Publications
Books
Being Indian, Being Israeli: Migration, Ethnicity and Gender in the Jewish Homeland
(Manohar, New Delhi, 2009; Reprint :2014)
When Israel was established in 1948, thousands of Indian Jews were inspired to migrate to the Jewish Homeland. 60 years have passed since the first Jewish families made 'aliya' ( 'ascent' in Hebrew) and migrated to Israel. Yet, little is known about this community of Indian Jews --now numbering over 70,000 ! This community comprises of : the Bene Israelis from Bombay, Pune, Ahmedabad and Jabalpur; the Baghdadis from Calcutta and Bombay; and the Kerala Jews from Cochin, Parur and Chendamangalam, scattered across Israel.
Gender, Religion, and “Heathen Lands”: American Missionary Women in South Asia (1860s – 1940s)
(New York: 2000)
Seeking to extend existing scholarship on gender and colonialism and on women and American religion, this cross-cultural study examines the work of American missionary women in South Asia at several levels. A primary concern of the study is to historicize the interventions of these women and situate them within the dual contexts of the sending society and the receiving culture. It focuses on missionaries Isabella Thoburn and Ida Scudder, who founded some of the premier women’s colleges and hospitals in British colonial India.
The book also draws upon ehtnographies and narratives of South Asian women, ( many since deceased ), who attended such institutions in the 1940s, and whose voices texture our understanding of American women’s missionary work in “Other” cultures.
Read Review :
"Being Indian, Being Israeli is based on extensive fieldwork --over 150 ethnographies and interviews conducted in Israel (2005-8). The book captures the migration experiences of the three Indian Jewish communities, exploring their issues of acculturation and identity through a tapestry of life experiences woven into insights about ethnicity, gender and class and how these intersect with "Jewish-ness" to create complex identities of 'Being Indian' and 'Being Israeli'. This study, for the first time, presents a deeply researched analysis of all three Indian Jewish communities studying them holistically as ‘Indian-Israelis’ with shared histories of migration, acculturation and identity.... "
Scholarly Articles/ Book Reviews/ Blogs
What Young Indians in Silicon Valley Have to Say About Modi's India.""The World Post (September 23, 2015).
"What India Day Celebration in the U.S. Say About the Indian-American Diaspora." The World Post (August 13, 2015).
Book Review: Joseph Hodes. From India to Israel: Identity, Immigration, and the Struggle for Religious Equality in University of Toronto Quaterly 85(3): 473-5.·
“Indians and Israelis: Beyond Strategic Partnerships”. In Israel Studies ,(Indiana University Press). Vol. 17, No. 3 (Fall 2012), pp. 22-44
‘Where have you brought us, Sir?’: Gender, Displacement and the Challenges of ‘Homecoming’ for Indian Jews in Dimona(1950s-60s), Shofar , vol 32, no 1 (2013), pp. 1-26.
“The Indian Jews in Israel – A Forgotten Diaspora?” in the FPRC’s (Foreign Policy Research Centre, New Delhi) Journal-5 (Special Issue: ‘India-Israel Relations’) January 2011.
·“Gender, Thrift and Indigenous Adaptations: money and missionary medicine in colonial India”.London: Women’s History Review, Vol. 15, No. 5, November 2006, pp. 701-717.
“Hazards’ of Health and Discourses of Disease: British Medical Handbooks for ‘The Tropics’”. The Indian Historical Review. Vol XXXIII No. 2, July 2006. Pp 66-88.
Political Activism and the politics of spirituality: The layered identities of Sister Nivedita/ Margaret Noble (1867-1911), In Tadgh Foley and Maureen O’Connor eds. Ireland and India: Colonies, Culture and Empire. (Dublin: Irish Academic press, 2006). Pp. 39-57.
“Women, Mission and Medicine: Clara Swain, Anna Kugler and early medical endeavors in Colonial India". International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol 29, No. 3, July 1, 2005. Pp. 128-134.
Gender, Medicine and Empire: Early Initiatives in Institution-building and Professionalization (1870s – 1940s). In Shakti Kak and Biswamoy Pati (eds.) Exploring Gender Equations: Colonial and Post-Colonial India (Teen Murti Nehru Memorial and Library, New Delhi: 2005).Pp. 93-115.
“Gender, Mission, and Higher Education in a Cross-cultural Context: Isabella Thoburn in India.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research Vol 25, No. 4, October 2001. Pp. 165-169.
Philanthropy, Voluntarism and Women’s Education in Colonial India : A study of The Bethune College, Calcutta. Asian Journal of Gender Studies. Vol.2, No. 3, 2000. Pp. 65-92.
“Missionary Legacies and Christ-filled Doctors: Gender, Religion and Professionalization in the History of The Christian Medical College, Vellore.” In Mushirul Hasan (ed.), Knowledge, Power and Politics: Educational Institutions in India. (Roli Books, New Delhi: 1998). Pp. 430-63.
Essays in Encyclopedias:
“BEGUM AKHTAR” in Women in World History, Oxford University Press, New York, 2008.
“WOMEN IN COLONIAL SOUTH ASIA” in Women in World History, Oxford University Press, New York, 2008.
“WOMEN IN MODERN AFGHANISTAN” in Women in World History, Oxford University Press New York, 2008.
“FEMINISM” (5000-word essay) in New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Macmillan/ Charles Scribner’s, New York : 2005.
“MOTHERHOOD and MATERNITY” (5000-word Essay) in New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Macmillan/Charles Scribner’s, New York : 2005.