Gopalan Balachandran

Gopalan Balachandran is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, where he also serves as Co-Director of the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy. He joined the Institute in 2000 from the Delhi School of Economics. Balachandran holds a Master's and MPhil in International Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, and a PhD in Economic History from the University of London.

His research focuses on South Asia and the Indian Ocean within global contexts, examining labor, capital, entrepreneurship, and development. Key themes include colonialism, decolonization, and their contemporary legacies. Current research emphasizes commercial cultures in the Indian Ocean and Atlantic worlds. He supervises studies on modern South Asian history, cultural/intellectual history, and oceanic history.

Thematic expertise spans central banking, emerging economies, globalization, and diaspora studies. Geographically, he specialises in India and broader Asian regions. His publications include seminal works like John Bullion’s Empire (1996) and India and the World Economy, 1850-1950 (2003). As Managing Editor of the Indian Economic and Social History Review, he contributes to academic discourse on economic historiography.