Roshni (she/her) is a scholar, educator, and facilitator, specialising in the intersections between language, caste, and power in South Asia. She holds a BA (Hons.) in Sanskrit and South Asian Studies from SOAS, University of London, with advanced language studies in Pune and Kerala, India. Roshni has worked globally in the non-profit sector, which led her to completing a law degree. Having worked in the social impact legal world for some time, she has chosen to redirect her career towards her foundational lifelong passion—South Asian studies.
Raised in a caste-privileged Gujarati Hindu family in London, Roshni has been immersed in Sanskrit and South Asian spiritual traditions from a young age. As she delved deeper into these traditions as an adult, Roshni 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 her worldview and priorities. Her current work combines personal insight with academic depth, examining how systems of power shape modern yoga, South Asian society and its diaspora. Roshni works through a historical and intersectional lens and acknowledges her position as a settler on stolen lands, an acknowledgment that deepens her work.
Now based on unceded Bundjalung Country, Roshni dedicates her time to research, silversmithing, and connecting with the rainforest that surrounds her home. Her business ‘Sanskrit with Roshni’ is currently undergoing an evolution, emerging from a reckoning with the Sanskrit language itself. Roshni is committed to a feminist debrahminised practice that uplifts caste-oppressed and Indigenous knowledge and experiences.