1. Research Project:
The Social History of Mazars in West Bengal
Mazar of Makhdum Shah Baba (R.A.), Sian, Birbhum
Mazar of Akhi Serajuddin (R.A.), Sadullapur, Malda
Mazar of Hazrat Sayyid Shah Sufi Fateh Ali Waisi (R.A.), Manicktolla, Kolkata
Served as the Co-Principal Investigator for a major research initiative submitted to the Board of Auqaf, West Bengal, and funded by the Department of Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education, Government of West Bengal under the leadership of Dr. Abdul Matin, Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University. The project focuses on documenting and analysing the social history, cultural significance, and architectural heritage of Mazars (Sufi shrines) across Bengal.
As a Research Fellow at Jadavpur University, I played a key role in conceptualising and developing this multidisciplinary project, which aims to study nearly 50 historically significant Mazars across districts including Kolkata, Murshidabad, Malda, Birbhum, Hooghly, North and South 24 Parganas, among others.
The research examines Mazars not merely as religious sites, but as living spaces of memory, spirituality, interfaith interaction, and community formation within Bengal’s pluralistic social fabric. Through archival research, ethnographic fieldwork, oral history collection, architectural analysis, and visual documentation, the project seeks to preserve and critically map the overlooked heritage of Bengal’s Sufi traditions and devotional cultures.
My contribution to the project includes field research coordination, qualitative analysis, visual documentation, ethnographic engagement, and academic writing. The study particularly investigates the intersections between Sufi networks, local religious practices, migration histories, minority identity formation, and socio-political transformations in Eastern India.
A major outcome of the project will be a comprehensive illustrated coffee table publication featuring high-resolution photographic documentation and analytical narratives on selected Mazars of West Bengal. The initiative also aims to contribute to long-term heritage preservation efforts and create an important archival resource for scholars, researchers, policymakers, and cultural institutions interested in South Asian Islam, sacred geography, and vernacular religious traditions.
Research Themes
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Social History of Mazars in Bengal
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Sufi Traditions and Devotional Islam
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Islamic Architectural Heritage
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Minority Studies and Cultural Memory
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Sacred Geography and Syncretic Traditions
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Oral Histories and Ethnographic Documentation
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Heritage Preservation in Eastern India
Academic Significance
This project addresses a significant gap in existing scholarship by documenting lesser-studied Mazars and analysing their evolving socio-cultural role in contemporary Bengal. It contributes to broader academic conversations on religion, identity, memory, vernacular Islam, and community histories in South Asia, positioning the work within interdisciplinary research in political sociology, cultural studies, religious studies, and heritage documentation.
2. Research Project:
Inscribing Politics: Graffiti, Identity, and Electoral Narratives in Bengal '26
Inscribing Politics: Graffiti, Identity, and Electoral Narratives in Bengal ’26 is an ongoing interdisciplinary research project that examines the evolving culture of political wall graffiti during the 2026 West Bengal Assembly Elections. The project explores how public walls across Bengal transform into dynamic political canvases that reflect ideological contestation, electoral mobilisation, regional identity, and grassroots political communication.
Political graffiti in Bengal has historically functioned as more than campaign propaganda. It represents a distinctive form of vernacular political expression deeply rooted in the state’s democratic culture. Through slogans, poems, caricatures, limericks, satire, portraits, and visual symbolism, these walls narrate stories of political aspiration, resistance, memory, and social transformation. As election campaigns intensify across the state, the project documents how parties, supporters, and local communities use public spaces to negotiate identity, belonging, power, and political imagination.
The research combines ethnographic fieldwork, visual documentation, media analysis, oral history collection, and digital archiving to map the changing aesthetics and narratives of election graffiti in Bengal. Particular attention is given to the relationship between political symbolism, linguistic identity, popular culture, youth participation, and the transformation of urban and rural visual landscapes during electoral periods.
The project also investigates how graffiti operates as an alternative political archive, capturing emotions, anxieties, aspirations, and ideological shifts often absent from mainstream political discourse. By documenting walls across districts and neighbourhoods, the study seeks to preserve an important yet ephemeral dimension of Bengal’s political history before these visual expressions disappear after the elections.
Research Themes
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Political Communication and Visual Culture
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Electoral Narratives in West Bengal
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Graffiti, Public Space, and Identity Politics
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Vernacular Political Expression
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Memory, Resistance, and Street Art
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Political Aesthetics and Popular Culture
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Digital Archiving and Visual Ethnography
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Democracy and Grassroots Political Participation
Academic Significance
This project contributes to emerging scholarship on political aesthetics, visual anthropology, media studies, and South Asian electoral culture. By analysing wall graffiti as a form of political text and public performance, the research offers insights into how democratic participation and ideological contestation are materially inscribed within everyday public spaces in Bengal. It further positions graffiti as an important archive of contemporary political consciousness, regional identity formation, and grassroots creativity in India.
3. Research Project:
Denied at the Door: Housing Discrimination in University Towns of
West Bengal
This research project investigates the deeply embedded patterns of housing discrimination experienced by students from lower caste backgrounds and religious minority communities in university areas across West Bengal. While higher education is often imagined as a pathway to social mobility and inclusion, the project examines how access to housing remains shaped by enduring structures of caste hierarchy, communal prejudice, and urban exclusion.
Focusing on student neighbourhoods surrounding major universities and educational institutions, the study documents how informal rental practices, social stigma, identity-based screening, and discriminatory landlord networks systematically marginalize students from historically disadvantaged communities. These exclusions frequently compel students to live in precarious, segregated, overcrowded, or geographically distant accommodations, affecting not only their educational experience but also their sense of dignity, belonging, and security.
The project combines ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews, visual documentation, and case-based analysis to understand how discrimination operates in everyday urban spaces. It particularly explores the intersections of caste, religion, class, migration, and student identity within informal housing markets in Bengal. By foregrounding housing as a question of social justice and fundamental rights, the study seeks to expose the invisible barriers that continue to structure access to education and urban life.
The research also aims to contribute to wider academic and policy discussions on discrimination in higher education ecosystems, urban segregation, minority rights, and inclusive public infrastructure. Through documentation and critical analysis, the project attempts to create an archive of lived experiences often absent from institutional narratives surrounding universities and student welfare.
Research Themes
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Housing Discrimination and Urban Exclusion
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Caste and Religious Marginalization
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Student Politics and Social Inequality
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Higher Education and Access
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Urban Sociology and Informal Rental Economies
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Minority Rights and Spatial Segregation
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Ethnographic Research and Oral Histories
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Social Justice and Everyday Prejudice
Academic Significance
This project contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship in urban studies, political sociology, caste studies, minority studies, and higher education research. By examining housing as a site where structural inequalities are reproduced, the study highlights how discrimination extends beyond classrooms into the everyday lived realities of students. The project ultimately positions access to safe and dignified housing as central to conversations on equity, citizenship, and democratic inclusion in contemporary India.