Indrani Maharaj

Woman in yellow dress on lawn

Position Title
Graduate student in the Study of Religion

she/her
Sproul 907
Bio

Indrani (she/her) is a first year PhD candidate focusing on diasporic Hinduism, specifically among displaced communities post-indentured servitude and twice displaced individuals in the United States. She is most interested in the physical spaces of worship, worship music transformed by displacement, and cultural identities refashioning or lack thereof through displacement. 

Indrani fuels her interests through traveling and seeing the different cultural adaptations of Sanatani lifestyles. So far, she has visited Hindu Temples in various states within America, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Fiji, and Mexico. The permeability of the religious and spiritual aspects of Sanatan Dharma inspires her to understand how these diverse communities foster and tailor these practices to their lives in lands far away from India. 

Education and Degree(s)
  • B.A. Sociology: Law and Society, University of California, Davis. Minor: India and South Asia Studies. Minor: Religious Studies
  • A.A. Sociology, Ohlone College
  • A.A. Social Sciences, Ohlone College
Honors and Awards
  • Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship recipient, 2025-2027
Research Interests & Expertise
  • Devotional Music
  • Temple Architecture 
  • Vaishnav culture
  • Fijian Hinduism
  • Displacement and Indentured Servitude 
  • Post-colonial Hinduism
  • Textual Analysis