Dr Salwa Yahya holds a PhD in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin. She completed her BA in Political Science (Honours) at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, followed by an MA in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and an M.Phil. in Social Science from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Her research interests include identity politics and civil society in India, political theory, and research methodology. She has published in journals like ‘Studies in Indian Politics’ and ‘Contemporary South Asia’. Currently, she is converting her Doctoral dissertation on lower- caste (Pasmanda) Muslim activism in north India into a monograph. Drawn from ethnographically-informed and archival data, it analyzes various aspects of the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz’s (AIPMM) civic activism within civil society and viz-a-viz the Indian state.