I am a scholar, educator, and facilitator, specialising in the intersections between language, caste, and power in South Asia. I hold a BA (Hons.) in Sanskrit and South Asian Studies from SOAS, University of London, with advanced language studies in Pune and Kerala, India. I have worked globally in the non-profit sector, which led to completing a law degree. Having worked in the social impact legal world for some time, in 2023 I chose to redirect my career towards my foundational lifelong passion—South Asian studies.
Raised in a caste-privileged Gujarati Hindu family in London, I have been immersed in Sanskrit and South Asian spiritual traditions from a young age. As I delved deeper into these traditions as an adult, I became increasingly aware of the ways in which caste, gender, and race impact and intersect with them. This awareness, along with studying the roots of Brahminical patriarchy within Sanskrit texts, shifted my worldview and priorities. My current work combines personal insight with academic depth, examining how systems of power shape modern yoga, South Asian society and its diaspora. I work through a historical and intersectional lens and acknowledges my position as a settler on stolen lands, an acknowledgment I hope deepens my work, bringing accountability and further reckoning and honesty.
Now based on unceded Gadigal Country, I dedicate my time to the Romana's Pilates International Teacher Training Program, research, dance, and the occasional silversmithing. My initial business ‘Sanskrit with Roshni’ underwent an evolution, emerging from a reckoning with the Sanskrit language itself. I am committed to a feminist debrahminised practice that uplifts caste-oppressed and Indigenous knowledge and experiences.