Tanvir Kaur

Profile

Biography

I am a doctoral researcher in the Department of Sociology at the University of York. My research interests lie at the intersection of political sociology, postcolonial and decolonial sociology, political economy, migration, and the study of state power, with a particular focus on Panjab and Sikh communities.

My doctoral project will examine how Indian states transformed after the partition and independence of India in 1947, with a particular focus on Panjab. The research considers how state policies and institutions have shaped socio-economic development, linguistic and cultural identity, religious freedoms, and political autonomy across post-independence India.

The project also examines the relationship between political violence, securitisation, migration, and the governance of religious and political identities, with particular attention to Sikh identity and the period surrounding and following the events of 1984. Drawing on archival research, policy analysis, and oral histories, the research seeks to understand these developments not as isolated political or economic events, but as interconnected processes that have shaped Indian states, contemporary Panjab, Sikh identity, and political mobilisation.

Prior completed education

• BA in Theology and Sociology, University of Auckland, New Zealand

• Graduate Diploma in Psychology, University of Auckland, New Zealand

• Master of Arts with First Class Honours in Sociology, University of Auckland, New Zealand

My Master's dissertation, Repression, Resistance, and Remembrance: State Policies, Migration, and Sikh Identity in Post-1984 Panjab, examined the relationship between state policy, political violence, migration, collective memory, and Sikh identity in the decades following 1984.