HIST 374 History of Modern India & Pakistan

An examination of the broad contours of south Asian history after 1500 by considering the histories of those parts of the sub-continent covered by India and Pakistan (and by extension, Bangladesh). There will also be a brief detour through the Himalayan world by looking closely at the history of Gorkha (present-day Nepal). Major themes include: the Mughal Empire, European colonial interventions and indigenous responses (reform, rebellion, and nationalism), and the painful emergence of south Asian nations and their postcolonial predicaments. These themes will also intersect with the following concerns: Mughal state making, colonial governance and its forms of knowledge, subaltern histories, gender and caste studies, communalism, and discourses on development.