Mr. Hashwinder Singh is an aspiring scholar of post-Partition Indian political thought, with a particular focus on the relationship between Nehruvianism and Punjab’s Sikhs. Having recently graduated with a Master’s in Global History from the University of Oxford, and a bachelor‘s from Georgetown University, Mr. Singh is interested in how the state balances its ideological foundations when it pushes against minorities’ ability to engage with their most authentic representation of themselves. Outside of his academic passions, Mr. Singh spends his time reading, watching films and playing basketball.
Through his Fulbright-Nehru project, Mr. Singh seeks to understand the connectivity in discourse between three major periods of Sikh political agitation. Specifically, he is curious about the extent to which there was a coherence in the political rhetoric between Tara Singh (1945-46), Fateh Singh (1962-66) and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale (1980-84). He wants to understand the perceived shortcomings in Congress governance that led Akali Sikhs to believe that they were being neglected. Were Khalistani’s claims of Congress hegemony inherent to the Nehruvian project? Did Sikhs fulfill a social role akin to the Muslim subaltern in the post-Partition nation-state? In sum, Mr. Singh is probing what constitutes belonging within the Nehruvian nation-state.