About me

I am an Associate Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.

I research the origins of effective and democratic states with a regional focus on South Asia. I am the author of two books, The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan (2013) and Varieties of Nationalism (with Harris Mylonas, 2023 ).

I write for the media on a regular basis, including in Foreign Affairs, Washington Post, New Statesman, The Hindu, India Express, and The Scotsman.