His research interests include urban and regional history in South Asia, as well as the history of the Hindi-Urdu public sphere. He is working on a book, Urbane Provincials: Intellectuals and the Hinterland in Colonial India, which examines the city of Patna, in the north Indian region of Bihar, during the late colonial period. The book argues that Patna retained its cultural and intellectual vitality, particularly in Urdu literary culture, even as it was increasingly seen as a part of the “mofussil,” or provinces.