in Imperial Britain and India', (Completed Jan 2010). Candidate was an AHRC Award holder and held a post doc fellowship titled 'Power Fellowship' at the Economic History Society, UK from 2010-2011.
• Sohini DASGUPTA 'Contending Authenticities: Representations of 'Hindu Custom' in Late Nineteenth century Colonial Bengal'.  (Completed March 2010, External Examiner)
• Keith D WHITE 'Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922): A Re-Evaluation of her Life and Work.' [Completed 2003, primary supervisor on dissertation committee]

Past projects