David Gilmartin

David Gilmartin studies modern South Asian history. He received his BA from the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. in History from the University of California--Berkeley. He has conducted research in India and Pakistan. Gilmartin's research interest focus on the intersections between the history of British imperialism in South Asia and the development of modern politics and forms of rule. His first book (Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan) focused on the relationship between British imperial rule and the creation of Pakistan at the time of India's independence from Britain in 1947. More recent research projects have focused on the connections between irrigation-based environmental transformations (in the Indus basin) and modern politics, and on the legal history of India's electoral institutions as they have evolved from its colonial past.