IAPS funding for Dr Muhammad Shakeel Ahmad

IAPS has awarded funding to visiting research fellow Dr Muhammad Shakeel Ahmad towards his archival research at the British Library, for his research on Local-colonial power relations and emergence of identity politics: colonization of local power structure and formation of ‘hazarawal’ as a political identity in north western British India.

Shakeel explains more about his research below.

“Hazarawal” is a multi-ethnic identity in Hazara region of North Western Province of British India, presently in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Hazarawal, as a political identity is now reflected in demands for creation of new provinces in Pakistan. British rule in Hazara brought significant changes in land settlements and other areas of civic life including health, education and public discipline. The colonial measures created a new class structure in Hazara like other parts of colonial India through land settlements and changing the traditional mode of governance and production.

How did local-colonial relations make a foundation for a new class structure and to what extent this colonial class formation shaped an identity politics? is a question which will be dealt here. This study is an exploration of local-colonial relations at micro level. This study is primarily based on archival sources with subaltern approach. 

This research work is supported by the Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies (IAPS), School of Politics and International Relations, The University of Nottingham, UK.