Sarah Frances Deborah Ansari is a British professor of history at

Royal Holloway Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. She is a specialist in the recent history of South Asia, and particularly Pakistan and the partition of India.

Career

Ansari's research interests relate to the recent history of South Asia, and particularly Pakistan. She is the editor of the ''

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 ...

''.

Writing

Ansari's first book was ''Sufi Saints and State Power: the Pirs of Sind, 1843-1947'' (Cambridge, 1992), an elaboration of her University of London PhD thesis, which examined the role of the pirs of Sind, a local Muslim religious elite, in mediating between the British colonial rulers and the people of Sind It was reviewed by Michel Boivin (CNRS, Paris) in the ''Bulletin Critique Des Annales Islamologiques'' in 1998, and by Seema Alavi in ''

The Indian Economic & Social History Review The ''Indian Economic and Social History Review'' is an academic journal of Indian economic history. It is published by SAGE Publications. The founding editor-in-chief was Tapan Raychaudhuri, who was succeeded by Dharma Kumar. The current editor ...

'' in 1993. In 2002 she edited and contributed to a volume of essays relating to ''Women, Religion and Culture in Iran'' (Routledge, London) with Vanessa Martin. Ansari's ''Life after Partition'' (Oxford, 2005), dealt with the effects of the

partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

on the province of Sindh and in Karachi, and was described by Manu Bhagavan in the ''

Journal of Interdisciplinary History The ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the MIT Press. It covers a broad range of historical themes and periods, linking history to other academic fields. Contents The journal featur ...

'' as speaking to "matters of pressing contemporary importance, revealing how history is inherently linked to, and informs, the present".

Iftikhar Malik Iftikhar Malik (born 10 November 1949) was a Pakistani cricketer who played for Water and Power Development Authority. He was born in Lahore. Malik made two first-class appearance for the team, between 1978 and 1979. In the four innings in which ...

in '' Reviews in History'' praised the book for providing an "in-depth knowledge of the immense speed and volume of demographic diversification within Sindh", based on Ansari's research in archives in Karachi and at The National Archives in London, supplemented by her examination of American diplomatic correspondence and a study of the English-language Pakistan newspaper ''

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...

''. In 2014 she was the joint editor of ''From Subjects to Citizens: Society and the Everyday State in India and Pakistan, 1947–1970'', (Cambridge University Press, Delhi) based on a research collaboration between Royal Holloway and the University of Leeds.From Subjects to Citizens.
Retrieved 25 September 2017.

Selected publications

* ''Sufi Saints and State Power: the Pirs of Sind, 1843-1947''.

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 ...

, Cambridge, 1992. * ''Women, Religion and Culture in Iran''. Routledge, 2002. (Editor with Vanessa Martin) * ''Life after Partition: migration, community and strife in Sindh, 1947-1962''.

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 ...

, Oxford, 2005. * ''From Subjects to Citizens: Society and the Everyday State in India and Pakistan, 1947–1970''. Cambridge University Press, Delhi, 2014. (Joint editor with Taylor C. Sherman & William Gould)

References

External links

Sarah Ansari speaking on – At the Crossroads? Exploring Sindh’s Recent Past from a Spatial Perspective.Sarah Ansari talking on Gandhi: saint or politician?
*http://independent.academia.edu/SarahAnsari {{DEFAULTSORT:Ansari, Sarah Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Historians of Asia British scholars of Pakistan studies British Sindhologists

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a piou ...

21st-century British historians