Arul is an anthropologist actively engaged in studying the salt workers of Tamilnadu. His extensive archival research from Tamil Nadu State Archives traces the history of policy making in the salt industry at different periods. He is currently studying the value changes that salt undergoes from the saltpans to the plates. He is also curating the history of minimum wage calculations in theory and in practice in the state of Tamil nadu with a special focus on salt workers of Marakkanam region in the Coromandel Coast.