Name: Dr. Neha Chaudhary
Mail ID: nc526@cantab.ac.uk; chneha25@gmail.com
Research Focus: I am a historian of modern and contemporary India focusing on socio-political developments of the Hindu Right in post-independent India. My doctoral dissertation titled, The History, Ideology, and Organisation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in post-colonial India, 1948-91, explores how the Sangh ascended from a marginal paramilitary organisation in the 1940s to the apex organisation of the Hindu Nationalist movement with a dense network of branches, cadres, and subsidiaries by the 1990s. This thesis gives precedence to the Sangh’s dynamic and malleable character to elucidate its survival and expansion in these five decades. I am particularly interested in how right-wing organisations like the Sangh frame their conservative and ethnic ideas in a language of secular civility that helps them not only survive but thrive in predominantly democratic setups.
My postdoctoral research project, tentatively titled ‘The Peoples of the Hindu Right versus the Union of India: State-making, Bureaucracy, and Dissent in the post-independent India; 1947-75’ will extend my exploration of the Sangh’s history in independent India. However, this project also aims to produce an intertwined history of state formation and the role of a politicised bureaucracy in shaping the political landscape for the Hindu Right.
Educational Details: Ph.D. in History, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge (2019-2025)
MSc. in Modern South Asian Studies, Somerville College, University of Oxford (2018-2019)
Master of Arts in Modern History, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (2016-2018)
Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in History, Hansraj College, University of Delhi (2013-2016)
Publications:
Felix Pal and Neha Chaudhary, ‘Leaving the Hindu Far-Right,’ South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 46/2 (2023), 425–444.
Neha Chaudhary and Saarang Narayan, ‘Hindutva in the Shadow of the Mahatma: M.S. Golwalkar and the Appropriation of Gandhi by the RSS,’ Modern Asian Studies, 58:3 (2024), 885–911.
Fellowship / Awards:
Cambridge Trust, Newnham College, and Faculty of History Scholarship (2019-2024).
Postgraduate Grants and Awards Committee, Research and Travel Awards, Newnham College, University of Cambridge (2022).
Faculty of History, University of Cambridge Research Grant (2020).
Oxford Indira Gandhi-Radhakrishnan Scholar, University of Oxford (2018-2019).
Trophy for Second Highest Marks in B.A. History (Hons.), Hansraj College, University of Delhi (2016).