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Post-Colonial South Asia

Module description

This module will introduce you to the political, social, cultural and economic development of South Asia from 1947. It will pay proportionate attention to the histories of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The aim will be to integrate different ways and methods of interpreting the region using a consciously multi-disciplinary approach.

This module will also be taught with and alongside colleagues and students at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Module aims - intentions of the module

Historical studies of South Asia typically end in 1947, the year India and Pakistan became separate countries and were freed from British rule. Post-1947 South Asia tends to be studied by political scientists, geographers, economists and others, who pay lesser attention to historical processes. This has led to South Asia since independence being viewed through pre-conceived theoretical lenses; as a series of crises and paradoxes. The course will enable you to make a longer-term temporal analysis, using insights from multiple disciplines. You will be equipped to see how the apparent paradoxes of South Asian politics, economics, environment, society and culture are expressions of long-standing dialectical and dialogical processes, and the results of engagement by different actors. It is those actors and processes that will be the focus of this module.

The module will aim to develop your skills in researching, interpreting and analyzing both primary and secondary sources. These skills will be necessary to study histories of the Global South with which you may be unfamiliar and be useful as your progress to the third year of the undergraduate degrees.

The module will also be taught with and alongside colleagues and students at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. It will allow you to interact with your peers from Pakistan.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Critically evaluate the various developments in the histories of South Asia since independence.
• 2. Identify and explain the key developments and debates in postcolonial and post-Orientalist history writing.
• 3. Critically evaluate the main political, social, cultural, and economic trends relating to the histories of South Asia since independence.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Analyse key developments in a complex historical environment
• 5. Demonstrate an ability to handle profoundly different approaches to history in a deeply contested area
• 6. Demonstrate an ability to understand and deploy complex historical terminology in a comprehensible manner

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Select, organise and analyse material for written work of different prescribed lengths and formats.
• 8. Present an argument in a written form in a clear and organised manner, with appropriate use of correct English

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Partition
• Nationhood/State-Making
• Internationalism
• Developmentalism
• Film and Literature
• Ethnic and Linguistic Identities
• Communalism
• Separatism
• Where/When is the Postcolonial

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Indicative Reading List:

• Crispin Bates, Subalterns and Raj: South Asia since 1600 (London: Routledge, 2007).
• Sumit Ganguly & Neil Devota, Understanding Contemporary India (London: Lynne Rienner, 2003).
• Ramchandra Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy (London: Pan, 2008).
• Ayesha Jalal and Sugata Bose, Modern South Asia (London: Routledge 2003).
• Sunil Khilnani, The Idea of India (London: Penguin, 1997).
• Sankaran Krishna, Postcolonial Insecurities: India, Sri Lanka and the Question of Nationhood (Minneapolis: Minnesota Univ., 1999).
• Ali Riaz and Mohammad Sajjadur Rahman (eds) Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Bangladesh (London: Routledge, 2020).
• Francis Robinson (ed.) The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of India. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
• Stanley Wolpert, A New History of India (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004).

Key words search

South Asia, Post-Colonial, Nationalism, State-Making, Partition, Ethnicity, Communalism, Separatism, Development, Internationalism