The Making of Modern South Asia

Readings

Required Readings

Bose, Sugata, and Ayesha Jalal. Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy. New York, NY: Routledge, 1998. ISBN: 9780415169523.

Narayan, R. K. The Ramayana. New York, NY: Penguin, 2006. ISBN: 9780143039679.

Mahomet, Dean. The Travels of Dean Mahomet: An Eighteenth Century Journey through India. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780520207172.

Gandhi, Mohandas K. Hind Swaraj and Other Writings. Edited by Anthony J. Parel. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780521574310.

Gopal, Sarvepalli, ed. Anatomy of a Confrontation: The Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhumi Issue. New York, NY: Penguin, 1991. ISBN: 9780140169805.

Readings by Session

SES #	TOPICS	READINGS	IMPORTANT TERMS
1. Indo-Gangetic civilizations
1	Introduction	Selections from Doniger, Wendy, ed., and tr. The Rig Veda. Reprint ed. New York, NY: Penguin, 2005. ISBN: 9780140449891. Also available online: Griffith, Ralph T. H., tr. The Rig Veda. Selections from Trautmann, Thomas R. The Aryan Debate. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780195669084. Mines, Diane P., and Sarah Lamb. “Seven Prevalent Misconceptions about India’s Caste System.” In Everyday Life is South Asia. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780253215215. Also in Ghanta 3 (Spring 1992): 7. Gadgill, Madhav, and Ramachandra Guha. “Forest and Fire.” In This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780195633412. Thapar, Romila. “Early India, an Overview.” In History and Beyond. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 114-136. ISBN: 9780195647082. Film: Wedding of the Goddess. 1976. Begin reading R. K. Narayan. The Ramayana.	(PDF)
2	The Aryan debate
3	Religions and castes
2. The age of epics and the religious heterodoxies
4	The Ramayana and the Mahabharata	Selections from Arthashastra and Kamasutra. Chattopadhyaya, B. D. “Indian Archeology and the Epic Traditions.” In Studying Early India, Archeology, Texts and History Issues. New York, NY: Anthem Press, 2005, pp. 29-38. ISBN: 9781843311324.	(PDF)
5	Regional powers and the making of “Hindu Classical” age
3. Changing medieval territories 700 and 1200 AD
6	Indo-Persian imperial society	Excerpts from the Quran. Selections from Alberuni’s India. Volume 1 and Volume 2. Edited by Edward C. Sachau. Chestnut Hill, MA: Adamant Media Corporation, 2004. ISBNs: 9781421263601 and 9781421263595, respectively. Eaton, Richard. “Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States.” Essays on Islam and Indian History. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 94-132. ISBN: 9780195651140. Sharma, Ram Sharan. “Changes in Social Structure.” In Early Medieval Indian Society. Andhra Pradesh, India: Orient Longman, 2001, pp. 186-213. ISBN: 9788125020271. Modern South Asia. Chapters 3 and 4. Begin Reading The Travels of Dean Mahomet.	(PDF)
7	India under Akbar
4. India and the world trading system
8	The Indian Ocean trade	Modern South Asia. Chapter 5. Dasgupta, Ashin. “Indian Merchants and Trade in the Indian Ocean, c. 1500-1750.” In The World of the Indian Ocean Merchant, 1500-1800: Collected Essays of Ashin Dasgupta. Compiled by Uma Das Gupta. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 59-87. ISBN: 9780195650198.
9	Life and times during the 18th century
5. Company rule in India 1765-1857
10	From traders to rulers	Modern South Asia. Chapters 6-8. Primary Sources Petition of Hindus against Abolition of Sati (1829). Thomas Babington Macauley’s “Government of India” speech in Parliament on the Government of India Bill (July 10, 1833) Paragraphs [13b] and [13d]. Available in his Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches (Vol. 4) via Project Gutenberg. Macaulay’s Minute on Education (1835) Paragraphs [7] to [34]. Rammohun Roy on Hindu Women. Metcalf, Thomas R. “Introduction.” In Ideologies of the Raj. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 1-27. ISBN: 9780521395472. Bayly, C. A. “The Qasbah Under Pressure.” In Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: Northern Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion 1770-1870. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780195663457.	(PDF)
11	The Sepoy Mutiny
6. The “Jewel in the Crown”: India within the British Empire
12	Film showing	Film: Ray, Satyajit. Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players), 1977. Modern South Asia. Chapters 9-11. Primary Source Naoroji, Dadabhai, and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. In Sources of Indian Tradition, Vol. 2. Edited by Stephen Hay. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780231064156. Secondary Reading Cohn, Bernard. “The Census, Social Structure and Objectification in South Asia.” In An Anthropologist Among Historians and Other Essays. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN: 9780195626162. Sarkar, Tanika. “Rhetoric against the Age of Consent.” Economic and Political Weekly (September 4, 1993): 1869-1878.	(PDF)
13	Society, culture, and economy of the colony
14	Resistance, reform, and revival
7. The Rise of nationalism
15	Early nationalism	Modern South Asia. Chapters 12-14. Selections from Gandhi, M. K. Hind Swaraj. Selections from Nehru, Jawaharlal. The Discovery of India. New York, NY: Penguin, 2004. ISBN: 9780143031031. Select speeches by Muhammad A. Jinnah. In Sources of Indian Tradition, Vol. 2. Edited by Stephen Hay. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780231064156. Selections from Ambedkar, B. R. What the Congress has done for the Untouchables. Bombay, India: Thacker, 1946. Amin, Shahid. “Gandhi as Mahatma: Gorakhpur District, Eastern UP, 1921.” In Selected Subaltern Studies. Edited by Ranajit Guha and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780195052893. Kamtekar, Indivar. “A Different War Dance: State and Class in India, 1939-1945.” Past & Present 171, no. 1 (August 2002): 187-221. Bose, Sugata. “Nation, Reason and Religion.” Economic and Political Weekly (August 1, 1999).
16	Gandhi and mass nationalism
17	India in the 1940’s
8. Partition and independence
18	Why partition?	Modern South Asia. Chapters 15-17. Excerpt from Nehru, Jawaharlal. The Discovery of India. New York, NY: Penguin, 2004. ISBN: 9780143031031. Manto, Sadat Hasan. “Toba Tek Singh.” In Mirrorwork: 50 Years of Indian Writing 1974-1997. Edited by Salman Rushdie and Elizabeth West. New York, NY: Owl Books, 1997. ISBN: 9780805057102. Bhaduri, Satinath. “The Champion of the People.” In Stories About the Partition of India. Vol. 1. Edited and translated by Alok Bhalla. New Delhi, India: Harper Collins India, 1999. ISBN: 9788172233570. Azad, Maulana Abul Kalam. India Wins Freedom. London, UK: Sangam Books, Ltd., 1998, pp. 145-207. ISBN: 9788125005148. Jalal, Ayesha. The Sole Spokesman. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp. 241-293. ISBN: 9780521458504. Film: Sathyu, M. S. Garam Hawa, 1973.	(PDF)
19	Partition: memories and meanings
20	Mid-term examination
9. Post-colonial nations?
21	Experiments with democracy: Pakistan and Bangladesh	Modern South Asia. Chapter 18. Jalal, Ayesha. “Exploding Communalism: The Politics of Identity in South Asia.” In Nationalism, Democracy, and Development: State and Politics in India. Edited by Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 76-103. ISBN: 9780195639445.
22	The Sri Lankan story
10. Issues in Independent India
23	Economic development	Modern South Asia. Chapter 19. Dreze, Jean, and Amartya Sen. India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 87-108, 179-204. ISBN: 9780198290124. Selections from Mehta, Suketu. Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. Reprint ed. New York, NY: Vintage, 2005. ISBN: 9780375703409. Hasan, Zoya. “Uniform Civil Code and Gender Justice in India.” In Contemporary India - Transitions. Edited by Peter Ronald deSouza. London, UK: Sage Publications, 2000, pp. 282-30. ISBN: 9780761994800. Basu, Amrita. “Mass Movement or Elite Conspiracy? The Puzzle of Hindu Nationalism.” In Contesting the Nation: Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India. Edited by David Ludden. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996, pp. 143-166. ISBN: 9780812215854. Ali, Agha Shahid. The Country Without a Post Office: Poems. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1998. ISBN: 9780393317619. Bose, Sumantra. The Challenge in Kashmir: Democracy, Self-Determination, and a Just Peace. London, UK: Sage Publications, 1997, pp. 30-104. ISBN: 9780803993501. Film: Patwardhan, Anand. In the Name of God, 1992.
24	Caste, community, and sexuality
25	Regionalism vs. nationalism
26	Religion and politics
27	Conclusions