History 397CL - ST-LaborColonialIndia1750-1950

Focusing on Calcutta (present day Kolkata) and Bombay (present day Mumbai), the two most important port cities and industrial centers of British India, this course examines how trade and industrialization shaped urban society and politics in colonial India. We will explore themes that include the following: colonial trade, the gendered history of colonial labor migration, beginning of factory industries, the emergence of a class of industrial entrepreneurs and wage earners, the built environment of colonial cities, industrial housing, the development of labor unions and their interactions with the anti-imperialist nationalist politics.