Chitralekha Zutshi (born 1972) is a historian of Kashmir and an Associate Professor of History at the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III a ...

, USA.

Education

Zutshi received her doctorate in history from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

Works

Her first monograph ''Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir'' was published by

Permanent Black Permanent Black is an independent publishing press headquartered in Ranikhet, India. It was founded in 2000 by novelist Anuradha Roy (novelist), Anuradha Roy, and her husband, author Rukun Advani. It is considered one of India's major academic i ...

in 2003; subsequent reprints were published by C. Hurst & Co. and

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. The book traces the evolution of Kashmiriyat with time and drew significant praise. Yoginder Sikand, reviewing for

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society The ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'' is an academic journal which publishes articles on the history, archaeology, literature, language, religion and art of South Asia, the Middle East (together with North Africa and Ethiopia), Central Asia ...

commended the research and agreed with Zutshi's arguments. A review in the

South Asia Research The ''South Asia Research'' is international, multidisciplinary forum which covers the history, politics, law, economics, sociology, visual culture, languages and literature of the countries in South Asia. The journal is published three times a y ...

found Zutshi's to be pioneering scholarship that would be a must-read for any scholar working on Kashmir. Her second monograph was ''Kashmir’s Contested Pasts: Narratives, Sacred Geographies and the Historical Imagination'' (Oxford University Press, 2014). It was reviewed over multiple journals. In 2018, she published an edited volume on Kashmir (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

) to favorable reviews. Her latest publication has been ''Kashmir: Oxford India Short Introductions''.

References

1972 births Living people History of Kashmir Women historians Historians of Asia College of William & Mary faculty {{India-historian-stub