Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

This course will address the main themes and dynamics that marked the history of the Indian subcontinent, in colonial and post-colonial times. The aim of the course is to portray a comprehensive picture of the social, cultural, political, and economic processes that contributed to shape the socio-political map of the subcontinent, with a specific emphasis on the transition that led to the creation of independent states during the 20th century.

A trans-regional approach will also help contextualise the history of the subcontinent in relation to the rest of the world, highlighting exchanges, communication and balances of power. 

 In particular the course main theme of the 2020/2021 course will be the complexity of the caste system, in terms of belonging, social and cultural hierarchy, and political cousciousness. The controversial role of colonial politics in making caste boundaries more rigid and the creation of a system of multiple citizenship in independent India will be the two extremes between which the course will move.

This course is designed to familiarise students with concepts, methods, approaches and empirical research on the History of South Asia. By the end of the course students should be able to demonstrate:

• an understanding of the cultural context of specific topics and critical events in the history of modern South Asia, and an ability to develop case studies on their own.
• a deep understanding of the main political, economic and socio-cultural dynamics that participated in producing more visible boudaries across collective identities in the independent Indian state.
• the capacity to write analytically about topics in the field and to cultivate a capacity for critical thinking.

The course will combine class lectures and seminars where students will read and discuss selected articles. For attending students, weekly readings will amount to part of the final programme, and will substitute one of the textbooks indicated below.

Assessment for students who attend the class:

The final mark will be the result of the following elements: active participation in classroom seminars (20%); participation in group work for preparing a presentation on a selected case-study (30%); a written exam (50%; short questions and essay questions).  The final written exam will revolve around the general contents and readings of the course. In order to get top marks (27-30), students have to show not only descriptive knowledge but also critical capacity, adequate reference to the relevant literature. 

Non attending students will have to prepare a distinct programme as they will not be present during class discussions and group's presentations. The programme is specified below

The course will include lectures, seminars and class discussions. Every week students will be assigned specific readings that will be the object of a dedicated round discussion. All class material will be available on Moodle. Lectures will mainly follow a diachronical line, with the aim to provide students with key concepts to interpret historical processes that shaped the subcontinent in modern times, from the consolidation of colonial power to its collapse and to the construction of the postcolonial state. Seminars are intended as moments aimed at deepening specific issues, like the construction of orientalism, the relationship between colonialism and the consolidation of collective identities, mass violence, citizenship and caste in the postcolonial state.

- David Ludden, India and South Asia: a Short History, Oneworld Publications, 2013

Attending students: the programme of the final exam will be based on the two abovementioned books and the readings assigned every week in class.

Non attendig Students: a third book will be added to the two compulsory readings stated above. You can choose the third book among the following:

- Nicholas Dirks, Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India, Princeton University Press, 2001.

- Gyanendra Pandey, The Contrusction of Communalism in Colonial North India, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

- Christophe Jaffrelot, India's Silent Revolution: the Rise of the Lower Castes in North India, Hurst Publishers: 2003.

- Gyanendra Pandey, Routine Violence: Nations, Fragments, Histories, Stanford University Press, 2005.