Ashutosh Kumar
Biographic Data
| ID | 3697555 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ashutosh Kumar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ashutosh |
| FAMILY NAME | Kumar |
| SIGNATURE | KUMAR A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Panjab University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0405-8096 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 52 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 37 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 51 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Global evolution and emerging trends in lichenometry research
Spatial inequalities in quality antenatal care in India
The study examines the spatial distribution and determinants of quality antenatal care (Q-ANC) utilization across districts of India using data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019–21). Q-ANC is operationalized as the receipt of at least five out of seven essential antenatal care components, capturing the adequacy of service content during pregnancy. District-level estimates were analyzed using spatial statistical techniques, incl…
From cricket diplomacy to digital fronts
This article investigates how digital audiences on YouTube amplify security rhetoric around the India-Pakistan cricket rivalry. Analyzing 20 sports-political videos and 54,520 comments from the 2025 Cricket Asia Cup, we measure the escalation of threat-based language from video creators to their audiences. Using bilingual lexicon, sentiment analysis, and qualitative readings, we find a significant “amplification gap”: comment sections contained f…
Securitization’s blind spots
This study offers a systematic, diagnostic review of securitization scholarship, an empirical audit of how the field’s knowledge has been produced, by whom, and with what structural consequences. The research provides a bibliometric and interpretative analysis of securitization studies from 1992 to December 2024. It utilizes Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny metrics alongside manual coding to map thematic developments, collaboration networks, and funding …
Ubiquitous data-driven framework for traffic emission estimation and policy evaluation
Election Commission of India
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has succeeded in going beyond its constitutionally mandated role of preparing the electoral rolls and conducting free and fair elections. In its seven and a half decades of existence, the ECI has succeeded in making the electoral process increasingly more accessible, inclusive and participative despite facing challenges such as geographical variance, illiteracy, poverty, social heterogeneity and traditional …
Letters of labourers
This article explores the condition of Indian indentured women labourers on the colonial plantations of Fiji and Natal (now in South Africa) in order to understand the complexities of life in a radically different society and production regime. Opposed to the sources used by scholars to document the women under indenture, such as colonial documents, official reports, and writings of reporters, which have limitations of objective portrayal, this a…
Indentured Indians
This article introduces the special issue ‘Indentured Indians: Past and Present’. It emerged from discussions held during two international seminars sponsored by Banaras Hindu University (BHU), India, and the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS), South Africa, on the Indian indentured diaspora. The recent focus on global history has influenced a rethinking of the nineteenth century labour migration from India to the v…
Beijing’s urbanization reflected in apartment layouts
Over the past five decades, China has witnessed rapid urbanization. Since the 1970s, Beijing’s population has grown 150%, its subway network expanded from a single line covering 10.7 kilometers to 27 lines spanning 836 kilometers, and its housing stock has increased by 95.3%. These significant urban changes have paralleled national economic and social transformations, notably after China opened its markets to international trade in 1978. This stu…
Interdisciplinary perspectives on the intersections of roads, sustainable development, and disaster resilience
Natural hazard-influenced disasters, sustainable development, and roads are closely intertwined. Governments and funding agencies worldwide are increasingly focused on delivering disaster-resilient road infrastructure. However, the multifaceted, ubiquitous, and contested nature of road networks means that making them resilient to disasters is a complex task. Efforts to build resilient roads generate trade-offs against other policy goals like clim…
Investigations within World Heritage Monument Zones of Kathmandu after the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha Earthquake
This paper presents the results of an extensive study carried out to better understand the causes of collapse of heritage structures within the UNESCO-listed World Heritage Monument Zones of the Kathmandu Valley during the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake. The investigation comprised a field reconnaissance survey, followed by geotechnical investigations (field and laboratory) with the aim of assessing and demonstrating the performance of five exemplar hist…
Dark Anthropology, Migrants and Others
(Wl-3044)-The Tamil Nadu Verdict and the Limits of Gubernatorial Power
The Supreme Court’s judgment in the State of Tamil Nadu (2025) raises critical constitutional questions that go beyond the conduct of the Governor. At its heart, the landmark judgment tests the boundaries of the doctrine of separation of powers and the basic structure principle, particularly as it relates to the operation of checks and balances within India’s quasi-federal and parliamentary framework
Electoral synchronicity
Girmit, intimacy and sexual violence
This essay investigates the sexual violence against Indian indentured women during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on colonial plantations around the world through the lens of intimacy and labour. Beginning in the 1830s, Indian men, women, and children were brought to various overseas plantations by colonial planters under the indenture system, which was designed to fill the labour shortage that resulted from the 1833 abolition of sl…
Girmitiyas and the Global Indian Diaspora
Many Indians journeyed out of India to supplant the loss of slave labour in the former European plantation colonies of Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji, and the Caribbean from the early nineteenth century onwards. This book aims to highlight the careers of these migrants who served as vital agents in building the global society of the twenty-first century. It explores the transformative experiences of those who migrated, and the memories of those wh…
Tourism-Led Inclusive Growth in Emerging and Developing Economies
The focus of governments around the globe to accelerate economic growth through market-driven policies has resulted merely in increasing GDP while deterring certain groups from becoming a part of their development agenda. This turned the focus of leading international developmental communities toward the concept of inclusive growth that strives to reduce poverty and inequality by creating equitable and productive opportunities for all sections of…
Seasonal and Spatial Variations in Particulate Matter, Black Carbon and Metals in Delhi, India’s Megacity
This study explores the spatial patterns of particulate matter (PM) in the megacity of Delhi. A GRIMM aerosol spectrometer is used to analyze different aerodynamic diameters (PM10, PM2.5, PM1.0), inhalable, thoracic, and alveolic particles, and black carbon (BC) at six prominent locations in Delhi during summer and winter. Additionally, metals (Pb, Fe, Ca, Al, Zn), along with silicon and sulfur, are analyzed using an ED-XRF spectrometer over the …
The Role of Money in India’s Elections
Political finance does play a positive role in democratic regimes as it enables parties to strengthen their organizations and also run a dynamic electoral campaign. However, for the well-being of electoral democracies, it is imperative that political party funding/campaign finance is neither illegal nor illicit. Violation of political finance-related regulations erodes the citizens’ confidence in the fairness of the electoral system and also weak…
How parties impact the trajectories of federalism
The article examines the interface between the party system and the trajectories of center-state interactions in independent India. It argues that the Constituent Assembly put in place a strong-center model of federalism, giving the center much greater leverage than the states. The structural features envisaged in the constitution implicitly give us the image of a rigid framework and do not account for the dynamic nature of federalism. The discus…
Beyond the horizon
Alternative history of indenture
Empire and indentured labour
Economy, Culture and Human Rights
Community and Identities
Naukari , Networks, and Knowledge
This paper explores ideas about the colonial indentured labour system from the perspective of the rural Bihari communities from which many migrants came. In particular, it seeks to position indenture within a longer history of labour migration amongst North Indian peasants and workers, linking socio-cultural awareness of pre-colonial migratory behaviour to nineteenth-century understandings of indenture. Humanitarians, anti-slavery groups, Indian …
Feeding the Girmitiya
This paper looks at gastronomic identity in the age of global labor migrations. Focusing on the nineteenth-century indentured labor voyages from northern India to the sugar colonies in the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific regions, it highlights the sea voyage as both a social setting and a mirror back onto colonial society. The space of the indentured labor ship serves as an innovative site for understanding the political, cultural, and economic dimens…
Deras as sites of electoral mobilisation in Indian Punjab
Mushrooming of the deras in Indian Punjab, and the role of some of these deras in influencing the political choices of their followers, most of whom belong to the socially and economically marginal groups, is being recognised and apparently encouraged by the political parties. This is evident in the fact that political leaders/candidates cutting across party divides flocked to various deras in the run-up to the recent elections. This phenomenon c…
Girmitiya lives
This paper examines the experience of Dalit labourers from India to the sugar colonies under the indenture system. Historiography on the girmitiya diaspora has homogenized the experience of Indian labourers, neglecting variations among different caste groups. Focusing on Dalit labourers, this paper argues that plantation life improved their sociocultural and economic standing by emphasizing on the accomplishment of the task than on the caste syst…
Electoral Politics in Indian Punjab
The forthcoming Assembly elections in Punjab in early 2017 indicate signs of a new phase in the electoral history of this state, largely dominated earlier by various political alliances headed by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) under Jat Sikh leadership. Presented within the wider Indian electoral landscape, this article offers an analytical overview of Punjab’s electoral politics as it has evolved since partition from the vantage point of SAD. It …
Development Focus and Electoral Success at State Level
Emergence of regional states in contemporary India as an effective arena for political and economic development has given state-level leaders a growing power. In the present coalition era, which reflects such regionalisation, this brings increasing prominence to effective state-based parties and their leaders. Focusing on recent politics of Bihar, this article shows in what ways Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, since 2005, unlike his predec…
Girmit, intimacy and sexual violence
This essay investigates the sexual violence against Indian indentured women during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on colonial plantations around the world through the lens of intimacy and labour. Beginning in the 1830s, Indian men, women, and children were brought to various overseas plantations by colonial planters under the indenture system, which was designed to fill the labour shortage that resulted from the 1833 abolition of sl…
Beyond the horizon
Alternative history of indenture
Empire and indentured labour
Remembering Girmitiyas
Subaltern Mobility and Labor Contract
Recent work in global history has defined the long-distance labor migration of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, following the demise of Trans-Atlantic slavery, as a global phenomenon. Though an important component of migration studies as well as the history of globalization, this framework struggles to consider the significance of indentured migration from India to the sugar plantations overseas. In the view of Adam McKeown, the indent…
Political leadership at state level in India
Possible explanations are discussed in this article for the paucity of studies regarding political leadership, especially at the state level, in a well-functioning electoral democracy such as India with many parties and leaders. The article argues that such studies can be useful in making sense of the political and economic changes/shifts and developments of a particular state over a period that may have national impact. The article further argue…
Electoral Politics in Punjab
The article presents an overview of the electoral politics of Punjab as it has evolved since partition from the vantage point of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the oldest surviving state level party in India. It is argued that SAD has been the catalyst behind the major shifts in the politics of the post-partition state. Besides being the most successful party, apart from the Congress, since the state's reorganization in 1966, it has had statewide org…
Power, policy and protest
Power, policy and protest: the politics of India's special economic zones." Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 53(4), pp. 522–523
Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation in Nigeria
Newfound 'consensus' that has emerged in the form of the acceptance of the concepts of 'democratization' or 'governance' is about the minimalist form of liberal democracy under the auspices of the contemporary political aid industry. With the label of democracy getting detached from the content of the concept, even the 'home-grown' non-democratic regimes in Africa have appropriated the term. As for Nigeria, weakened both by political decay and ec…
Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation in Nigeria
Newfound 'consensus' that has emerged in the form of the acceptance of the concepts of 'democratization' or 'governance' is about the minimalist form of liberal democracy under the auspices of the contemporary political aid industry. With the label of democracy getting detached from the content of the concept, even the 'home-grown' non-democratic regimes in Africa have appropriated the term. As for Nigeria, weakened both by political decay and ec…
Disconnect Between Economic Reforms and Electoral Democracy in India
Indian democracy is being globally acclaimed for its 'twin successes', namely achieving an impressive market reforms-driven economic growth in recent years notwithstanding ongoing global recession, accompanied with a consistent practice of democracy. Against the grain of such celebration of the 'widening' and 'deepening' of democracy in India under the shadow of globalization, the article argues that even though competitive politics is being unde…
Development Focus and Electoral Success at State Level
Emergence of regional states in contemporary India as an effective arena for political and economic development has given state-level leaders a growing power. In the present coalition era, which reflects such regionalisation, this brings increasing prominence to effective state-based parties and their leaders. Focusing on recent politics of Bihar, this article shows in what ways Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, since 2005, unlike his predec…
Obituary Granville Austin
Deras as sites of electoral mobilisation in Indian Punjab
Mushrooming of the deras in Indian Punjab, and the role of some of these deras in influencing the political choices of their followers, most of whom belong to the socially and economically marginal groups, is being recognised and apparently encouraged by the political parties. This is evident in the fact that political leaders/candidates cutting across party divides flocked to various deras in the run-up to the recent elections. This phenomenon c…
Power, policy and protest
Power, policy and protest: the politics of India's special economic zones." Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 53(4), pp. 522–523
Re-thinking India
Why re-thinking India in the new millennium? Has recent India really undergone such a process of long-term transition that has reconfigured its politics and economy? References have been made in th
Feeding the Girmitiya
This paper looks at gastronomic identity in the age of global labor migrations. Focusing on the nineteenth-century indentured labor voyages from northern India to the sugar colonies in the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific regions, it highlights the sea voyage as both a social setting and a mirror back onto colonial society. The space of the indentured labor ship serves as an innovative site for understanding the political, cultural, and economic dimens…
Coolies of the Empire
This book studies Indian overseas labour migration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which involved millions of Indians traversing the globe in the age of empire, subsequent to the abolition of slavery in 1833. This migration led to the presence of Indians and their culture being felt all over the world. This study delves deep into the lives of these indentured workers from India who called themselves girmitiyas; it is a narrative …
Moving beyond nation-state
The article refers to the processes that have been critical to the emergence of states as significant categories for the analysis of politics in India after a considerable period of academic neglect. It is in this context that the article considers the following research questions for discussion while referring to the state politics literature: what has been the contribution of the “first generation” of state-specific studies and to what extent h…
Naukari , Networks, and Knowledge
This paper explores ideas about the colonial indentured labour system from the perspective of the rural Bihari communities from which many migrants came. In particular, it seeks to position indenture within a longer history of labour migration amongst North Indian peasants and workers, linking socio-cultural awareness of pre-colonial migratory behaviour to nineteenth-century understandings of indenture. Humanitarians, anti-slavery groups, Indian …
Electoral Politics in Indian Punjab
The forthcoming Assembly elections in Punjab in early 2017 indicate signs of a new phase in the electoral history of this state, largely dominated earlier by various political alliances headed by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) under Jat Sikh leadership. Presented within the wider Indian electoral landscape, this article offers an analytical overview of Punjab’s electoral politics as it has evolved since partition from the vantage point of SAD. It …
Electoral Politics in Punjab
The article presents an overview of the electoral politics of Punjab as it has evolved since partition from the vantage point of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the oldest surviving state level party in India. It is argued that SAD has been the catalyst behind the major shifts in the politics of the post-partition state. Besides being the most successful party, apart from the Congress, since the state's reorganization in 1966, it has had statewide org…
Altered Expression of a Unique Set of Genes Reveals Complex Etiology of Schizophrenia
Background: The etiology of schizophrenia is extensively debated, and multiple factors have been contended to be involved. A panoramic view of the contributing factors in a genome-wide study can be an effective strategy to provide a comprehensive understanding of its causality. Materials and Methods: GSE53987 dataset downloaded from GEO-database, which comprised mRNA expression data of post-mortem brain tissue across three regions from control (C…
Political leadership at state level in India
Possible explanations are discussed in this article for the paucity of studies regarding political leadership, especially at the state level, in a well-functioning electoral democracy such as India with many parties and leaders. The article argues that such studies can be useful in making sense of the political and economic changes/shifts and developments of a particular state over a period that may have national impact. The article further argue…
Shiromani Akali Dal (1920–2020)
Shiromani Akali Dal, the oldest state party in India, emanated from an ethnic movement launched by the Sikh community in Punjab to take control of their gurdwaras. As an ‘ethnic’ party, it has claimed to be the sole political custodian of the minority Sikh community in India since colonial times. The party has often found itself trapped at the crossroads of region and religion. This explains why it transitioned from pursuing the politics of ‘repr…
Politics and government in the “Hindi heartland” India
The paper reflects on how feudal, caste-ridden and corruption-infested rural India had its first brush with the newly introduced democratic and governmental administrative institutions, culture and practices, much of the latter inherited from the late colonial times. It does it by visiting Shivpalganj, a fictious village in the “Hindi heartland” region, as depicted in the celebrated novel Raag Darbari, published more than five decades ago. Readin…
Subaltern Mobility and Labor Contract
Recent work in global history has defined the long-distance labor migration of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, following the demise of Trans-Atlantic slavery, as a global phenomenon. Though an important component of migration studies as well as the history of globalization, this framework struggles to consider the significance of indentured migration from India to the sugar plantations overseas. In the view of Adam McKeown, the indent…
The Coolie's Great War
Reviewed by: The Coolie's Great War: Indian labour in a global conflict, 1914–1921 by Radhika Singha Ashutosh Kumar The Coolie's Great War: Indian labour in a global conflict, 1914–1921 By Radhika Singha. Noida, Uttar Pradesh: HarperCollins India, 2020. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. Until very recently World War One has been evaluated as a conflict between the different European powers. Non-European involvements have been consi…
Girmitiyas’ Fables
This paper explores the folklore of indentured Indians and endeavors to understand the elements of Indian folk culture in the sugar colonies in the age of the empires. While examining the content and context of the folklore, it finds that the indentured folktales were very much influenced by the Indian socio-cultural life, however, these folktales got transformed and modified due to the contact with host countries’ languages, places and space. On…
Perceived awareness about mental illness among journalism students and medical students
Aim: The study was planned to assess the perceived level of awareness about mental illness among the Journalism students and the Medical students. Materials and methods: A total of 210 students were surveyed, 70 in each group to know their perception of awareness about mental illness. The questionnaire consisted of questions regarding contact with psychiatrist during their lifetime for self, family and friends, about exposure to psychiatry/psycho…
Use of Integrative, Complementary, and Alternative Medicine in Children with Epilepsy
(1) Background: Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological disorders in childhood. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use is highly prevalent in patients with epilepsy. Despite CAM's widespread and increasing popularity, its prevalence, forms, perceived benefits, and potential risks in pediatric epilepsy are rarely explored. (2) Methods: We performed a scoping review of the available literature on the use of CAM in pediatri…
Elsberg Syndrome with Mixed Presentation as Meningitis Retention Syndrome
Elsberg syndrome is a typically infectious syndrome that may cause acute or subacute bilateral lumbosacral radiculitis and sometimes lower spinal cord myelitis. Patients often present with various neurological symptoms involving the lower extremities, including numbness, weakness, and urinary disturbances such as retention. A 9-year-old girl with no significant past medical history presented with altered mental status, fever, urinary retention, a…
Ground penetrating radar investigations of buried remnants at ancient capital cities of Panchala and Vatsa kingdoms spread along Ganga-Yamuna doab of India from 600 BCE to 1100 CE
Does anti-poverty intervention impact school absenteeism of children? Evidence from India
School absenteeism in India is associated with adverse socio-economic conditions for children belonging to vulnerable groups. Matching-based analysis of the current study shows that the world's most extensive poverty alleviation program, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), helps reduce school absenteeism. In this regard, poor children from the families participating in the program are less likely to be absent from sc…
Political science (28 works) · Law (19 works) · Law (19 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Economics (16 works) · Politics (16 works) · Political economy (15 works) · Geography (13 works) · South Asian Studies and Conflicts (13 works) · History (10 works)