History 281 - SOUTH ASIAN PASTS AND PRESENTS

This course introduces students to the history, culture, and politics of the region we know as South Asia. We begin when the British East India Company was beginning to assert its influence over parts of the subcontinent. We then work through the transfer of the Company's Indian dominions to the British Crown and the rise of nationalism culminating in independence and partition in 1947. The second half of our course shall be informed by more presentist discussions surrounding economic development trajectories, movements for social justice and self-determination, and the South Asian diaspora in various parts of the world.