Journal Articles
New book out now.
Journal Articles
Why microhistory matters: Meaning, method, and significance
Economic & Political History Review, Volume I, Number II, October 2025
Abstract: Microhistory challenges broad narratives by shifting the scale of observation, uncovering how ordinary individuals navigated the larger structures of polity, economy, and society. Far from being a study of “small things,” microhistory is a methodological approach that restores agency to the overlooked, complicates neat historical explanations, and situates lived experience at the heart of inquiry. Drawing on my work on early modern South Asia, particularly my recent book which reconstructs the decline of the Mughal empire through the life and letters of the minor Mughal official, this paper reflects on why microhistory matters. In doing so, it situates microhistory within wider historiographical debates on the micro–macro relationship and engages with its appropriation in the digital age, where the term risks dilution as a mere shorthand for anecdote. Ultimately, it argues that microhistory matters as a critical practice: preserving the ordinary, challenging the grand, and rethinking what counts as history.
Revisiting the Mirzanama: Class Consciousness and the Mughal Middle Classes
The Medieval History Journal, 26(1), pp. 137-160.
Abstract: Drawing on earlier scholarship that argues for the existence of the middle classes in the Mughal Indian society, this article aims to render their socio-cultural history more visible through a re-examination of the Mirzanama. The text, often associated with the elite, on the contrary, addresses the middling petty officialdom, advising them on micro-aspects of their socio-cultural lives such as the etiquette of dining. Read imaginatively, the advisory reveals class consciousness—in terms of being distinct from both the nobility and the common populace—to be an important factor defining the middle-class way of life. Significantly, a micro-historical reflection, macro-historically helps us challenge the recently created dichotomy, in historical scholarship, between the elite and the non-elite, by reasserting the presence of sufficiently conscious middle strata.