About Us

Meet Our Team

Azania Imtiaz Patel

Azania is a multi-hyphenate based in Mumbai, India. She is currently building ‘India Ghost Project’, an anthropological repository of paranormal narratives in the country. Azania’s research focuses on the politics of fear, questions of self, othering, and how stories become a tool for identity assertion. As a journalist, she has written on tech policy for The Stack, and spent the better half of the past two years in various capacities at The Economist. She is a Rhodes Scholar and holds an MSc and an MPP from the University of Oxford.

Diwakar Kishore

Diwakar Kishore is a development economist and co-lead of the India Ghost Project. He holds a PhD from the LSE’s International Inequalities Institute, an M.Ed. from Harvard, an MPP from Oxford, and a BA LLB from NLSIU. He has worked with the World Bank on education, health, and food security across Africa and Asia, and previously practiced law in both commercial and legal aid roles in India. His research explores how policy, economics, and belief intersect to shape human behaviour and the stories we tell.

Zaara Merchant

Zaara studies Economics at McGill University, exploring how economic ideas intersect with society and everyday life. She’s interested in the connections between economics and broader social dynamics. Beyond the classroom, she is actively involved in writing, editing, and debate.

Tanya Timble

Tanya holds a Master’s in Clinical Psychology and a BA in Political Science. She works at the intersection of research and design at various social impact organizations. She has extensive research and fieldwork experience at the grassroots level across India, working closely with vulnerable communities. As an independent designer in Bombay, she’s also worked with Meta, Naturals Ice Cream, and Kingfisher; blending data with creativity to make complex ideas easy to connect with. Her narrative illustrations explore stories in color and form, infusing each project with nuance and quiet humanity. Outside of her desk, she’s usually sketching in her notebook, hunting down the best coconut coffee in town, or rooting for her favorite F1 team.

Nilanjana Sen

Nilanjana is a researcher and development practitioner currently filming a documentary in the Western Himalayas on the ethical lives of young people, drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork in the region. Her work explores themes of responsibility, ethics, and everyday decision-making. She holds a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Melbourne, along with master’s degrees from King’s College London and South Asian University. She has worked on governance and policy initiatives in Haryana, India, where she led multi-stakeholder projects as a Chief Minister’s Good Governance Associate. At the heart of her work is a commitment to public ethnography, ethical collaboration, and the belief that lived experiences can shape a more just and imaginative future.

Arun Ramasubramanian

Arun is an independent researcher and theatre artist with an interest in language, culture, and politics. With a background in Applied Linguistics, his work is informed by anticaste, Marxist, and other subaltern frameworks. He is fascinated by the ways in which faith in the supernatural reflects complex social dynamics and histories. His current base of operations is in Bengaluru, South India.

Anushka Srivastava

Anushka is a research scholar from Lucknow, India, specialising in place theory, cultural politics, and social inclusion. Her interests were cultivated during her B.A. and M.A. in Literature at Miranda House, University of Delhi. She co-authored “Philomela’s Tapestry and #MeToo: Reading Ovid in an Indian Feminist Classroom” in the edited volume #MeToo and Literary Studies.

Madhubanti Talukdar

Madhubanti is a social science researcher based in Kolkata, with nearly five years of experience in working across academic and development sector organizations in India. She has travelled extensively, conducting fieldwork across remote and challenging geographies. She holds a BA in Sociology from Presidency University, Kolkata and a MA in Sociology from South Asian University, New Delhi, and occasionally writes for Doing Sociology, an independent, women-led academic blog.

Mapping Belief, Modernity, and Spectral Economies

The India Ghost Project investigates the informal economies and cultural politics of paranormal belief in contemporary India. Using mixed-methods research, the project documents ghost narratives, ritual practices, and spiritual services to examine how traditional cosmologies persist, adapt, and are monetized amid urbanization, development, and state-led modernity. It sits at the intersection of anthropology, economics, and cultural studies.

For Scholars, Planners, Seekers, and Sceptics

This project is valuable to researchers in anthropology, urban studies, and religious studies; policymakers and urban planners interested in informal economies and public sentiment; as well as journalists, artists, and curious citizens engaging with questions of fear, identity, and belief. By making spectral narratives legible, it invites new ways of understanding modern India’s social and economic fabric.

We use a mixed-methods approach to map the paranormal in India, combining data, stories, and lived experience. Our methodology includes:

Surveys
Online and in-person questionnaires gather data on demographics, belief systems, spending habits, and motivations for engaging with paranormal experiences.
In-depth Interviews
We speak with ghost-tour operators, temple priests, exorcists, paranormal investigators, and everyday believers to understand how people interact with the supernatural.
Field-based Ethnography
Our researchers visit haunted sites, attend rituals, and document practices to build a grounded, regional understanding of belief in practice.
Economic Analysis
We analyse data on paranormal tourism, spiritual services, and informal markets to estimate the scale and impact of India’s ghost economy.
Content and Media Analysis
By studying news stories, social media, films, and folklore, we trace how paranormal narratives circulate and influence popular understanding.
Crowdsourced Stories and Locations
Through our platform, the public can submit personal stories and geotag haunted places—building a participatory archive of India’s spectral geography.

The India Ghost Project is an independent, not-for-profit research initiative that explores the intersections of belief, economy, and modernity in contemporary India. We are actively seeking collaborators—both individual and institutional—who are excited by the possibilities of this work and want to contribute to its growth.

For Individuals
We welcome contributions from writers, researchers, artists, oral historians, and anyone with an interest in the paranormal. Whether you have a story to share, a visual project to pitch, or an idea for collaborative fieldwork or public programming—we’d love to hear from you.

For Universities and Research Centres
We are open to partnerships with academic departments and research centres working in anthropology, sociology, urban studies, media, religion, and related fields. Opportunities for collaboration include joint research, co-hosted workshops, teaching and learning partnerships, internships, and data-sharing. We are especially interested in interdisciplinary collaborations that open new ways of studying belief and urban transformation.

For Funders and Grantmakers
As a non-profit, independently run project, we are actively seeking funding to expand our fieldwork, build open-access tools, and sustain our public archive. We welcome discussions with research funders, foundations, and impact-driven grantmakers interested in questions of cultural continuity, informal economies, and alternative epistemologies in South Asia.

To collaborate, co-create, or support us, get in touch at: contactus@indiaghostproject.com