Undergraduate Course: India in the 18th and 19th Centuries: From Mughal Empire to British Empire (HIST10506)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course introduces students to the history of the Indian subcontinent during its transition from Mughal Empire to British colonial rule. It shows how colonialism changed the patterns of growth and decline of Mughal successor states in favour of its own rise during the early modern period. The course reflects upon how the colonial state was informed by the practices of the pre-colonial state and society. |
| Course description |
The module aims to provide students with an understanding and critical analysis of changes introduced in the political, social, cultural, and economic realms during eighteenth and nineteenth-century India. Focusing on the shift of political power from Mughal rulers to the British East India Company, the course offers cutting-edge research on the demise of the Mughal Empire, the rise of the successor states, and interventions of the East India Company in the local socio-political structures. It also focuses on the changing nature of local polity and elite groups, religious reform and revivalist movements, shifts in the structure and ideology of the British East India Company, the ideology of orientalism, and resistance to colonial rule.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass or passes in 40 credits of first level historical courses or equivalent and a pass or passes in 40 credits of second level historical courses or equivalent.
Students should only be enrolled on this course with approval from the History Honours Programme Administrator. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 History courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. Applicants should note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course ** |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Critically situate a diverse body of scholarship on 18th and 19th-century Indian history
- Analyze the transition to colonialism from the perspective of regional and individual histories. This offers a fresh perspective on methodologies of studying the rise of modern India.
- Learn, through a critical analysis of regional successor states, how local developments are linked to broader, regional, national, or transnational trends and how they shape modern society and the economy.
- Write powerful and rich historical narratives using acquired analytical skills and critical knowledge; articulate ideas and arguments clearly and read complex historical texts with ease.
- Develop a high degree of intellectual autonomy and integrity and an ability to evaluate and improve the work of peers critically.
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Reading List
Meena Bhargava, eds., The Decline of the Mughal Empire, Debates in Indian History and Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).
Seema Alavi, The Eighteenth Century in India, (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002).
C. A. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen, and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770-1870, (Cambridge University Press, 1983).
Muzaffar Alam, Crisis of the Empire in Mughal India: Awadh and Punjab 1707-1730, (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993).
Shekhar Bandyopadhyay, From Plassey to Partition, (Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 2007).
Prasannan Parthasarathi, The Transition to A Colonial Economy: Weavers, Merchants, and Kings in South India, 1720-1800, (Cambridge University Press, 2001).
Ravi Ahuja, 'The Origins of Colonial Labour Policy in Late Eighteenth-Century Madras', International Review of Social History, 44 (1999), 159-195.
Nitin Sinha, Nitin Varma, and Pankaj Jha, Servant's Pasts: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century South Asia, Vol. 1, (New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2019).
C.A. Bayly, Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780-1870, (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Stephen P. Blake, Time in Early Modern Islam: Calendar, Ceremony, and Chronology in the Safavid, Mughal and Ottoman Empires (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
P.C. Joshi, ed., Rebellion 1857: A Symposium (Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1957). |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Understand the history and relevance of colonialism in South Asia.
Critically analyse the relevant academic and non-academic scholarship.
Understand and evaluate a variety of primary source material.
Develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Heena Heena
Tel: (0131 6)50 1000
Email: v1hheena@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Ksenia Gorlatova
Tel: (0131 6)50 8349
Email: Ksenia.Gorlatova@ed.ac.uk |
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