Dr Gajendra Singh

My research is focused upon histories of colonialism in South Asia. I have particular interests in the hybridities of Empire – of the networks of peoples and ideas that could make even the most marginal individuals polyglot, multicultural bodies. My previous work explored the war testimonies of Indian soldiers during the two World Wars. My current work is an investigation of communities of migrant Indian labourers across the Pacific and their connection to revolutionary movements at home and abroad.

A monograph on wartime soldiering identities and testimonies in the Indian Army was recently published by Bloomsbury (The Testimonies of Indian Soldiers and Two World Wars: Between Self and Sepoy) and an edited volume by Routledge (An Imperial World at War: Aspects of the British Empire's War Experience, 1939-1945).

I have been involved in separate BBC 1, BBC Radio 4 and World Service productions exploring Indian revolutionary movements and Indian soldiers’ experiences of France during World War 1.

I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh in 2010. Since then I have taught at Edinburgh, been ERC (European Research Council) Postdoctoral Fellow at University College Dublin, AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford, and Visiting Fellow at the Department of Defence Studies, King’s College London. I joined the Department of History at Exeter in 2014 and was promoted to senior lecturer in 2019.

I am happy to supervise new research students wishing to explore modern South Asian history and wider histories of British Imperialism. Of particular interest are those wishing to research histories of the South Asian diaspora, colonial soldiering or revolutonary nationalisms in imperial spaces.

If you are interested, email me a 500 word outline of your proposed research topic and a copy of your CV.