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Open research questions in South Asian Studies and Diaspora

58 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 3,748 South Asian Studies and Diaspora papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • The study highlights the growing presence of Desi Republicans but has several limitations. As a non-experimental design, it cannot establish causality, and findings based on four purposively selected cases limit the scope and generalizability. Reliance on public data excludes participant interviews, and the small, nonrandom sample constrains applicability to other minoritized leaders. While intersectional factors such as gender, caste, religion, class, and colorism remain beyond this study’s scope, my positionality as a Desi immigrant, college-educated woman outside electoral politics may have shaped the interpretation of the data.

    Negotiating Legitimacy: South Asian Republicans and Strategic Assimilation · 2026 · DOI

  • This study has certain limitations. The small sample size (N = 8) limits the extent to which the REFERENCES findings can represent the broader Hijra population. Since the study was conducted within the Delhi-NCR region, the experiences shared by participants may not reflect those of Hijras from different cultural or geographical settings. In addition, the study relied on participants’ personal narratives lived experiences, which may have been influenced by individual interpretation and memory. and 7.

    SELF-IMAGE AND WORLDVIEW OF 'HIJRAS' IN INDIA: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF LIFE EXPERIENCES, BELIEFS, AND EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS OF TRANSGENDER INDIVIDUALS · 2026 · DOI

  • A lack of consensus on the justifiability of (re)distribution of resources by extending special benefits to the socially suppressed (“backward”) castes and classes of citizens, has laid bare the ambiguities inherent in constitutional ideals and provisions, highlighted the resourceful use of such ambiguities by the socially entitled citizens to disavow caste-based social oppression, and insist on economic weakness that hampers equal opportunity as the fair ground for “reservation.

    Caste, Constitution, Court, Equality: The Social Justice Imbroglio in Contemporary India · 2025 · DOI

  • I conclude that even though the hegemonic ideal for men in transnational spaces remains to be the local rural masculinities based on landownership in Punjab, alternative strategies are put in place when that hegemonic ideal becomes difficult to achieve in transnational spaces or when there is a willing disinclination to achieve it such as in case of men who do not express a desire to return.

    Punjabi masculinities and transnational spaces: Performance, choice and othering · 2023 · DOI

  • While much of the research has stemmed from the United States and has focused on race, gender, and sexuality, very few studies have investigated ways in which complex and overlapping identities involving language, religion, and caste/class intersect in cross-cultural workplace settings in the Global South.

    Language, religion, and workplace discrimination: intersectional microaggressions in India · 2023 · DOI

  • Situated in the thick of these polarised exchanges, this article examines the complicated, under-explored relationship between gender and Islam by foregrounding self-narratives of the Bohra women who actively participate within, as opposed to fight against, patriarchal norms to preserve the tradition.

    ‘we are not like them’: reinventing modernity within tradition in the debates on female <i>khatna</i> / female genital cutting in India · 2023 · DOI

  • This article informs readers of the specific process of Islamophobic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic which remains a largely understudied phenomenon in India.

    On the politics of fear · 2021 · DOI

  • This Introduction surveys the recent scholarly literature in these connected fields, situates the essays here in the context of this new work, and identifies some of the key questions which remain to be answered in this critical era of transition between the India of ‘early modernity’ and the coming of the colonial world.

    Scribal service people in motion: Culture, power and the politics of mobility in India’s long eighteenth century, c. 1680–1820 · 2020 · DOI

  • Integrating and expanding the research on intersectional consciousness and on collective victimhood, this article investigates perceived intragroup differences in experiences of victimization stemming from intersecting identities of gender and class among two disadvantaged groups in the understudied context of India.

    Intersectional Consciousness in Collective Victim Beliefs: Perceived Intragroup Differences Among Disadvantaged Groups · 2019 · DOI

  • 5 There are few studies on the contemporary phase of the IWM, and fewer still that explore the dynamics of this phase and the agency of its subjects through thick ethnographic examination.

    New Activist Subjects: The Changing Feminist Field of Kolkata, India · 2014 · DOI

  • We argue that focus on the entire ethnic group is insufficient for analysing the factors that shape belonging; instead, we posit that examining how the social location of the main ethnic group intersects with the structural positions of subgroups is crucial to discussions of the concept of belonging.

    On the Edges of Belonging: Indian American Dalits, Queers, Guest Workers and Questions of Ethnic Belonging · 2013 · DOI

  • r she may have gotten the "hang" of the book and should then begin to appreciate the way in which Beck has used limited data, together with source material, to extrapolate and extend the data not only to the whole region but also to each of the units and subunits with which she chose to worki In so doing, she has persistently attempted to reify her right-left oppositions.

    The study of a region: An exercise in taste, temperament, and training? · 1974 · DOI

  • Does this mean that the study of the system can only have a historical and not a sociological interest? Are we limited to the particular facts without being able to glimpse any general conclusion? Because caste is only seen at its maximum development in India are we forbidden a priori to disengage its essential properties from their contingent circumstances and to discern the influences which it might normally have upon economic, political and moral life: W’e do not think so.

    The Essence and Reality of the Caste System · 1968 · DOI

  • I think it will now be agreed that there are sufficient points of resemblance between hook-swinging in o ne or types other of its forms and certain well authenticated of human sacrifice to support the assumption that the former is a survival of the latter, and it now remains to be seen whether, apart from such similarity, there is either in the rite itself or its attendant circumstances anything pointing to this view.

    “Hook-Swinging” in India · 1914 · DOI

  • Additionally, it brings attention to the under researched Tibetan Muslim community in Jammu and Kashmir, enriching scholarship on exile and minority identities.

    Between refuge and right: production of social exclusion among Tibetan Muslims in Kashmir · 2026 · DOI

  • The way forward requires developing methodologically sound, transparent, and constitutionally aligned approaches that balance competing concerns of data collection and enumeration.

    Counting to Zero: How Caste Census Navigates the Contradiction of Recognition and Annihilation · 2026 · DOI

  • Future caste census initiatives should be designed to gather multidimensional evidence of continued social discrimination, educational disparities, and economic marginalization rather than merely counting groups.

    Counting to Zero: How Caste Census Navigates the Contradiction of Recognition and Annihilation · 2026 · DOI

  • A balanced approach would establish clear protocols for data management that protect individual privacy while ensuring sufficient transparency for public scrutiny and academic analysis, though specific mechanisms remain underdeveloped.

    Counting to Zero: How Caste Census Navigates the Contradiction of Recognition and Annihilation · 2026 · DOI

  • The tension between federal constitutional principles and state-level social justice initiatives is likely to shape future debates on caste enumeration, but the precise framework for resolving this remains unestablished.

    Counting to Zero: How Caste Census Navigates the Contradiction of Recognition and Annihilation · 2026 · DOI

  • The ongoing appeal before the Supreme Court may eventually provide more precise guidance on how caste census data can be legitimately utilized within India's constitutional framework.

    Counting to Zero: How Caste Census Navigates the Contradiction of Recognition and Annihilation · 2026 · DOI

  • Future census initiatives may need to gather not just demographic information but also specific evidence of backwardness, discrimination, and inadequate representation across various domains, beyond mere population figures.

    Counting to Zero: How Caste Census Navigates the Contradiction of Recognition and Annihilation · 2026 · DOI

  • In light of the ongoing humanitarian challenge, it is evident that the lack of standardized refugee laws in India, along with political maneuvers, has contributed to the emergence of a conducive environment for potential instances of discrimination.

    Analyzing India’s Refugee Policy in the Rohingya Crisis Within the Framework of International Human Rights Law · 2025 · DOI

  • Drawing upon postcolonial concepts of appropriation and abrogation – typically only limited to the ‘literary studies’ tradition – this article analyses how colonial aesthetics are articulated and rejected on social media by multilingual transgender activists in the Pakistani context.

    Pakistani transgender activists on Instagram: The politics of postcolonial language appropriation and abrogation · 2024 · DOI

  • In this research note, we highlight an underexplored dimension of gatekeeping in relation to our fieldwork on the Kalbeliya community of Rajasthan in India.

    The politics of gatekeeping: respondents as gatekeepers and gatekeepers as respondents · 2024 · DOI

  • However, his methodology does not indicate intensive field immersion or participant observations and solely relies on student interviews, which is insufficient for ethnography.

    Caste discrimination and exclusion in Indian universities: A critical reflectionBy N.Sukumar, Oxon: Routledge. 2023. pp. 193. · 2023 · DOI

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58 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 3,748 South Asian Studies and Diaspora papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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