Ufaque Paiker has a PhD in Modern Indian History from the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her work lies at the intersection of History, Cultural and Religious studies and explores themes related to literary cultures, knowledge production and identity formation in colonial and contemporary India. Her PhD traces the transformation in Urdu from early to late colonial period in Bihar and argues against the dominant perception of Urdu as a language of elite Muslims (ashrafs). In her MPhil dissertation, Ufaque had historicized the changing contours of students’ politics in the Aligarh Muslim University. She is also a co-recipient of the 2021 Antipode ‘Right to Discipline’ and documented resistance and ideologies of organisers and participants of two of the most dynamic contemporary protests in India (protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the Farmers’ Bill). She is involved in archiving artifacts of these protests as an Honorary Research Fellow in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at University of Exeter. She has published parts of her work in co-edited volumes, Journal of South Asian Studies and in web portals such as Outlook.
Twitter: @UfaquePaiker