Episode 35: “What exactly are we doing here”?: Nishant Upadhyay on settler colonialism and its complexities
In episode #35 I talk with ethnic studies scholar Nishant Upadhyay about their book, Indians on Indian Lands: Intersections of Race, Caste, and Indigeneity. Together, we dig into the complexities around “settler colonial frameworks,” thinking about what the category of settler means in cases of forced migration, or migration based on ecocide, genocide, or extreme need. We talk about writing history with a focus on one’s own positionality, how that has been important to both of us. Nishant speaks specifically about Brahminism and Hinduism in India and how these violently hierarchical structures have in some ways migrated with Indian immigrants in Canada and the US, and even within post-colonial and transnational feminist studies. We ask what real solidarity with indigenous struggles (across Turtle Island, South Asia, Palestine, and beyond) might look like in the contexts of our hyper-capitalist societies and the rise fascism across the globe, and we locate pockets of optimism in our everyday intimacies, acknowledging that we must fight for our right to be together.
People and groups mentioned or discussed
Key figures in South Asian and Postcolonial Studies:
Dalit Scholars:
Hawai'i scholar and activist:
Indigenous nations of the Toronto area include: the Mississaugas of the New Credit, Anishinaabe, Chippewa, Haudenosaunee, Wendat, Métis peoples, and many other diverse Indigenous communities.
Music by Ben Roberts : Benjamin.Roberts447@gmail.com
Comments and ideas to Juliealicecarr@gmail.com
Nishant Upadhyay
Nishant Upadhyay is an associate chair of graduate studies and associate professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Their research and teaching focuses on settler colonialism and empire, intersections of race, caste, and indigeneity, queer and trans of color studies, and South Asian diaspora. They are the author of Indians on Indian Lands: Intersections of Race, Caste, and Indigeneity (University of Illinois Press, 2024). The book won the National Women’s Studies Association/University of Illinois Press First Book Award (2018) and the Outstanding Contribution in Social Sciences by the Association of Asian American Studies (2026). Upadhyay’s work has been in published in journals such as the American Quarterly,Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies Journal, Cultural Studies, and Feminist Studies.
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