Modern South Asia
British Empire and Anti-imperialism
Economic and Business History
History of the Parsis
History of Bombay/Mumbai
Urban History
Global History
- dinyar.patel@spjimr.org
Dinyar Patel
Associate Professor, General ManagementDinyar Patel holds a Ph.D. in Modern South Asian History from Harvard University and a BA in International Relations from Stanford University. He is the author of Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism (Harvard University Press, 2020), a biography of Dadabhai Naoroji, which was the recipient of the 2021 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize awarded by the New India Foundation.
Patel has co-edited two volumes and his articles have been published in BBC News, Foreign Affairs, Atlantic, Scroll.in, Hindu, Indian Express, and the New York Times online.
EDUCATION
Harvard University
Ph.D., 2015
Focus: Modern South Asian History
Stanford University
BA (Hons), 2004
Major: International Relations
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RESEARCH INTERESTS
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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Patel D. (2024). To revive India’s industries: The global and imperial roots of swadeshi in the nineteenth century. Modern Asian Studies. Published online 2024:1-31. doi:10.1017/S0026749X24000350
Patel, D. (2023). Making Swadeshi Managers: The Antecedents of Professional Management Education in India, 1860s–1950s. Enterprise & Society, 1-32. doi:10.1017/eso.2022.53
Patel. D., (2022). E. Valdameri: Indian Liberalism between Nation and Empire. The Political Life of Gopal Krishna Gokhale. H-Soz-Kult, https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-115996
Patel, D. P. (2022). Power and Philanthropy: The Imperial Dimensions of Parsi Amelioration of the Iranian Zoroastrians. Iranian Studies, 56(2), 205-229. https://doi.org/10.1017/irn.2022.25
Patel, D. (2021). “One-Man Lobby’? Propaganda, Nationalism in the Diaspora, and the India League of America During the Second World War.” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 49(6), 1110-1140. https://doi.org/10.1080/03086534.2021.1950324
Patel, D. (2021). “Caught between Two Nationalisms: The Iran League of Bombay and the Political Anxieties of an Indian Minority. Modern Asian Studies, 55(3), 764-800. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X20000049
Patel, D. (2018). “Beyond Hindu-Muslim Unity: Gandhi, the Parsis, and the Prince of Wales Riots of 1921.” Indian Economic and Social History Review, 55(2), 221–247. https://doi.org/10.1177/0019464618760451
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BOOKS/BOOK CHAPTERS
Patel, D. (2021). “Pa Rishi: Gandhi’s Constructive Critiques of Parsi Culture and Society,” in Venu Madhav Govindu and Srinath Raghavan, eds., “The Fourth Lion: Essays for Gopalkrishna Gandhi”. Aleph, pp. 57-67. https://www.alephbookcompany.com/book/the-fourth-lion-a-festschrift-for-gopalkrishna-gandhi/ and https://www.amazon.in/Fourth-Lion-Venu-Madhav-Govindu-ebook/dp/B093GPJGDR/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pl_foot_top?ie=UTF8
Patel, D. (2021). “The Singing Satyagrahi: Khurshedben Naoroji and the Challenge of Indian Biography.” in Srinath Raghavan and Nandini Sundar, eds., “A Functioning Anarchy? Essays in Honour of Ramachandra Guha”. Penguin Random House India. https://penguin.co.in/book/the-language-of-history/
Patel, D. (2020). “Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism” (368 pp.). Harvard University Press.
Patel, D. (2019). “The Transnational Career of the ‘Indian Edison’: Shankar Abaji Bhisey and the Nationalist Promotion of Scientific Talent,” in Prashant Kidambi, Rachel Dwyer, and Manjiri Kamat, eds., “Bombay Before Mumbai: Essays in Honour of Jim Masselos”, Hurst, Oxford University Press, and Penguin Random House, pp. 239-262.
Patel, D. (2016). “The Banaji and Mehta Families: Forging the Parsi Community in Calcutta,” in “Holy Wealth: Accounting for this World and the Next in Religious Belief and Practice (Festschrift for John R. Hinnells)”. Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 211-230.
Patel, D. (2016). “Dadabhai Naoroji: Selected Private Papers”, co-edited with S.R. Mehrotra, Delhi: Oxford University Press and National Archives of India.
Patel, D. (2013). “From Ghalib’s Dilli to Lutyens’ New Delhi: A Documentary Record”, co-edited with Mushirul Hasan, Delhi: Oxford University Press and National Archives of India.
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CONFERENCES
Patel, D. (Author), Business and Economic History Conference, “Swadeshi Managers: Colonial-era Antecedents of Management Education in India,” Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, 26 August 2021 (virtual)
Patel, D. (Author), (Roundtable participant) Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, Singapore, “India’s Self Reliance: Old Idea or New Direction?”, 10 December 2020 (virtual)
Patel, D. (Author), Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association, “Power and Philanthropy: Parsi Amelioration of the Iranian Zoroastrian Community in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries,” Washington, D.C., 8 October 2020 (virtual)
Patel, D. (Author), South & Central Asia Annual Fulbright Conference, “Gandhi Caps for Manhattan: Indian Nationalism in America During the Second World War,” Kochi, 24 February 2020
Patel, D. (Author), FLAME Centre for Teaching and Learning, “Learning through Archives” (roundtable participant), FLAME University, Pune, 2 December 2019
Patel, D. (Author), Durham University, “Ideas of Representation and ‘The People’ in Early Indian Nationalism,” “We The People” Roundtable, Durham, 31 January 2019
Patel, D. (Author), Association for Asian Studies—Conference in Asia, Ashoka University, “Reading the Economy: Harnessing Vernacular Diaries, Travelogues, and Other Literary Works as Sources of Indian Economic History” (roundtable participant), New Delhi, 7 July 2018
Patel, D. (Author), India International Centre, “The Singing Satyagrahi: Khurshedben Naoroji in Gandhi’s Promotion of Nonviolence,” conference on “Conversations with Ramachandra Guha: Engaging a Life of Scholarship,” New Delhi, 6 April 2018
Patel, D. (Author), Mid-Atlantic Conference on British Studies, “British History after Brexit” (invited plenary roundtable speaker), University of Maryland-College Park, 1 April 2017
Patel, D. (Author), Conference on “Towards New Histories of Mumbai,” University of Mumbai, “The Indian Edison: Shankar Abaji Bhisey and the Confluence of Indian Talent and Nationalist Capital,” 7 January 2017
Patel, D. (Author), Conference on “The Sea and Knowledge,” Darshak Itihas Nidhi, “Controlling the Narrative: Parsis, European Scholarship on Zoroastrianism, and Religious and Social Reform in the Nineteenth Century,” Bharuch, 10 December 2016
Patel, D. (Author), North American Conference on British Studies, “The Idea of Indian MPs: Parliament and Early Indian Nationalism,” Washington, D.C., 11 November 2016
Patel, D. (Author), Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, “Controlling History: Understanding Archival Dysfunction in India Today,” 23 October 2016
Patel, D. (Author), Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, “The Making of an Indian Leader: Dadabhai Naoroji’s Railway Tour of North and West India, 1893-94,” 25 October 2015
Patel, D. (Author), Yale Modern South Asia Workshop, “The School Master Abroad: Dadabhai Naoroji and Colonial Bombay’s Educative Tradition,” New Haven, 11 April 2015
Patel, D. (Author), Conference of the Association of Asian Studies, “No Cause Better Calculated to Secure India’s National Regeneration: Bombay Political Reformers and the Princely States of Gujarat and Kathiawar, 1870-1900,” Chicago, 29 March 2015
Patel, D. (Author), Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies, “Subject Lessons: Indian Nationalists and Indian Students in Late Victorian Britain,” Las Vegas, 8 March 2015
Patel, D. (Author), Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, “The Chief Subject of the Fight: Dadabhai Naoroji’s Drain Theory and its Political Corollary,” 17 October 2014
Patel, D. (Author), South Asia Early Career Workshop, Princeton University, “The Schoolmaster Abroad: Liberalism and Education in Mid-Nineteenth Century Bombay,” 11 April 2014
Patel, D. (Author), Conference on “After the Persianate,” the University of Oklahoma, “Our Own Religion in Ancient Persia: Dadabhai Naoroji and European Orientalist Scholarship in the Late Nineteenth Century,” 8 March 2014
Patel, D. (Author), Conference of the Association of Asian Studies, “Dadabhai Naoroji and the Transnational Dimensions of Social Reform in Western India,” San Diego, 23 March 2013
Patel, D. (Author), Conference of the Meherjirana Library, “The Banaji and Mehta Families: Forging the Parsi Community in Calcutta,” Navsari, 14 January 2013
Patel, D. (Author), Conference of the International Society of Iranian Studies, “Parsis, Iran, and Iranian Nationalism: The Iran League of Bombay,” Istanbul, 2 August 2012
Patel, D. (Author), Conference of Ancient India and Iran Trust, “Gandhi and the Parsis: London, South Africa, and Non-Cooperation,” Cambridge University, 7 June 2008
Patel, D. (Author), Conference of the International Planning History Society, “New Delhi: Battles Over Site and Style, 1911-1913,” Delhi, 10 December 2006
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PERIODICALS
Patel, D., (2024). Child widow to single mother, political icon – how Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay blazed a trail. Scroll.in.
Patel, D., (2024). How an Indian’s Swadeshi Steam knocked the wind out of a British shipping giant’s sails. Scroll.in
Patel, D., (2024). Stroll into the 1850s Bombay with this curated travel guide. Mid-Day
Patel, D., (2024). What does history say about how Mumbai changed and stayed the same over the past 200 years? Scroll.in
Patel, D., (2024). Book review: A people made for democracy. India Forum.
Patel, D. (2024). The myths of Jawaharlal Nehru’s India. Scroll.in
Patel, D. (2024). What does the rise and fall of the Swatantra Party mean in the era of Narendra Modi? Scroll.in
Patel, D. (2024). Missed opportunities and underdevelopment: On Ashoka Mody’s “India Is Broken”. Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB).
Patel, D. (2023). Crony capitalism, 16th-century style: On Philip J. Stern’s “Empire, Incorporated”. Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB).
Patel, D. (2023). Why BR Ambedkar thought – and worried – deeply about democracy in India. Scroll.in
Patel, D. (2023). Pre-Partition stories, filmi music made Radio Ceylon a household name in India and Pakistan. Scroll.in
Patel. D., (2022). The Rise and Fall of the Sassoons. The India Forum.
Patel. D., (2022). In the 75th year of Independence, let us not forget the deep liberal roots of modern Indian society. Scroll.in
Patel. D,. (2022). To Raise a Fallen People: The anthology shows how half-forgotten 19th-century writings speak to continuing social problems. India Today.
Patel. D,. (2022). Avabai Wadia: The lawyer who became India’s family planning pioneer. BBC.com
Palel, D., (2022). Dadabhai Naoroji: India’s First Economic Reformer? Mercatus Centre, George Mason University. The 1991 Project
Patel, D., (2022). Robert Kennedy’s politics was almost Ambedkarite. World needs leaders like him today. The Print.
Patel, D. (2021). “An India Liberal in the Empire”, review of India’s First Diplomat: V.S. Srinivasa Sastri and the Making of Liberal Internationalism by Vineet Thakur (Bristol University Press), The India Forum.
Patel, D. (2021). “Viewpoint: When Hindus and Muslims Joined Hands to Riot”. BBC News
Patel, D. (2021). What does the writing of Constitutions have to do with wars? Plenty, as this book proves. Scroll.in
Patel, D. (2021). “The Horde: Marie Favereau Rewrites the Conventional History of the Mongol Conquerors”, review of The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World by Marie Favereau (Harvard University Press). Scroll.in
Patel, D. (2021). “Khurshedben Naoroji: The Singer Who Preached Nonviolence to Bandits”. BBC News
Patel, D. (2021). “Himalayan Histories”, review of Himalaya: A Human History by Ed Douglas (Bodley Head). The India Forum.
Patel, D. (2021). “Go Abroad, Young American: The Biden Administration Must Democratize International Education”. Foreign Affairs.
Patel, D. (2021). “Black Spartacus: A Biography of the Man Who May Have Been the First Great Anti-Colonialist Leader”, review of Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudhir Hazareesingh (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Patel, D. (2021). “Biographies: The Lives of Others”. India Today.
Patel, D., Madan, P. (2020). “The Pioneering Lawyer Who Fought for Women’s Suffrage in India”. BBC News.
Patel, D. (2020). “What We have Forgotten about the Pandemics that Killed Millions of Indians over 100 Years Ago, review of The Age of Pandemics, 1817-1920: How They Shaped India and the World by Chinmay Tumbe (HarperCollins).
Patel, D. (2020). “JBS Haldane’s Life, via Samanth Subramanian’s Biography, Shows Why Scientists Must be Political Too”, review of A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of JBS Haldane by Samanth Subramanian (W.W. Norton).
Patel, D. (2020). “Kamala Harris and the ‘Other 1 Percent’”.
Patel, D. (2020). “Much More Than a Sport: Beginnings of Cricket in India”, review of Cricket Country: An Indian Odyssey in the Age of Empire by Prashant Kidambi (Oxford University Press and Penguin Viking India). Economic and Political Weekly, vol. LV, no. 38, pp. 33-34.
Patel, D. (2020). “Dadabhai Naoroji Strove to be Inclusive. Today’s Majoritarian Nationalism Represents a Betrayal of Principles He Bequeathed to India”. Indian Express.
Patel, D. (2020). “The Grand Old Man of India Who Became Britain’s First Asian MP”. BBC News.
Patel, D. (2020). “Do Black Lives Matter to Southasians?” Himal Southasia.
Patel, D. (2020). “The Art of Solitude: Travel Vicariously Through Central Asia with Robert Byron’s Classic”.
Patel, D. (2020). “Epidemics Change the Course of Nations and Transform Societies. Here are Four Lessons from History”.
Patel, D. (2020). “How Parsis Shaped India’s Taste for Soft Drinks”. BBC News.
Patel, D. (2020). “A United Challenge to Racism”. Asian Affairs, pp. 16-19.
Patel, D. (2020). “Parsis and Pilgrims”, review of Between Boston and Bombay: Cultural and Commercial Encounters of Yankees and Parsis, 1771-1865 by Jenny Rose (Palgrave Macmillan).
Patel, D. (2019). “S.R. Mehrotra (1931-2019): A Tireless Chronicler of India’s Struggle for Freedom”.
Patel, D. (2019). “The Forgotten Indian Inventor Who Dazzled London”. BBC News
Patel, D. (2017). “India Must Recall the Legacy of Early Nationalists like Dadabhai Naoroji in the Age of Hyper-Nationalism”.
Patel, D. (2017). “Navrozji Fardunji, 19th-century Reformer and the ‘Great Son’ Whom India Forgot Too Soon”.
Patel, D., Madan, P. (2016). “How Food Inspires Names of India’s Parsis”. BBC News.
Patel, D. (2016). “Viewpoint: How the British Let One Million Indians Die in Famine”. BBC News.
Patel, D. (2016). “Indian Restaurants: The Unlikely Symbol of the Changing Balkans”.
Patel, D. (2016). “Does India Need a New Parliament Building? History May Have Some Constructive Criticism”.
Patel, D. (2015). “Global Goodwill: Growing Intolerance within India Threatens to Change How It is Regarded Abroad”.
Patel, D. (2015). “Why We Should All Care about the Bombay Parsi Punchayet Elections”.
Patel, D. (2015). “Renaming Aurangzeb Road is a Terrible Memorial to APJ Kalam”.
Patel, D. (2013). “Live Wire in the Nationalist Movement”.
Patel, D. (2013). “Shelving History: The Indian Archives”.
Patel, D. (2013). “A Small-Town Wonder: The Meherjirana Library of Navsari, Gujarat”.
Patel, D. (2012). “The Grand Old Man and His Miscellanea”.
Patel, D. (2012). “India and the Last Jubilee Queen”.
Patel, D. (2012). “Our Past is Being Moth Eaten”.
Patel, D. (2012). Four-part series on Indian archives and libraries for the New York Times India Ink series:
“In India, History Literally Rots Away”. 20 March 2012
“Repairing the Damage at India’s National Archives”. 21 March 2012
“India’s Archives: How did Things get this Bad?” 22 March 2012
“The Parsis, Once India’s Curators, Now Shrug as History Rots”. 23 March 2012
Patel, D. (2011). “New Delhi’s Controversial Birth”. New York Times India Ink series.
Patel, D. (2010). “The Importance of Ancient Iran”, review of Sasanian Iran by Touraj Daryaee (I.B. Tauris). Economic and Political Weekly, vol. XLV, no. 15, pp. 30-32.
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COURSES
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Introduction to Management
Capitalism and Its Critics: A History (Management and Liberal Arts)
Exploring Indian Economic and Business History
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AWARDS & HONOURS
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Book Prize, New India Foundation, 2021
Derek Bok Center Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University, 2010 and 2014
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TEACHING INTEREST
Modern South Asia
British Empire
Economic History
History of Bombay/Mumbai
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WORK EXPERIENCE
Academic Faculty
Assistant Professor, S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research. (August 2020 – Present)
Assistant Professor of History, University of South Carolina. (2015 – 2019)
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REVIEWER EXPERIENCE
Article referee, Modern Asian Studies (Cambridge University Press)
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CONTRACTS, GRANTS AND SPONSORED RESEARCH
Funded
Patel, Dinyar, ‘American Institute of Indian Studies Senior Fellowship’, sponsored by American Institute of Indian Studies, Private, $45,000.00. (June 1, 2024 – February 28, 2025).
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2019-2020.
Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award, 2019.
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship (for research in India, the United Kingdom, and Ireland).
Institute of International Education (IIE) Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship (for research in India).