Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi is a social historian, literary critic and political commentator. He studied History and Literature at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and at the University of Chicago, from where he obtained a PhD. He was also a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago, Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, and was on the faculty of Humanities at the San Francisco State University. Most recently, he taught History at the Karnataka State Open University, Mysore. He has also worked with the American Institute of Indian Studies and Bangalore Central University.