The South Asian Studies Council offers Rustgi Fellowships to students with a demonstrated commitment to the field of South Asian studies in order to undertake independent research in the summer months.
Since 2006, over 70 Yale graduate and undergraduate students across a diverse range of fields and schools have benefitted from the support of a Rustgi Fellowship. These fellowships are made possible through the Rustgi Family Endowment Fund for South Asian Studies, supported by Anil Rustgi ’80, Vinod Rustgi ’75 and his wife, Eileen Boyle Rustgi ’77.
Current Yale students interested in applying to the Rustgi Fellowship should consult the appropriate listing in the Student Grants Data base here.
Fellow Testimonies
I have collected a lot of valuable information on this trip, which has both deepened and broadened my understanding of India’s largest democratic institutions, rural local governments. Over the next few months, I will go through my field notes and work on a research design to test some of my hypotheses about the complex relationship between village-level bureaucrats and elected officials in the Gram Panchayat. While this trip was exploratory, it has laid a strong foundation for further research and will shape my dissertation.
2024 Rustgi Fellow - "Bureaucratic Resistance in Indian Local Government"
My experiences have improved my understanding of the subcontinent and will inform my work on my senior thesis on India’s political economy. In the long run, I hope for this project to develop into an expansive study of a critical political question – and attempt to derive lessons for developing governments internationally from the study of political-policy mechanisms. The opportunity offered by the Rustgi Fellowship to conduct research on South Asia has made an invaluable contribution these research efforts and in helping make these policy aspirations a reality.
2023 Rustgi Fellow - "Politics and the Paradox of Poverty: Electoral Strategy, Political Logic, and Pro-Poor Policy in the Indian Democracy"
As a performer, it is very rare for me to be able to dedicate time so fully to developing my ethnographic research skills and exploring new research areas. I am so grateful to have been able to do that with the support of this fellowship. As I reflect on the opportunities to explore research questions and connect with mentors, I can see that this fellowship has been invaluable in clarifying my own path as I continue working toward a multifaceted career combining performance and research across varied musical genres."
2024 Rustgi Fellow - "The 'Classical' in Context: Stories of Carnatic and Hindustani Musicians in the United States"
Past Rustgi Fellowship Awards
2024
Meenakshi A
Ankush Arora
Amrita Chakravorty
Alice Cochrane
Neeraja Durga
Mahima Kumara
Esha Meher
Devi Nayar
Deepika Padmanabhan
Harshavarda Raghunandhan
Manasi Rao
2023
Jibran Anand
Bilal Moin
Devi Nayar
Kelvin Ng
Deepika Padmanabhan
Nikita Paudel
Muhammad Hasan Nisar
Sai Rayala
2022
Esha Meher
2021
Devi Nayar
Deepika Padmanabhan
2019
Gabriel Malek
Shrabya Timsina
2018
Indra Acharja
Chandana Anusha
Tiraana Bains
Mohit Manohar
Gourav Krishna Nandi
Maya Sorabjee
Ishaan Srivastava
Ram Vishwanathan
2017
Gourav Krishna Nandi
2016
Emily Hays
Elizabeth Karron
Adam Willems
2015
Meher Makda
Shivani Shedde
2014
Kendra Dawsey
Seth Kolker
Naaman Mehta
Amaris Olguin
2013
Dur e Aziz Amna
Shalmoli Halder
Seoyoon Han
Ariella Kristal
Austin Lord
Ayeza Qureshi
Ashwini Srinivasamohan
2012
Tiraana Bains
Abhimanya Chandra
Peter Kaufman
Mingyuan Song
Sonia Taneja
Rohit Thummalapalli
2011
Joanne Anthonypillai
Yong Cho
Ashish Mitter
Abhinav Nayar
2009
Andrew Samuel
Deb Gangopadhyay
Henry-Corrigan Gibbs
Radhika Govindrajan
2008
Bibhav Acharya
Grace Oedel
David Schlussel
Rubaiya Sharin
Alexander Soble
2007
Paula Chatterjee
Fatima Ghani
Amit Mahadevia
Robert Szykowny
2006
Alexandra Galin
Rohan Jain
Abigail Ransmeier
Bethany Shady
Benjamin Siegel
Nisha Tamhankar
Jurist Tan