Maiwand Nangyal

Economic and Social History (2023 cohort)

Literature around the economic impact of British interference in British India at a national level is abundant. However inter-regional variations, especially covering the western Tribal Areas and Balochistan within modern-day Pakistan – regions which have historically been significantly volatile and unstable, have been relatively sparsely covered. My research therefore explores inter-regional variations in policies employed by the East India Company and the British Raj and hopes to investigate whether these different policies have led to contrasting modern economic outcomes in these regions. Being proficient in Pashto, Urdu/Hindi and Dari, I hope to use primary and secondary sources in these languages to embed indigenous non-European perspectives (which have arguably been sparsely used) into the academic discourse.

I undertook my undergraduate studies in Economics at the University of Exeter, followed by an MPhil in Economics from St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge. My MPhil dissertation focused on empirically analysing the impact of opium cultivation on violence and conflict within Afghanistan between 1994 and 2017. Upon graduating from Cambridge, I have been a Fast Stream Government Economist at the Department for Work & Pensions.