Dr. Zaheer Abbas

Dr. Zaheer Abbas graduated from Hans Raj College, University of Delhi. He completed his M.A. MPhil. and PhD. from the Centre of Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi). He is a historian of modern India with a research focus on Islamic popular practices and sectarian identities. For his PhD, he charted a century long history of the evolving, discursive and often frictious relationship between the Sunnis and Shi’i communities of old Lucknow. The work re-evaluates existing explanations of sectarian violence and rioting by interpreting them as merely the most overt manifestation of a larger discursive process of self-expression and difference. Riots are not exchanges between already crystallized and delineated sectarian identities, inasmuch as contributing to the process of sublimation.In addition to the History Foundation Course and Interdisciplinary Seminars, Dr. Abbas has taught courses on Minorities in Islam and on Right-wing Movements in Europe during the inter-war years.

In his free time, Dr. Abbas enjoys listening to Rock music, especially Pink Floyd. He is an avid cricketer who laments the demise of poetry in batting which he traces to Dravid’s retirement.