***Note that this syllabus has not been updated for Spring 2001***

India is the largest democracy in the world, with a vivid past, a challenging present, and a promising future.  This course examines the emergence and evolution of the Indian nation, beginning with the Mughal and British imperial setting (particularly in Awadh), and concluding with a look at social and political pressures on the Indian nation-state after Independence.  Along the way we encounter military rebellion and middle-class terrorism; the evolution of nationalism and professional politics; the question of non-violence and the contributions of Gandhi and others; the history of women in nationalism and nation-building, and the effects of the political and economic change on women; the evolution of Hindu-Muslim politics and the traumatic partition of the subcontinent in 1947; and the rise of separatist and majoritarian political organizations.

Readings will include diaries, memoirs, speeches, contemporary fiction, polemic, and historical analysis.  We will also view a variety of documentary and feature film (in video format).  The grade will be based on two short [five page] papers, attendance and discussion, and a mid-term and final examination.

HIST 258 is not a prerequisite for HIST 259.  Students are encouraged to take both, but they are not linked as ampersand courses (credit for one does not depend on credit for the other).

Readings will be drawn from the following (available at Atticus):

• M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj and other writings
• P. Fay, India's Forgotten War
• R. Kipling, Kim
• R. Tagore, Gora
• V. Graff (ed.), Memories of Lucknow
• R. Menon and K. Bhasin, Borders & Boundaries: How Women Experienced the Partition of India
• V. S. Naipaul, India: A Million Mutinies Now

• Historical Atlas of South Asia (ed. J. Schwartzberg) [in reference area atlas cases]

• Papers:  40% [20% each]
• Exams:  50% [25% each]
• Attendance/Discussion:  10%
• Map Exercise:  0% but must be completed satisfactorily for credit

Wednesday and Thursday 2:30 - 3:30, or by appointment