Ajay Verghese of US Riverside is one of the up and coming political scientists who specialize on South Asia. His earlier book “The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Violence in India” (Stanford University Press, 2016) argued that the geographic pattern of mob-violence in India has its root in the Colonial era but in a surprising way. He argued that religious or communal violence (Hindu-Muslim usually) is associated with the former princely states (the Maharaja, Nawab states), while tribal and caste violence is associated with areas under direct British colonial rule.
I have always thought colonial studies infantalizing. Yhe british drew a few lines