Yashaswini Chandra

Yashaswini Chandra is Lecturer in South Asian Art History. She has diverse interests that encompass the arts and cultures of the Himalayas, Rajasthan, Mughal India and colonial India, combining them with a focus on animal history and women's studies. Her first book is The Tale of the Horse: A History of India on Horseback. It was published in South Asia by Pan Macmillan India under the Picador India imprint, 2021 (paperback, 2023) and in the UK by Holland House Books, 2022, also coming out as an e-book (Pan Macmillan India, 2021) and an audiobook (Audible, 2023). It explores the relationship between horses and humans in the Indian subcontinent, together with its global connections, in the early modern period in particular, charting the decline of the horse culture of India under colonial rule. The Mughal empire is at the heart of the work and it includes a case-study of Rajasthan. It shows that paintings capture the story of the horse in India and its profound impact on the history of the region. The original edition was listed among the ‘highlights of 2021’ in the category of Non-fiction: History by the Asian Review of Books.

Her ongoing project is located at the intersection of gender, race and space as it seeks to articulate the embodied experiences of diverse European and Indian women in colonial India. Yashaswini previously worked for Sahapedia, an open online resource on the arts, cultures and histories of India, and managed the multi-volume documentation of the Rashtrapati Bhavan (President’s House) in New Delhi, tracing its transformation from the Viceroy’s House designed by Edwin Lutyens. She has a PhD from SOAS University of London.

Research interests

Arts and cultures of South Asia
Mughal India
Colonial India
Animal history
Women's studies