Phd Student Seraphim Kirjuhin

Seraphim Kirjuhin is a PhD student at the Department of History at Heidelberg University, working under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Kama Maclean. His dissertation, provisionally titled “The Princely States and the Great Game: Rumours, Anti-Colonial Resistance and Imperial Anxieties, 1858–1900,” examines how the rulers of the Indian princely states shaped anti-colonial resistance in British India following the Revolt of 1857. It focuses on their engagements with the Russian Empire and analyses what these meant for their status as subjects of the British Crown, for the retention of their privileges within the imperial hierarchy, and for Indian anti-colonialism. The project further investigates how these activities intersected with the geopolitical rivalry between the British and Russian Empires in Central Asia during the mid-to-late nineteenth century, commonly referred to as the “Great Game.” A central component of the research is the use of Russian-language primary sources.

He completed his M.A. in South Asian Studies, with a focus on history and anthropology, at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, in 2025, and his B.A. in South Asian Studies at the University of Bonn in 2023. His broader research interests include multisensory approaches to historical analysis, visual culture, and the history of ideas, particularly the ways in which cultural concepts evolve over long periods and continue to shape contemporary socio-political dynamics.