3223 Dwinelle Hall, 642-1102, pdeshpande@berkeley.edu
Riyad Koya, skoya2@berkeley.edu
This course will introduce students to the history of
South Asia, also known as the Indian subcontinent: a part of the world that
comprises the three countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The period
covered will be the past three centuries or so, roughly 1700 - 1950. We will
spend the first couple of weeks on a background of how state and society were
organized before the onset of British colonial rule, in the eighteenth century.
The bulk of the course will examine in detail the impact of British imperial
rule from the eighteenth century onwards to the mid-twentieth century. The
course will consider themes of nationalism, religious communities and caste,
gender relations and imperialism. One of its objectives is to investigate the
historiography of modern South Asia alongside the unfolding of historical
events themselves, so we will explore both what this history has been and the
different ways in which it has been written about and debated, and think about
the importance of history itself in the making of modern South Asia. Besides
conventional readings, we will use a variety of multi-media materials such as
short stories, feature films and website content.
Required Texts:
· Barbara
and Tom Metcalf, A Concise History of India, 2nd revised edition,
Cambridge University Press, 2006. Available at the university bookstore, and at
Ned’s on Bancroft.
· Some
readings are on reserve in the library and in a course packet (CP), available
for purchase from University Copy, at 2425 Channing Way, 549-2335 (in the
Durant garage). Still others are available in electronic form: while some are
linked below, others are available on B-space. You can also search for them in the university’s full-text library
databases based on the citation information given below.
Course Requirements:
To do well in this course, you must attend
all lectures, do all specified readings before class, and participate in class
discussions. Your overall grade will be based on two 4-5 page mid-term papers (25% each) one 5-7-page final paper (30%), a map/reading quiz (10%)
and energetic participation in class discussions (10%). Late paper submissions will drop a
letter grade for every late day. Every attempt will be made to accommodate a
documented disability, please speak with me outside of class about any
concerns.
Please do not eat, chat or sleep in
class, saunter in late or leave early without speaking with me beforehand. Please
switch off all cell phones during class.
Course Outline
and Tentative Readings Schedule (subject to change!)
Part I:
Eighteenth Century Society and Politics
Week I:
Wed Jan 17: Introduction to themes and requirements of the
course
Fri Jan 19: The subcontinent in 1707
Metcalf, Concise History, Preface, and pp. 1-28.
Week 2:
Mon Jan 22: Successor states of the Mughals
Wed Jan 24: Commercialization and economic trends over the
18th century
Fri Jan 26: Society and culture in the 18th
century
Metcalf, Concise History, pp. 29-44.
CA Bayly, “The Eighteenth
century” from Indian society & the making of the British empire (CP)
Susan Bayly, “the Brahman Raj”
from Caste, Society and Politics in India
(CP)
Week 3:
Mon Jan 29: European trade and Indian society
Wed Jan 31: European move towards political and military
power, factors and features
Fri Feb 2: How a Company becomes a State: economic and
political policies
Metcalf, Concise History, pp. 44-81.
Clive’s speech: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1772clive-india.html
Burke’s speech: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1783Burke-india.html
Week 4:
Mon Feb 5: Orientalism and native informants
Wed Feb 7: ‘The age of reform’ in the early 19th
century
Fri Feb 9 The ‘age of renaissance’: departures and limits (Map,
reading quiz)
Phillip Wagoner, “Precolonial
Intellectuals and the Production of Colonial Knowledge,” Comparative Studies
in Society and History, 45 (4), pp. 783-814, 2003 (b-space)
Macaulay’s minute: http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/rraley/research/english/macaulay.html
Lata Mani, “Contentious
Traditions: the debate on Sati in Colonial India”, from Recasting Women (CP)
Week 5:
Mon Feb 12: Decline alongside renaissance: peasants, urban
elites and women, 1770s-1820s
Wed Feb 14: 1857: causes, patterns, effects, I
*Fri Feb 16: 1857: causes, patterns, effects, II:
Discussion on rebellion historiography
Metcalf, Concise History, pp. 81-107
Rudrangshu Mukherjee, “Satan Let
Loose upon this Earth” Past and Present,
128, Aug 1990, pp. 92-116, (b-space)
‘The Relief of Lucknow’: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/india/lowell-lucknow.html
Clips from Shatranj ke Khiladi Or
Mangal Pandey
Ranajit Guha, “Introduction” to Peasant
Insurgency in Colonial India (CP)
C.A. Bayly, “The Qasbah under
pressure” from Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars CP)
Gyan Pandey, “Encounters &
Calamities” from Subaltern Studies III
(CP)
Part II:
Modernity and the Long Nineteenth Century
Week 6:
Mon Feb 19: No Class, Univ holiday
Wed Feb 21: Pax Brittanica: The Crown takes over from the
Company First Paper Due in Class
Fri Feb 23: Governmentality and new conceptual categories
Metcalf, Concise History, pp. 108-114
Victoria’s 1858 proclamation: http://www.mssu.edu/projectsouthasia/history/primarydocs/Political_History/ABKeithDoc029.htm
Cohn, “Introduction,” and
“Chapter Three” to Colonialism & its forms of Knowledge (CP)
Risley on race and caste: http://www.chaf.lib.latrobe.edu.au/dcd/page.php?title=&action=previous&record=1628 (pp. 489-496)
Week 7:
Mon Feb 26: Socio-Economic shifts and patterns in the
later 19th century
Wed Feb 28: Cultural change, literary expressions and the
emergence of modern identities I
Fri Mar 2: Modern identities II
Metcalf,
Concise History, pp. 114-150
Sumathi
Ramaswamy, En/Gendering Language: the poetics of Tamil identity, Comparative
Studies in Society and History, 35,
4, Oct 1993, pp. 683-725. (b-space)
Bankimchandra
Chatterjee “A history for Bengal” (CP)
Dipesh
Chakrabarty, “Communal Riots and Labour”, Past & Present, 91, pp. 140-169, May 1981. (B-space)
Week 8:
Wed Mar 7: Religious communities and reform II
Fri Mar 9: Critiques of caste
Radha
Kumar, “the Nineteenth Century” from A History of Doing (CP)
Excerpts
from Dayanand’s Satyarth Prakash http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/3440/chaptereleven.html
Barbara Metcalf, “Traditionalist
Islamic Activism,” http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/metcalf.htm
Jotirao Phule, “Slavery,” (CP)
Week 9:
Mon Mar 12: Bhadralok politics and the Moderate Congress
Wed Mar 14: The Extremist moment and the rise of B.G.
Tilak
*Fri Mar 16 Discussion on nationalism
Metcalf, Concise History, 150-155
Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan on the
Congress http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/txt_sir_sayyid_lucknow_1887.html
Tilak’s speech on heroes and
Shivaji from Collected Works (b-space)
Dadabhai Naoroji on the Benefits
of British rule http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1871britishrule.html
Week 10:
Mon Mar 19: Swadeshi: economic and cultural nationalism
Wed Mar 21: Morley Minto reforms & the Muslim League
Fri Mar 23: parts of film, Home and the World (Second Paper Due in class)
Metcalf, Concise History, 155-162
Radha Kumar, “Towards becoming
mothers of the nation” and “Organization & struggle” from A History of
Doing (CP)
Sumit Sarkar, “Two Muslim tracts
for peasants” from Beyond Nationalist Frames, (CP)
Week 11: Spring Break, no class
Part III:
Nation, State and Religion in the Twentieth century
Week 12:
Mon Apr 2: The First World War: fluidity of identities
Wed Apr 4: Khilafat-Non-Cooperation
Fri Apr 6 A closer look at Gandhi’s politics and thought
Metcalf, Concise History, pp. 162-185
Shahid Amin, “Gandhi as Mahatma”
from Subaltern Studies III (CP)
David Hardiman, “Chapters 3-4”
from Gandhi in his times and ours, (CP)
Week 13:
Mon Apr 9: Critics of Gandhi, and alternative visions
Wed Apr 11: Representational politics, solidifying
identities
*Fri Apr 13: Discussion on communalism
Metcalf, Concise History, pp. 185-198
Ambedkar, excerpt from What
Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables (CP)
Pictures from Christopher Pinney,
Photos of the Gods (b-space)
Pradip Datta, “Hindu Unity and
the Common sense of the Dying Hindu, ” from Carving Blocs
Week 14:
Mon Apr 16: Communal rhetoric and organization
Wed Apr 18: The idea of Pakistan
Fri Apr 20: Urban and rural life in the interwar decades
Metcalf, Concise History, pp. 198-202
Mohammed Iqbal’s 1930 address: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/txt_iqbal_1930.html
Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s 1940
address: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/txt_jinnah_lahore_1940.html
V.D. Savarkar, excerpts from Hindutva (CP)
Ian Talbot, “The Growth of the
Muslim League, 1937-1946” (CP)
Week 15:
Mon Apr 23: Shifts in global economic alignments, and
Indian capitalism
Wed Apr 25: World War II: Quit India, and moves towards
transfer of power
Fri Apr 27 Partition-Independence
Metcalf, Concise History, pp. 203-217
Nehru, excerpt from Discovery
of India (CP)
Indivar Kamtekar, “A Different
War Dance: State and Class in India, 1939-1945”, Past & Present, 171, 1, pp. 187-221, August 2002. (b-space)
Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s address to
the Pakistan Constituent Assembly:
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/txt_jinnah_assembly_1947.html
Week 16:
Mon Apr 30 Violence and memory
*Wed May 2 film (TBA)
*Fri May 4 film (TBA)
Metcalf, Concise History, pp. 217-230 Final Paper Due in Class
Week 17:
*Mon May 7: last class (discussion on film)