I teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses and supervise BA, MA and PhD research projects in Modern Indian History, Jewish History, Genocide Studies, Interfaith Relations, and Minority Studies. My courses in Jewish History and Holocaust Studies are the only such courses in Asia, excluding China and Israel. I introduced Jewish/Judaic Studies in South Asian academia with the launch of my undergraduate course in Global Jewish History, titled "The Jews: A Global History, From the Earliest Times to the Present".
My numerous publications include a monograph Jews, Judaizing Movements and the Traditions of Israelite Descent in South Asia (New Delhi: Pragati Publications, 2016), an edited collection (with Priya Singh), Conceptualizing Mass Violence: Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations (London and New York: Routledge, 2021), several papers in peer-reviewed journals, chapters in edited books published by prestigious international scholarly publishing houses, such as Oxford University Press, Brill, De Gruyter, Routledge, Springer, Indiana University Press, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Lexington (Rowman & Littlefield), etc., and articles and op-eds in popular media, including India's leading English daily newspapers, such as The Times of India, The Pioneer, The Telegraph, etc., Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth, and digital media platforms, such as Scroll, India Times, News 18, Swarajya, Cafe Dissensus Everyday, etc.
I am also a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), New York (the first Indian to be awarded this fellowship); a scholar at the SACH (Sufism, Arts, Culture, and Heritage) Institute, Islamabad; and a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar under its Holocaust Education and Genocide Prevention Program and Asia Peace Innovators Forum. I am counted among 67 ‘famous fellows’ out of its total 40 thousand fellows from 170 countries. I am a member of the ISGAP-Woolf Institute Cambridge Research Collective, a member of the Advisory Group on Addressing Antisemitism through Education, formed under the joint auspices of the Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and an alumnus of Australia India Youth Dialogue (AIYD), 2014 as well. I have held visiting fellowships at the universities of Tel Aviv and Sydney, and the Woolf Institute, Cambridge, UK (I was the first recipient of the visiting fellowship awarded by the Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations, Woolf Institute, Cambridge, UK) and been a scholar-in-residence at St. John’s College, Oxford for a summer institute on curriculum development in critical antisemitism studies under the auspices of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy (ISGAP), New York.
I focus on Indo-Judaic Studies and Antisemitism Studies, but my academic interests include Genocide Studies, Memory Studies, Media Studies, Populism Studies, Peace & Conflict Studies, Contemporary History, Oral History, Popular History, Digital History, Counterfactual History and studies of interfaith relations, mass violence, marginality, micro-minorities, online hate, social media, peacebuilding, and reconciliation.
I have given lectures/talks/presentations in Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Canada, India, Israel, Morocco, Nepal, Switzerland, UK and USA in-person and under the auspices of the Holocaust & Genocide Centres of Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa, online - which have all been well received. I visited the International University of Rabat, Morocco, as a peer advisor on behalf of Salzburg Global Seminar in October 2017 to help the university develop a postgraduate programme in Conflict Resolution and Governance of Peace and was a resource person at the International Conference on Education and the Holocaust at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, USA in December 2017 at the invitation of UNESCO and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I have been an invited delegate at the second International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS), held in Singapore in September 2022 under the auspices of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), with the support of the Singapore Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and hosted by President Madam Halimah Yacob. I was a member of a South Asian Peace delegation (drawn from Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan) organised by Sharaka, an Israeli NGO, under the auspices of its program titled "Tolerance Promotion through Holocaust Education". Its first leg of tour was in Israel in May 2023 and the second in Poland in March 2024, supported by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Government of Germany and The Conference on the Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference). I have also been a residential mentor at the winter schools in Genocide Studies organised by the Center for the Study of Genocide and Justice, Liberation War Museum, Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2023 and 2024.
Some of my publications have been translated into French, German, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. My latest peer-reviewed publication is a chapter titled "Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish Identities in Modern South Asia", in Empire, Religion, and Identity: Modern South Asia and the Global Circulation of Ideas, edited by Soumen Mukherjee (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2024), pp. 207-229, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004694330_010
Although I write primarily in English, I am the first person to make any worthwhile contributions to Jewish Studies in the Urdu language, the lingua franca of linguistically diverse South Asian Muslims. Many of my Urdu publications can be accessed here and here and my Urdu podcasts can be accessed here.
I have been teaching at the tertiary level since 2010. Prior to joining Presidency University, Kolkata in 2016, I taught at Gautam Buddha University, Greater NOIDA in the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi.
I received my entire education, right from the primary to the tertiary level, in my hometown Lucknow. I earned the degrees of BA, MA, and PhD in History from the University of Lucknow, followed by postdoctoral stints at Tel Aviv University, Israel; the Woolf Institute, Cambridge, UK; and the University of Sydney, Australia. I wrote my doctoral thesis on "Indian Jewry and the Self-Professed 'Lost Tribes of Israel' in India".
Before the commencement of my teaching career I worked for a couple of years, 2008 to 2010, in my hometown Lucknow, as a Fellow of the Centre for Communication & Development Studies (CCDS), Pune, under its youth outreach programme called Open Space. During those two years I organized 56 events aimed at engaging the youth with society in a meaningful manner. One of the events was a Holocaust Films Retrospective, held in 2009 at five different venues, including the campuses of the two biggest universities in Lucknow, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University and the University of Lucknow, for a fortnight. It was the first ever retrospective of Holocaust cinema in South Asia, during which 46 films were screened. The event attracted an audience of four thousand people and was extensively covered in the local press in English, Hindi and Urdu.
I convened a couple of international multidisciplinary conferences on mass violence, at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat (in collaboration with a couple of colleagues from O. P. Jindal Global University and Jawaharlal Nehru University) in 2016 and the Presidency University, Kolkata in 2017. In my capacity as a Research Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy (ISGAP), New York, I convened a couple of webinar series on antisemitism in South Asia (2021) and in East & Southeast Asia (2022; with Dr Mary J. Ainslie of Nottingham Uni. Ningbo Campus, China).
As part of outreach activities I have been peer-reviewer for several leading scholarly journals brought out by prestigious international publishing houses, such as Routledge and Springer and have also been reviewer of book proposals and/or book manuscripts for Routledge and Hurst. I am a registered reviewer for Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) proposals.
My forthcoming publications include the following:
"The Departure of the Jews of Cochin to Israel: Cross Memories", in Jews from Elsewhere: Forgotten Diasporas, Singular Jewish Identities, edited by Edith Bruder (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024) [ISBN: 9780197750926]
"Holocaust Education in South Asia: The Much-Needed Response to Holocaust Denial, Trivialization, and Inversion" in Global Approaches to the Holocaust: Memory, History, and Representation, edited by Mark Celinscak & Mehnaz Afridi (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2025)
“The Coexistence of Philosemitism and Antisemitism in India" in A Companion to Antisemitism in a Global Perspective, edited by William I. Brustein and Joanna B. Michlic (Wiley Blackwell, 2025)
“Indian Jews on Screen and Behind the Cameras” in Handbook on Judaism and Film, edited by Olga Gershenson (Oxford University Press, 2025)
"Antisemitism in the Religious Nationalist and Intellectual/Spiritual/Philosophical Discourses of Hindus," in Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity Revisited, edited by Charles A. Small (Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2025)
"Manipulation and Distortion of Holocaust Memory in South Asia", in a volume on genocide distortion (title of the book to be finalized), edited by Mathew Turner & Lior Zylberman (London & New York: Routledge, 2025).
"Resistance to Holocaust Education & Studies and Explosion of Anti-Zionism in Indian Academia in Response to the Gaza War 2023-Present", Journal of Genocide Research (Taylor & Francis)
Many of my publications can be accessed here. I can be followed on Twitter @Navras_Aafreedi Videos recordings of many of my public lectures, interviews and podcasts in English, Hindi and Urdu can be accessed on my YouTube channel. The following are links to my profiles on Vidwan, ORCID, Scopus, Google Scholar, SciProfiles, Web of Science, Kudos, Linkedin, Academia, and ResearchGate.
For more about me, please click here. I can be reached at Navras.His@PresiUniv.ac.in
MONOGRAPHS:
1. Jews, Judaizing Movements and the Traditions of Israelite Descent in South Asia, Pragati Publications, New Delhi, 2016. (ISBN 978-81-7307-158-4) [Reviewed by Australian Journal of Jewish Studies, Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies, The Social Ion, The Statesman, and Himal Southasian] | Please click here to read it online.
2. Indian Jewry and the Self Professed 'Lost Tribes of Israel' in India, Bene Israel Heritage Museum and Genealogical Research Centre, Mumbai, 2006 (CD-ROM).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITED COLLECTION:
Conceptualizing Mass Violence: Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations (London & New York: Routledge, 2021), ISBN 978-1-003-14613 (edited with Priya Singh) [Reviewed by Genocide Studies and Prevention, published by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) and by the Centre for Studies of Plural Societies, New Delhi on its website]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLICATIONS IN PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS
1. “Antisemitism in Post-Colonial Indian Political Rhetoric”, ISGAP Occasional Paper Series, No. 5/2021 [ISBN 978-1-940186-18-4], https://isgap.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Navras-OPS-29.pdf
2. "Emergence of Kolkata as a Center for Jewish Studies in India", Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies [ISSN 1206-9330], No. 17, 2020, pp. 175-180.
3. "Antisemitism in the Muslim Intellectual Discourse in South Asia" Religions 10, no. 7 (2019): 442. (ISSN 2077-1444), https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10070442
4. “Reciprocal (Mis-)apprehensions: Jews on Non-Jews, and Non-Jews on Jews in Indian Fiction", Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies [ISSN 1206-9330], No. 15, 2016, pp. 9-20.
5. “Claimants of Israelite Descent in South Asia”, Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies [ISSN 1206-9330], No. 14, 2014, pp. 97-111.
6. “European Association for South Asian Studies: Panel on Jews at its 23rd Conference for the First Time in its History”, Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies [ISSN 1206-9330], No. 14, 2014, pp. 147-150.
7. “The First Ever Holocaust Films Retrospective in South Asia”, Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies [ISSN 1206-9330], Vol. XI, 2010
8. “Traditions of Israelite Descent Among Certain Muslim Groups in South Asia”, Shofar – An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies [ISSN 0882-8539] (Purdue University publication), Vol. 28, No. 1, 2009, pp. 1-14 [http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/shofar/v028/28.1.aafreedi.pdf]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BOOK CHAPTERS
1. "Antisemitism and Jewish Studies in South Asia: An Academic and Personal Journey." In Religious, Educational, and Trade Encounters Between Jews and Muslims in South Asia, edited by Kenneth X. Robbins, William Richter, and Sifra Lentin (Maryland, USA: RajaNawab Publishing, 2024), [ISBN 979-8340563651], pp. 112-123.
2. “Antisemitische Hassrede in Urdu auf YouTube: Ein Analyse.” In Antisemitismus in den Sozialen Medien, edited by Monika Hubscher and Sabine von Mering (Leverkusen, Germany: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2024), [ISBN 978-3-8474-3013-1, eISBN 978-3-8474-1950-1], pp. 165-182. [German]
3. "Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish Identities in Modern South Asia", in Empire, Religion, and Identity: Modern South Asia and the Global Circulation of Ideas, edited by Soumen Mukherjee (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2024) [ISBN: 978-90-04-68515-4 (Hardback), 978-90-04-69433-0 (E-book)], pp. 207-229, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004694330_010
4. "Hitler's Popularity and the Trivialization of the Holocaust in India." In Holocaust vs. Popular Cuture: Interrogating Incompatibility and Universalization, edited by Mahitosh Mandal and Priyanka Das (London and New York: Routledge, 2023) [ISBN 9781032169736], pp. 83-100, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003251224
5. “Antisemitic Rhetoric in Urdu on YouTube: An Analysis.” In Antisemitism on Social Media, edited by Sabine von Mering and Monika Hubscher (London and New York: Routledge, 2022) [ISBN 9781032059693], pp. 114-128, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003200499 [Nominated for 2022 Bernard Lewis Memorial Prize]
6. “Holocaust Education in India and its Challenges”, in Navras J. Aafreedi & Priya Singh, eds., Conceptualizing Mass Violence: Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations (London and New York: Routledge, 2021) [ISBN 978-0-367-69997-0 (hbk), 978-1-003-14613-1 (ebk), DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003146131], pp. 138-150.
7. [Co-authored with Priya Singh (She is the 2nd author.)] “Reading Mass Violence”, in Navras J. Aafreedi & Priya Singh, eds., Conceptualizing Mass Violence: Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations (London and New York: Routledge, 2021) [ISBN 978-0-367-69997-0 (hbk), 978-1-003-14613-1 (ebk), DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003146131], pp. 3-15.
8. "Antisemitism in the Muslim Intellectual Discourse in South Asia." In The Return of Religious
Antisemitism?, edited by Gunther Jikeli (Basel: MDPI, 2021) [ISBN 978-3-03943-497-8
(Hardback), 978-3-03943-498-5 (PDF), DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-03943-498-5], pp.
103-117.
9. "Peace Building", in Hans Gustafson, ed., Interreligious Studies: Dispatches from an Emerging Field (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2020) [ISBN 9781481312547], pp. 262-268.
10. “The Anglicization of India’s Baghdadi Jews and their Emergence as Intermediaries between the British and the Indians” in Aditi Chandra and Vinita Chandra, eds, The Nation & Its Margins: Rethinking Community (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019) (ISBN-13: 978-1-5275-4018-7, ISBN-10: 1-5275-4018-9), pp. 47-60.
11. “The Tradition of Israelite Descent among the Pashtuns in India and its Contemporary Ramifications.” In Africana Jewish Journeys: Studies in African Judaism, edited by Marla Brettschneider, Edith Bruder and Magdel Le Roux, 202-213. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019. (ISBN-13: 978-1-5275-2213-8) (ISBN-10: 1-5275-2213-X)
12. “Muslim Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism in South Asia: A Case Study of Lucknow.” In Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism and the Dynamics of Delegitimization, edited by Alvin Rosenfeld, 454-480. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019. [ISBN: 978-0-253-03869-2 (cloth), 978-0-253-04002 (paperback), 978-0-253-03872-2 (ebook)]
13. “Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism among South Asian Muslims.” In Antisemitismus im 21. Jahrhundert: Virulenz einer alten Feindschaft in Zeiten von Islamismus und Terror (Antisemitism in the 21st Century: The Virulence of an Old Hatred in the Era of Islamism and Terrorism), edited by Marc Grimm and Bodo Kahmann, 179-198. Berlin, Munich and Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. (ISBN 978-3-11-053709-3)
14. “South Asian Muslim Attitudes towards Jews, Israel and Zionism.” In What is Moderate Islam?, edited by Richard Benkin, 191-200. London: Lexington Books, 2017 (ISBN 9781498537414)
15. “Between Indianness and Jewishness: The Ambivalence of Indian Jews as Reflected in Literature, Cinema and Art.” In Beyond Strategies: Cultural Dynamics in Asian Connections, edited by Priya Singh et al, 69-84. New Delhi: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, in association with KW Publishers Pvt Ltd, 2014 (ISBN 978-93-83649-04-4)
16. “The Impact of Domestic Politics on India’s Attitudes towards Israel and Jews.” In Perspectives on West Asia: The Evolving Geopolitical Discourses, edited by Priya Singh and Susmita Bhattacharya, 171-183. India: Shipra Publications, 2012 (ISBN: 9788175416376)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ENCYCLOPEDIA ESSAYS
1. "Jewish-Muslim Relations in South Asia", in Kassam, Zayn, Yudit K. Greenberg, and Jehan Bagli, eds., Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, Springer 2018 (ISBN 978-94-024-1266-6) as part of the series edited by Arvid Sharma, Encyclopedia of Indian Religions, Springer, 2018 (ISBN 978-94-007-1988-0), pp. 368-381.
2. "The Traditions of Israelite Origins of Pathan/Pashtun Tribes", in Kassam, Zayn, Yudit K. Greenberg, and Jehan Bagli, eds., Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, Springer 2018 (ISBN 978-94-024-1266-6) as part of the series edited by Arvind Sharma, Encyclopedia of Indian Religions, Springer, 2018 (ISBN 978-94-007-1988-0), pp. 338-345.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTERS IN PEER REVIEWED REPORTS
1. “South Asia”, in Michael Alexander, ed., Antisemitism Worldwide 2020 (Tel Aviv: Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, Tel Aviv University, 2020), pp. 71-72.
2. “The Delusion of the Absence of Antisemitism in India”, in Esther Webman, ed., Antisemitism Worldwide 2019 and the Beginning of 2020 (Tel Aviv: Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, Tel Aviv University, 2020), pp. 180-191.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITED WORKS
Special thematic issues of the online magazine Cafe Dissensus (ISSN 2373-177X):
- Remembering the Bangladesh Genocide of 1971: Reflections by Youth from West Bengal (Issue 66: April 2023) [In commemoration of the Bangladesh Genocide Remembrance Day, 25 March and Genocide Awareness Month, observed ever year in April]
- Hatred and Mass Violence (Issue 49: February 2019)
- India's Response to the Holocaust and its Perception of Hitler (Issue 21: January 2017)
- Jewish-Muslim Relations in South Asia (Issue 21: January 2016)
- Indian Jewry (Issue 12: January 2015)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLICATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL NON-PEER REVIEWED PERIODICALS with ISSN
- “The Bangladesh Genocide of 1971: Remembrance versus Denial”, Café Dissensus (ISSN 2373-177X), Issue 66, April 2023.
- “Ein Meinungsbeitrag zu den derzeitigen Protesten gegen die Staatsbürgerschaftsreformen in Indien”, Südasien, January 2020 [German]
- “Our Struggle against Hatred and Mass Violence”, Café Dissensus (ISSN 2373-177X), Issue 49, February 2019.
- “India’s Response to the Holocaust and its Perception of Hitler: An Introduction”, Café Dissensus (ISSN 2373-177X), Issue 31, January 2017.
- “Holocaust and Hitler in Hindi”, Café Dissensus (ISSN 2373-177X), Issue 31, January 2017.
- “The Jews of Bollywood: How Jews Established the World’s Largest Film Industry”, Asian Jewish Life (ISSN 2224-3011), Issue 17, March 2016, pp. 20-25.
- “Tagore’s Association with Jews”, Café Dissensus (ISSN 2373-177X), Issue 19, October 17, 2015.
- “Jewish-Muslim Relations in South Asia: Where antipathy lives without Jews”, Asian Jewish Life (ISSN 2224-3011), Issue 15, October 2014, pp. 13-16.
- “The Attitudes of Lucknow’s Muslims towards Jews, Israel and Zionism”, Café Dissensus (ISSN 2373-177X), Issue 7, April 15, 2014.
- "The Paradox of the Popularity of Hitler in India”, Asian Jewish Life (ISSN 2224-3011), Issue 14, April 2014 pp. 14-16.
- “Community and Belonging in Indian Jewish Literature”, Himal Southasian (ISSN 1012-9804), May 2014.
- “Das Geheimnis names Sarmad", Sudasien, 33. Jahrgang, Nr. 1/2013 (ISSN 0933-5196) (German), 2013, pp. 85-87
- “Absence of Jewish Studies in India: Creating a New Awareness”, Asian Jewish Life, Autumn 2010, pp. 31-34.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLICATIONS IN NATIONAL PERIODICALS with ISSN
- “The Jewish Interest in the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad.” Azad Academy Journal [ISSN 2248-9835] XXII, 5, 2006
- “The Afridi Pathans.” Azad Academy Journal [ISSN 2248-9835] XXII, 4, 2006
- “Navras.” Azad Academy Journal [ISSN 2248-9835] XXII, 1, 2006
- “Majestic Malihabad: A Land of Legends.” Azad Academy Journal [ISSN 2248-9835] XXI, 8, 2005
- “Jews in Lucknow.” Azad Academy Journal [ISSN 2248-9835] XXI, 6, 2005
- “The Role of Afridi Pathans in India’s Struggle for Freedom.” Azad Academy Journal [ISSN 2248-9835] XX, 7, 2004
- “The Divine Madness of Sarmad.” Azad Academy Journal [ISSN 2248-9835] XIX, 5, 2003
- “Malihabad: An Oasis of Poets.” Azad Academy Journal [ISSN 2248-9835] XIX, 3, 2003.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUASI-ACADEMIC
1. "The Liberation War Museum, Dhaka and My Association with It", Liberation War Museum Newsletter, March 2024.
2. “Studying Global Jewish History in India: A Brief Overview”, Historia, Vol. 1, Issue 1, October 2023, pp. 25-27.
3. “My Journey Studying Jews and Antisemitism”, The Presidency University Magazine, 2019-2023, pp. 83-90.
4. “The Abuse of Holocaust Memory in India”, Flashpoint, 85: April 28, 2022.
5. “The Only Urdu Poem on the Holocaust and its Author”, Flashpoint, 77: March 4, 2021.
6. “The Enigma that was Anwar Nadeem”, Naya Daur, November 9, 2020.
7. “Remembering the Enigmatic Anwar Nadeem on his Birth Aniversary”, Café Dissensus Everyday, October 22, 2020.
8. “The Story of a Secularist in India”, Café Dissensus Everyday, June 10, 2018.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SELECT PUBLICATIONS IN POPULAR MEDIA
1. “Anti-Semitism injected into India election”, San Diego Jewish World, May 22, 2019.
2. “The Advent of Jews & Antisemitism in World’s Largest Elections Held in India”, India Times, May 22, 2019.
3. “PM Modi should launch Jewish Studies to fight antisemitism”, News 18, July 6, 2017.
4. “High Time Jewish Studies got introduced in Indian Academia”, Swarajya, June 23, 2017.
5. "The only Hebrew teacher in Indian academia is a devout Muslim", Scroll, January 12, 2016.
6. "Indian Students put on First-Ever Play on Holocaust", United with Israel, January 20, 2015.
7. "First known Hindi play on Holocaust presented", San Diego Jewish World, January 16, 2015.
8. "Chutzpah comes to Bollywood”, The Pioneer, October 13, 2014.
9. “Indian Jewish Novelist honoured in Lucknow”, San Diego Jewish World, January 5, 2014.
10. “History of India’s Jewish beauty queens”, Yedioth Ahronoth, August 3, 2013.
11. “Jewish Studies on the rise in India”, Yedioth Ahronoth, June 11, 2013.
12. "Oy vey for Bollywood", Jewish News, May 26, 2013.
13. “Hindi novel portrays life of Indian Jews”, Yedioth Ahronoth, May 23, 2013.
14. "First Ever Hebrew Conference held in South Asia", The Algemeiner, February 14, 2013.
15. "An Indian Jewish POW in Pakistan", Arutz Sheva, Israel National News, July 23, 2008.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BOOK REVIEWS
1. Review of Shalom Salomon Wald and Arielle Kandel, India, Israel, and the Jewish People, Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies [ISSN 1206-9330], No. 17, 2020, pp. 151-155.
2. “Breaking the gilded ceiling” (Review of Leslie Pierce, Empress of the East: How a Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire, Icon, 2018), The Telegraph, Calcutta, May 10, 2019, p. 15. Published online under the title “A peep into the world of the Ottomans”.
3. Review of Yulia Egorova, Jews and Muslims in South Asia: Reflections on Difference, Religion and Race, Oxford University Press, 2018, Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion (ISSN 2475-207X), April 13, 2019.
4. “Barriers and Beyond” (Review of Tim Marshall, Divided: Why We’re Living in an Age of Walls, Elliot & Thompson, 2018), The Telegraph, Calcutta, November 23, 2018.
5. “Look Deeper” (Review of Niyaz Farooquee, An Ordinary Man’s Guide to Radicalism: Growing Up Muslim in India, Context, New Delhi, 2018), The Telegraph, Calcutta, April 20, 2018, p. 17.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SELECT URDU PUBLICATIONS
1. "Hindustan ki Yahudi Sangtarash Musav’vira aur Naamvar Adeeba: Esther David" (India’s Esther David: A Sculptor, Painter and Writer), Imkan, June 2004.
2. "Mumbai: Haqiqat ki Baahon méin" [A Travelogue of Mumbai (Bombay) highlighting the metro’s Jewish facet], Imkan, May 2004.
3. "Talaash" (A Muslim Urdu Poet's Search for his Jewish Mother), Imkan, March-April 2004.
4. "Hindustani Cinema méin Yahudi" (Jews in Indian Cinema), Imkan, January-February 2004.
5. "Hindustan ka Yahudi Adab" (The Jewish Literature of India), Imkan, November 2003.
6. "Jadeed Ibrani Adab ka ék Jayézah", (An Overview of Modern Hebrew Literature), Imkan, September 2003.
7. "Hindustan ki Jadeed Angrézi Shayari ka Fard-é-Av’val: Nissim Ezekiel" (Nissim Ezekiel: Father of India's Modern English Poetry), Imkan, August 2003.
8. "Hindustan ki Tahreek-é-Azaadi méin Afridi Pathanon ka Kirdar" (The Role of Afridi Pathans in India's Struggle for Freedom), Imkan, July 2003.
9. "Sarmad: Anokhi Chalat-Phirat ka Kirdar" (Sarmad: A Unique Character), Imkan, June 2003.
10. "Dr. Zakir Husain ki Yahudi Dost" (India's First Muslim President, Dr. Zakir Husain's Jewish Girlfriend), Imkan, April 2003.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SELECT GERMAN PUBLICATIONS
1. “Antisemitische Hassrede in Urdu auf YouTube: Ein Analyse.” In Antisemitismus in den Sozialen Medien, edited by Monika Hubscher and Sabine von Mering (Leverkusen, Germany: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2024), [ISBN 978-3-8474-3013-1, eISBN 978-3-8474-1950-1], pp. 165-182.
2. “Ein Meinungsbeitrag zu den derzeitigen Protesten gegen die Staatsbürgerschaftsreformen in Indien”, Südasien, January 2020.
3. "Erster Roman uber indische Juden in Hindi erschienen", Israel Nachrichten, April 4, 2013.
4. “Das Geheimnis names Sarmad", Sudasien, 33. Jahrgang, Nr. 1/2013 (ISSN 0933-5196), 2013, pp. 85-87.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SELECT PUBLICATIONS IN OTHER EUROPEAN LANGUAGES
1. “Estudiantes de la India interpretan una histórica obra de teatro sobre el Holocausto”, Unidos con Israel, January 21, 2015. [Spanish]
2. "Yevryeyki - korolyevi krasoti Indii: ot pyervoy Miss India do nashikh dnyey", News Ru, June 26, 2013. [Russian]
3. "Moosool?manskiy poet Soz Malikhabadi byezoospyeshno ishtyet mat? – yevryeykoo Rikhanoo", News Ru, June 11, 2013 [Russian]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS
1. "The Departure of the Jews of Cochin to Israel: Cross Memories", in Jews from Elsewhere: Forgotten Diasporas, Singular Jewish Identities, edited by Edith Bruder (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024) [ISBN: 9780197750926]
2. "Holocaust Education in South Asia: The Much Needed Response to Holocaust Denial, Trivialization, and Inversion" in Global Approaches to the Holocaust: Memory, History, and Representation, edited by Mark Celinscak & Mehnaz Afridi (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2025)
3. “The Coexistence of Philosemitism and Antisemitism in India" in A Companion to Antisemitism in a Global Perspective, edited by William I. Brustein and Joanna B. Michlic (Wiley Blackwell, 2025)
4. “Indian Jews on Screen and Behind the Cameras” in Handbook on Judaism and Film, edited by Olga Gershenson (Oxford University Press, 2025)
5. "Antisemitism in the Religious Nationalist and Intellectual/Spiritual/Philosophical Discourses of Hindus," in Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity Revisited, edited by Charles A. Small (Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2025)
6. "Manipulation and Distortion of Holocaust Memory in South Asia", in a volume on genocide distortion (title of the book to be finalized), edited by Mathew Turner & Lior Zylberman (London & New York: Routledge, 2025).
7. "Resistance to Holocaust Education & Studies and Explosion of Anti-Zionism in Indian Academia in Response to the Gaza War 2023-Present", Journal of Genocide Research (Taylor & Francis)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERVIEWS IN THE PRINT PRESS
1. "The Importance of Teaching about the Holocaust in India in Light of Anti-Muslim Pogroms,” Interviewed by Soila Kenya, Salzburg Global Seminar, August 12, 2020.
2. "Enigma of Arrival and Exit,” Interviewed about the history and culture of the Jews of India by Amit Ranjan, The Equator Line, Vol. 5, Issue 4, July-September 2017, pp. 132-144.
3. "Unlike China, India’s Jews survived…Indian Muslims, Jews unique friends…tolerance debate, minority studies vital for India”, Interviewed by Eram Agha, The Times of India (all editions), July 1, 2016.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RADIO INTERVIEWS
1. All India Radio (AIR), 2019 [Urdu]
2. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), 2013.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERVIEWS ON TELEVISION & DIGITAL MEDIA
1. "Dr. Aafreedi: Jews have contributed to India/Los judíos han contribuido culturalmente a la India", Un Café con Kavana, August 9, 2024.
2. "Jews in India | Pashtun are the lost tribe of Jews? | Podcast 122", Peer Talks, May 28, 2023. [Urdu]
3. "Next year in Bombay... really? India and antisemitism - a conversation with Prof. Navras J. Aafreedi", Chicago Jewish Cafe, February 14, 2022.
4. "Aafreedi Final Cut SD 480p", Nippon Foundation, February 4, 2022.
5. Interview to the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, 2021.
6. "Dr. Navras J. Aafreedi on Normalization of Violence | Prime Time | NDTV India | 29 Sep 2021 [Hindi]", Dr. Navras J. Aafreedi, October 3, 2021. (For the entire show, please click here.)
7. "Is Taliban a remnant of The Ten Lost Tribes? -- A Conversation with Dr. Navras J. Aafreedi", Chicago Jewish Cafe, June 14, 2021.
8. "The Jews of Bollywood: Second conversation with Dr. Navras J. Aafreedi about the Jews of India", Chicago Jewish Cafe, October 9, 2020.
9. "The Jews of India: First conversation with Dr. Navras J. Aafreedi", Chicago Jewish Cafe, September 17, 2020.
10. "COVID-19 Chronicles: Beyond the UK: Dr Navras Aafreedi on India", WoolfInstitute, June 16, 2020.
11. "Hitler, India and the Jews", India INC, July 26, 2018.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pease click below for videos of my:
Lectures, Talks, and Paper Presentations
Podcasts [Urdu]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please click on the hyperlinks to watch the webinar series I convened on Antisemitism in South Asia in Comparative Perspective and the one on Antisemitism in East & Southeast Asia in Comparative Perspective that I jointly convened with Dr. Mary J. Ainslie, Associate Professor (Media Studies), Nottingham University, Ningbo campus, China - both under the auspices of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy (ISGAP), New York.
Presidency University Students Corner