Dr. Manav Kapur has won the 2025 Sardar Patel Award from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for his study of legal frameworks and bureaucratic systems emerging from the 1947 partition of British India.
Kapur, an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin, earned the distinction for his doctoral thesis titled “Bounding Nations, Making Citizens: Partition, Property, and Belonging in Postcolonial South Asia.”
The project explores how newly independent India and Pakistan managed property left behind by migrants, which was historically categorized as “evacuee property,” to shape national identity, draw territorial lines, and establish state control.
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Rather than framing the historical upheaval solely through the lens of nationalist mobilization, mass migration, and violence, Kapur’s research investigates the administrative and legal mechanisms states used to define national populations and minority status.
By examining archival records across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the United Kingdom, the study showcases striking points of convergence in how postcolonial governments intertwined property ownership with legal belonging.
The award-winning project stands out for its comparative scope, bringing the western and eastern frontiers of the Partition into a unified analytical framework.
The research traces how evacuee property law circulated beyond South Asia, including into the Middle East, offering an original contribution to a global history of partition and population transfers.
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Kapur specializes in the modern legal, migration, and citizenship history of South Asia. He completed his PhD in History at Princeton University. His academic credentials also include bachelor’s degrees in arts and law from NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, India, and a law degree from the New York University School of Law.
Before joining the faculty at UT Austin, Kapur taught at NALSAR, Jindal Global Law School in Sonepat, India, and the Department of History and Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages at Dartmouth College.
Administered by UCLA, the Sardar Patel Award recognizes outstanding doctoral dissertations focused on modern India.
Kapur’s work provides a fresh genealogical look at how newly formed nations navigated the complex legal challenges of citizenship and territory following the dissolution of the British Empire.