Profile
Sara Arab

Sara ARAB

PhD Researcher in International History and Politics
Spoken languages
English, Hindi, Marathi
Areas of expertise
  • Political violence
  • Colonialism and Decolonization
  • Social history
  • Religious Extremism
  • History of Caste
Geographical Region of Expertise
  • India
  • South Asia

PhD Thesis

 

Title: Countering Caste: The Mahars' Quest for Socio-cultural mobility in Colonial India c.1880-1930

PhD Supervisor, Co-Supervisor & Second Reader: Gopalan Balachandran ; Christophe Jaffrelot (SciencesPo) & Aidan Russell

Expected completion date: 2024

My research approaches the history of the Mahars, the largest untouchable caste of Western India, as a community movement that challenges the modalities of the caste system. The upper-caste idea of cow protection forms an entry point that initiates the conversation on Mahar socio-economic and cultural stigmatization. My research will make original contributions to the Mahar historiography: firstly, it will challenge the convenient association of Mahars with carcass and focus on revisiting the history of a Mahar as a watandar, cultivator and labourer. Secondly, it will investigate the processes and outcomes of Mahar migration to cities as a means of upward mobility. Finally, it will systematically analyze the Mahar encounters with the American and Scottish missionaries. Appropriating seldom used vernacular accounts, biographies and autobiographies written and preserved by local families, as also literature produced by Mahar activists and organizations, I seek to understand how the Mahar community concretized the demand for equality through socio-cultural, economic and civic rights.

 

Profile

 

Sara Arab’s PhD research, ‘Locking Horns with the Cow: Cow Protection and the Caste Question in Colonial West India c.1880-1920’ explores the intersection of the Cow Protection agenda, caste and colonialism in late nineteenth-century Western India. Her study posits the impact of the majoritarian ‘sacredness of the cow’ propaganda on the protest and emancipation movement of the Mahars (the largest ex-untouchable caste of western India). Thus, this research intervenes in the historiography of broader themes of caste, late-colonial India, Cow Protection, while contributing to the specific theme of social mobilization, identity building, urbanization and cultural reform of the Mahars.
Apart from a Master in International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute, Sara also holds a Master in History and Bachelor of Education from the University of Mumbai, with a professional experience as an educator in History and English for about a decade in Mumbai. Sara is proficient in English, Hindi, Marathi languages and is currently learning French.

 

Research Interests

 

  • Colonialism and Decolonization
  • Social history
  • Political Violence
  • Religious Extremism
  • History of Caste

 

Relevant Publications and Works


Cholpon Orozobekova, Sara Shadab Arab, Katayoun Formica Hosseinnejad, Marie Porchet, ‘Counter Terrorism and Violent Extremism in the UK: National Policy and Approaches’, Bulan Institute for Peace Innovations, May 2021. 

"OPINION: Switzerland’s ‘burka ban’ curtails rather than strengthens individual freedoms", The Local

State Obligations and International Norms towards Children with Links to ISIS Being Heldin North-Eastern Syria, Bulan Institute for Peace Innovations

PM’s ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ Is OK – What About Revisionist History?, The Quint

Book review – Arturo Escobar. Encountering development: the making and unmaking of the third world, Princeton University Press, 1995.

International History and Politics Podcast

 

Academic work experience

 

Teaching Assistant in International History and Politics, February 22 - present

 

Fellowships, Grants and Awards

 

  • The Graduate Institute Skmcholarship (September 2020-21)
  • Hans Wilsdorf Foundation Scholarship (September 2017-19)

 

Links

Email