Ashoka researches on the history of energy at the University of Zurich (UZH). He is writing a PhD dissertation titled “Situating Land: A History of Coal and Sovereignty in Hyderabad, c. 1871-1973”. By focusing on coal bearing lands, the dissertation aims to understand the paradox of coal’s continued importance in the 21st century. A significant finding is that regional histories forge specific political value to coal particularly visible in their historical relationship with landed relations. This research is now the basis of a project for which Ashoka is currently an UZH Entrepreneur Fellow.

This work connects three subdisciplines: energy history, legal history and social history and draws from historical archives from the 19th and 20th centuries related to the state of Hyderabad, British Indian government and British government. Before UZH, Ashoka studied history in Delhi with a focus on economic and social history and worked on projects including at CNRS Centre de Sciences Humaines.

Ashoka’s teaching interests lie in environmental history and legal history. Previous teaching included a Proseminar (a bachelor module in the Swiss-German system) titled “Imperial Frontiers” which focused on the production of borders in imperial contexts in the 19th and 20th centuries. Ashoka is very interested in exchange about these themes and encourages reaching out via email (in German or English).

• Centre for the History of Knowledge / Zentrum Geschichte des Wissens, member since 2022 (doctoral colloquium by University of Zurich and ETH Zurich)
• HS Suisse / Historians of Science network, member since 2022
• Gen A Fellow 2025 at Asia Society Switzerland
• Sustainability Week Zurich / Nachhaltigkeitswoche Zürich, Co-President of student association since 2025
• University Senate and University Sustainability Commission, elected member at both bodies representing the association of junior researchers VAUZ

• “Shifting Contexts of a Coal Company: The Singareni Collieries Company Limited and “Semi-sovereign” Energy in Hyderabad, 1886-1952,” The Power of Energy Conference, organised by Hagley Library, USA (upcoming Oct 2025)
• “Semi-Sovereign Finance: A Political History of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited in Hyderabad,” GdW Summer School, La Ferrière (Jul 2025)
• “Combustible Property: Land and Sovereignty in Hyderabad, c. 1900- 1956”, organised by Das Forschungskolloquium für Islamwissenschaft Schweiz, Universität Basel (Mar 2025)
• “The Prince’s Bargain: “Financial Jousting” of Coal Resources in Hyderabad” at the Science & Democracy Network’s 23rd Annual Meeting in ETH-Zürich (Aug 2024)