(Non)Violent Lives and Afterlives Working Group, Global Asias Initiative at Rutgers Presents
A Talk by Dr. Sourav Ghosh, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Lehigh University
April 06, 2026, Monday
3-5pm,
Room 4052, Academic Building West (CAC)
About the Talk: This talk explores how the Rajputs, a primarily Hindu warrior caste, transformed their ideas of death, honor, and valor through interaction with the Mughal state (1526-1720s). While the Rajputs made distinct claims to warrior kingship and valor preceding the Mughal conquest of north India, their position in the Mughal army and their participation in imperial political culture fundamentally reshaped their identity as warriors. By examining Rajput martyrologies in the vernacular alongside imperial Persian sources, this talk demonstrates how Rajput warrior identity was remade in the Mughal period and how it has survived into the present.
About the Speaker: Dr. Sourav Ghosh is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of History at Lehigh University. He earned his Ph.D. in History from UC Berkeley, and his research focuses on state formation and political culture in early modern South Asia. Dr. Ghosh’s research has been recently published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and he is currently working on his first book project, tentatively titled, Imperial Entanglements: Rajput State formation in the Making of Mughal Empire, c. 1583-1818, which showcases how Rajput kingdoms and the Mughal empire were co-produced in early modern South Asia.
