Department of History

The postcolonial nation-states of South Asia were created as independent entities following World War II, after almost two centuries of British colonial dominance. This course examines political, social, cultural and economic developments in the region from the mid-twentieth century to the present. The focus is on the states carved out of British India in 1947 – India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – but we will also consider Afghanistan, Nepal, Myanmar/Burma and Sri Lanka (plus Tibet, currently an Autonomous Region of China, and smaller states such Bhutan and the Maldives), and South Asian migrants in Asia, Africa and the Americas. The course is organized around key themes in the history of the contemporary subcontinent, including the legacies of colonialism and nationalism; ethnic, caste, class and religious conflict; rural poverty, development and environmental change; urbanization and the growth of cities; radical right- and left-wing movements related to regional autonomy claims and extremist religious politics; economic globalization and labor migration; media and popular culture; and global security and new forms of imperialism. This structure will allow us to draw thematic connections between different regions and states in South Asia while examining closely a wide range of specific topics. These might include: nuclearization of India and Pakistan, socialist development projects, radical militant Hindu and Muslim politics, dalit social justice movements, conflict over and militarization of Kashmir, labor migration to the Persian Gulf, the U.S. War on Terror, the rise of Maoist anti-state resistance, globalization of the Bombay Film Industry (‘Bollywood’), rise of IT and call center industries; and others. The overall goal of the course is to introduce key themes and developments in postcolonial South Asia in a connected and global framework, and to provide students tools to develop informed analysis of topics of interest in contemporary South Asia.