# Leela Khanna Raphael Morrison Dorman Postdoctoral Fellow, Weatherhead Scholars Program. PhD, Department of Anthropology, New York University. Affiliate, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion (2025-2026). ![Headshot of Leela Khanna in front of a body of water. ](/sites/g/files/omnuum8346/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2025-09/khanna-leela.jpeg?itok=doP1BDL3) email **Research interests:** Right-wing movements; nationalism; Hindu majoritarianism; student politics; caste; gender; ideas/practices of inclusion and exclusion; social mobility and higher education; and political anthropology of South Asia. **Research summary:** Trained as an anthropologist of India, I ethnographically study how right-wing organizations shape the identities of their members to challenge state narratives of recognition. For example, expanded caste-based affirmative action in India is creating a pathway for men and women from rural and underrepresented caste backgrounds to access urban public universities. This increasing inclusion is complicated by the participation of these same lower caste male students in the *Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad* (ABVP), a Hindu nationalist student organization that has historically been upper caste and against caste-based positive discrimination. Based in the western Indian city of Pune, I studied why this emerging demographic of male students grows increasingly critical of affirmative action and how the ABVP cultivates their caste identities to reject the use of it. Indeed, India’s constitutional practices of inclusion are now being challenged by the very groups these policies seek to benefit. By focusing on the process of identity construction, I offer insights into how Hindu majoritarian ideology shapes how people make sense of hierarchy, inequality, and notions of inclusion. *This information is accurate as of the affiliate year indicated. (last updated 12.28.2025)* - ## People Categories [Current Cluster Affiliates](/people-categories/cluster-affiliates) [Postdoctoral Scholar](/people-categories/postdoctoral-scholars)