Hilal Ahmed

Biography

Hilal Ahmed works on political Islam, Muslim modernities/ representation, and politics of symbols in South Asia. His book Muslim Political Discourse in Postcolonial India: Monuments, Memory, Contestation (Routledge 2014), looks at these thematic concerns to make sense of the nature of contemporary Muslim political discourse. Ahmed was a Visiting Fellow, at Victoria University Wellington, (2013-14), Visiting Asia Fellow, University of Dhaka, (2011) and Visiting Professor at University of Pune (2011). He writes for journals, newspapers, and websites in English and Hindi. Ahmed has produced a documentary, Encountering the Political Jama Masjid (2006) and Qutub ek adhura afsana (2016). Ahmed did his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (2007). He was awarded the Rajya Sabha fellowship (2015), the Ford Foundation IFP Fellowship (2002), the Asia Fellow Award (2008/2010), the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies Fellowship (2009), the ATRI-Charities Aid Foundation Fellowship (2001), and the UGC Research Fellowship (1997). A film Beacons of Hope (2008) documents his achievements.

Research Interest

As a Rajya Sabha Fellow (2015-16) Ahmed is currently working on the politics of Muslim political representation in postcolonial India. He is also editing a Hindi Reader of Sudipta Kaviraj’s writings. Ahmed is the Associate Editor, South Asian Studies, journal of the British Association of South Asian Studies. He has conducted courses on Political Sociology (Victoria University, Wellington), History, Memory and Identity, and Research Methods and Identities: Issues and Debates in Postcolonial India (CSDS Teaching programme). He has also taught political science at the University of Delhi.