Her research interests include contemporary histories of participation in Maoist insurgency, ethnography and problems of prejudgment, and anthropology of violence/media. Chitralekha’s current work describes a new "militancy" in (Indian) Kashmir. Exploring its linkages with the uneven institutional flows of a troubled modernity, she particularly examines how digital discourse- and its frequent erasures, reconfigure not just social exchange and worship, ideas of self, community and nation, but also modes of political resistance. She received her Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University.