معرفی
Dr. Mukesh Kumar serves as a lecturer and Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) senior fellow at the University of Zurich, conducting interdisciplinary research at the intersection of history and anthropology. His work centers on socio-cultural, economic, and religious encounters between diverse traditions in South Asia, with particular emphasis on syncretic practices and marginalized communities.
His educational background includes:
- PhD from the University of Technology in Sydney (2019)
Dr. Kumar's research explores South Asian Religions, Religious Conversion, Devotional Hinduism, Social Mobility, Caste and Music, Yoga, Tantra, and Sacred Spaces. He investigates how religious practices dynamically interact with caste structures, economic systems, and cultural exchanges, revealing complex identity formations through ethnographic and historical analysis of syncretic traditions.
His publication record demonstrates consistent focus on Hindu-Muslim relations, religious conversion, and sacred geography across historical and contemporary contexts. Recent works examine the Laldas tradition, Basel Mission impacts on lower-caste communities, urban religious orders, and digital democracy, reflecting methodological diversity spanning archival research, ethnography, and textual analysis.
His research has been recognized through prestigious awards:
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship (2019-21)
- ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2021-23)
- Swiss National Science Foundation Senior Fellowship (2024-28)
As principal investigator of the SNF-Project "Caste Religion and Social Mobility in India," Dr. Kumar leads contemporary research on religious and social dynamics while contributing to academic discourse through his monograph Between Muslim Pīr and Hindu Saint (Cambridge University Press, 2024) and numerous journal articles.
His current research trajectory involves two book projects examining Billava communities and the Sant Rampal order in Delhi, advancing understanding of religious pluralism within India's evolving social landscape.
