Shruti Kapila is a historian of modern India and global political thought, and Professor of History at University of Cambridge. She was educated at Panjab University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, and received her doctorate from SOAS University of London. Prior to Cambridge, she held academic positions at University of Oxford and Tufts University.
Her research focuses on modern and contemporary India, with particular emphasis on how India has shaped global political ideas such as sovereignty, democracy, and violence. She is the author of Violent Fraternity: Indian Political Thought in the Global Age, a widely acclaimed work that rethinks twentieth-century political thought from an Indian perspective.
Kapila’s current work explores Indian democracy, constitutionalism, and global anti-imperialism, alongside her longstanding interests in psychoanalysis, colonial psychiatry, and the histories of race, gender, and political violence. She also contributes regularly to international media and writes a fortnightly column for ThePrint.