ASN 3940 Modern India

This course opens up critical issues of political, economic and social change over a span of two centuries in what is today mainly India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It covers the period beginning with the colonial encounter in the 1750s through to the aftermath of independence and partition in 1947. Students will analyze the complex global interplay between forces of colonial rule, capitalist transformation and knowledge production. The course will proceed chronologically with emphasis on the following themes: the diverse pre-colonial polities of South Asia; the emergence of the British Empire and its governance practices; the (re-)production of religious, caste and ethnic identities; the politics of anti-colonial resistance, nationalism and the Nation; the debates over gender and the “women’s question;” and the role of violence in shaping community relations across the subcontinent. The course will conclude by exploring recent debates in South Asian historiography concerning the subject of history and the politics of history-writing.
This course fulfills UCC area 6-Global Awareness. Cross Listed Course(s): HIST 3940
Credits: 3.0