Subject Area: Asian Studies
This course can also be studied in the following specialisations: Development Studies; History

This course explores India's present through its past, by drawing on a wide range of interdisciplinary methodologies in South Asian Studies. The study of colonial India and the controversies surrounding history and historiography in the subcontinent will be our special focus. The course makes extensive use of ‘Bollywood’ film, in as much as it reflects the social and historical environment in which it is produced and consumed, to illustrate lectures. The course draws on visual and material culture and recent, provocative writing, including some fiction and daily newspapers, as a means of understanding contemporary events through an historical lens. Topics aim to situate the South Asian region in a world history framework, and include: Late Mughal India; the British Raj; the colonial experience; the nationalist movement, including Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance; violent responses to colonialism; the independence of India and the creation of Pakistan, and a consideration of the early post-colonial nation. (Post-colonial developments are extensively explored in ARTS3212 Powerful India). Students who have successfully completed Modern India will develop an appreciation of India’s prospects and predicaments in the 21st century, and will also develop a nuanced understanding of the region in general.