Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Reformation und Neuere Christentumsgeschichte

Nidhin Donald

Kontakt

Nidhin Donald

 

-Alexander von Humboldt Fellow-

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Theologische Fakultät
Unter den Linden 6
10099 Berlin
Sitz: Burgstraße 26
Raum 521

 

 E-Mail: nidhin.donald[at]hu-berlin.de

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bio-note

I am a trained sociologist with a keen interest in community archives and family histories. After completing my doctoral research from Jawaharlal Nehru University (2016-2021), I have worked as an Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (2022-23), Swiss Government Excellence Fellow at the University of Lucerne (2023-24) and Moturi Postdoctoral Fellow at Krea University, India (2024-25). Currently, I am an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Faculty of Theology, Humboldt University of Berlin (2025-27). 

 

 

Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Project 

Project title: Making ‘Place’ in Postcolonial India: Literary Interventions of Marathi-Speaking Catholics, 1948-2000

In this project, I will analyse the postcolonial articulations of Marathi-speaking East Indian Catholics, a coastal Christian community in Western India, through a socio-historical reading of their community magazine archives — Shantidoot or ‘Emissary of Peace’ (1948-1949) and Suvarta or ‘Good News ‘(1955 to c. 2000).   East Indian Catholics are a multi-caste community born out of Indo-Portuguese interactions in the sixteenth century.  The magazines under analysis were/are published and archived by the East Indian Catholics of Vasai-Virar — a peri-urban township at the margins of Mumbai. I seek to understand how and to what extent does a minority group’s community repository contribute to the postcolonial archive. Can it offer more than emic accounts and help us trace the community’s participation in larger socio-economic and political processes?  More specifically, I will ask: How does the East Indian Catholic community — through their magazines — engage with the ideas of region, religion, and nation to make ‘place’ for themselves in postcolonial India?

 

 Nidhin Donald, PhD

Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, 

Chair of Early Modern and Modern History of Christianity,

Faculty of Theology, Humboldt University of Berlin 

 

Publications 

Peer-reviewed Journals

  • Donald, Nidhin & Asha Singh (2025). Ambedkar on Indian Christianity: towards a critique, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 1-17. 
  • Donald, Nidhin (2024). Mobilising Kinship as a Modern Network: Syrian Christian Family Associations. South Asia Research, Vol. 44, Issue No. 2, pp. 248-262.
  • Donald, Nidhin and Asha Singh (2023). Beyond the Paternity of Caste: The Dalit Christians/Dalit Muslim Challenge to the Rule Book. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 58, Issue No. 9, pp. 24-28
  • Donald, Nidhin (2022). Dissecting ‘Modern’ Syrian Christianity [Review Article]. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 57, Issue No. 39, pp. 28-33.
  • Donald, Nidhin (2022). The ‘Brahmin’ in Syrian Christian Family Histories. Indian Church History Review, Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 63-81. 
  • Donald, Nidhin and Asha Singh (2022). Writing as a Non-Hindu Indian: J.E. Sanjana and the Caste Question. Nidan: International Journal for Indian Studies, Vol. 7, Issue No. 1, pp. 103-114. 
  • Donald, Nidhin (2022). Every Family its Own Historian? The Case of Syrian Christian Family Histories. Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 57, Issue No. 28, pp. 57-64.
  • Donald, Nidhin (2021). Schooling the Past: Reflections on Syrian Christian Family Historiography. Kakatiya Journal of Historical Studies, Vol. XVI. No.1, pp. 42-55.
  • Donald, Nidhin (2021). Is Endogamy Christian or Unchristian? Tracing the Knanaya Debate. Special Issue on Sociology of Law, Explorations (E-journal of Indian Sociological Society), Vol. 5 (2), October 2021, pp. 252-264. 
  • Donald, Nidhin. (2018). Religion as ‘unsettled’: Notes from Census and Anti-Caste Mobilizations. Prabuddha: Journal of Social Equality 1, no. 1, pp. 68-77
  • Donald, Nidhin. (2017). Politics of Easy Conversations: Savarna Faith Dialogues in India. The Apollonian 4: 1-2, March-June, pp.107-123. (UGC listed)
  • Donald, Nidhin. (2015). "Gazing from a Distance: Spatial Reading of a Law Commission Report." Indian Feminisms, Law Reform and The Law Commission of India: Special Issue in Honour of Lotika Sarkar, R. Sen & S. Mandal Eds., Journal of Indian Law & Society 6, pp.91-109.

 

Book Chapters

  • Donald, Nidhin (2024). Displaying the ‘Family’ Online: Reflections on Syrian Christian Visual Life, in Anuja Agrawal (ed.), Family Studies, Oxford University Press, pp. 297-326.
  • Donald, Nidhin (2022). Doing History like a ‘Family’: The Syrian Christian Case. In Yagati Chinna Rao (Ed.), Towards Inclusivity: Essays on Social Exclusion and Discrimination, New Delhi: Meena Books, pp. 143-166.
  • Donald, Nidhin (2020). Nasrani Family Histories and Migration. In S. Rajan & S. M. (Eds.), Handbook of Internal Migration in India, New Delhi: Sage. pp. 290-302.