He is a historian, translator and media practitioner. He was educated at Allahabad University (B.A.), Jawaharlal Nehru University (M.A.), Delhi University (M.Phil) and School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (Ph.D). He has researched on aspects of famine, relief, food security, drought, environmental degradation, state welfarism and philanthropy in modern India. He is the author of Famine, Philanthropy and the Colonial State: North India in the Early Nineteenth Century (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2001) and is the Co-editor of Diwaan-e-Sarai, CSDS, Delhi. In addition to teaching and research, he has worked as a journalist and radio broadcaster for the Hindi service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).