Making of Modern India

This course is designed to explore the dynamics of British colonialism and the making of the contemporary Indian nation-state (seventeenth to twenty-first century). It will examine the role of the entrepreneurs of the English East India Company in pioneering the building of an empire and the numerous strategies and institutions that sustained British power in the subcontinent for more than two centuries. The profound transformation of the economy and society and forms of collaboration and resistance generated by the British Raj will be charted, along with the formation of Hindu and Muslim political identities and the eventual emergence of India as a modern democracy and Pakistan as an Islamic dictatorship. The readings for this course include original sources and interpretive writings by Indian and Western scholars, novels, and films. The course is cross-listed as AAS 3842 and HIS 3842. Students may receive credit for only one of these courses.