Vipin Anantha Krishna

I am a historian of modern South Asia and focus on the politics of language. I am particularly interested in the ways in which languages have been used as social discourses and political theories from the 18th century onwards, and broadly, my interest lies in examining the ways in which people use languages as technologies. Through my earlier research, I looked at how something as technical as grammar, etymology, and translation became, in South Asia between roughly 1750 and 1950, a way of arguing about who belongs to a territory, whose knowledge counts, and on what grounds a community can claim political belonging. I received my Ph.D. from UCLA in 2024.

Recent Publications:
•    “Language Policy and Omlah Corruption in Colonial Central India,” Taylor and Francis, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, (July 2026), 1-32 
•    “Histories of Untranslatability in South Asia: Historiography, Problems, and Debates, 1980-2010,” Wiley History Compass, (August 2025).
•    “From the Nation’s ‘Steel-Frame’ to Insubordinate Workers: Tracing Changes in the figure of the Postcolonial Civil Servant from 1947-1966,” Studies in Indian Politics, Vol 11 (2), (December 2023),
•    “Mapping Linguistic Diffusion: Sulaimān Nadvī and Hindustanī,” Journal of Urdu Studies, 3, (2021), 71-94.
 

Teaching:
In the classroom, I try to move students from consuming history to arguing with it. Through my courses — on the Indian Ocean world, WW2 in Asia, and World History — I try to move students towards a close reading of the sources.
 

Fields:
•    Modern South Asia
•    Philology and epistemology
•    Language politics
•    Ethnology
•    Empire and imperialism
•    Indian Ocean
•    Technology and craft.

Courses:
•    Indian Ocean in World History
•    WW2 in Asia
•    World History
•    Human Rights