The Banks of the Ganges at Varanasi
LEWIS & CLARK COLLEGE



Prof. David Campion



MAIN PAGE COURSE REQUIREMENTS ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES MAP EXERCISE SOUTH ASIA IN FILM SOUTH ASIA ONLINE

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES

SPRING 2012

Week I Jan 18-20The Origins of Modern India
Week II Jan 23-27Ideologies of Empire and their Consequences
Week III Jan 30-Feb 3Caste, Religion, and Power in Colonial Indian Society
Week IV Feb 6-10 Collaboration and Resistance
Week V Feb 13-17The Great Game
Week VI Feb 20-24The Anglo-Indian Encounter
Week VII Feb 27-Mar 2War and Reform
Week VIII Mar 5-9Mahatma Gandhi: The Man and the Image
Week IX Mar 12-16The End of Empire and the Transfer of Power
Week X Mar 19-23Postwar South Asia and the World
Week XI Apr 2-6The Dynamics of South Asian Politics
Week XII Apr 9-13The Lives of the Powerful and the Excluded
Week XIII Apr 16-20Contemporary South Asian Society
Week XIV Apr 23-25South Asia: Present and Future



Week I: The Origins of Modern India

Jan 18: Introduction: Indian society in the eighteenth century
Jan 21: The East India Company and the British conquest of Bengal

Reading:
Metcalf, 1-55
Hay, 1-15
"The Company that ruled the waves" in The Economist, Dec 2011

Documents:
Robert Clive, Letter to William Pitt regarding British policy in Bengal (1759)
East India Company Act of 1767
Robert Clive, Speech in the House of Commons on India (1772)
Warren Hastings, Letter to Court of Directors of the East India Company (1773)
Edmund Burke, Speech in the House of Commons on India (1783)


Week II: Ideologies of Empire and their Consequences

Jan 23: "Orientalists," "Anglicists," and the Bengal Renaissance
Jan 25: The Revolt of 1857: causes and consequences
Jan 27: Discussion


Reading:
Metcalf, 56-91
Hay, 15-34
Bernard S. Cohn, "The Command of Language and the Language of Command" in Ranajit Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies IV

Documents:
William Bentinck, "On Ritual Murder in India" (1829)
T.B. Macauley, "Minute on Education" (1835) and Resolution of Lord Bentinck (1835)
Mountstuart Elphinstone, "Indian Customs and Manners" (1840)
Earl of Dalhousie, Report on the Administration of India (1856)
Elisa Greathed, An Account of the Indian Mutiny at Meerut (1857)

Suggested films: The Deceivers (1988), Shatranj ke Khilari (1977), The Rising (2005)


Week III: Caste, Religion, and Power in Colonial Indian Society

Jan 30: Inside village India: caste, kinship, and land
Feb 1: The politics of religious identity: Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs in colonial India
Feb 3: Discussion


Reading:
Metcalf, 92-122
Hay, 36-62, 72-82, 120-127, 180-195
Gyan Pandey, "The Colonial Construction of Communalism" in Ranajit Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies VI

Suggested films: Lagaan (2001), Pather Panchali (1955)

MAP EXERCISE DUE JAN 30



Week IV: Collaboration and Resistance

Feb 6: The dynamics of Indian society under the British Raj
Feb 8: Origins of Indian nationalism
Feb 10: Discussion


Reading:
Metcalf, 123-166
Hay, 84-120, 128-159

Document:
Queen Victoria, Proclamation to the Princes, Chiefs, and the People of India (1858)

RESPONSE PAPER #1 DUE FEB 10



Week V: The Great Game

Feb 13: Lord Curzon and British strategy in Central Asia
Feb 15: The princely states and shape of British paramountcy
Feb 17: Discussion: The Home and the World


Reading:
Tagore, The Home and the World

Document:
Francis Younghusband, Convention between Great Britain and Tibet (1904)

Image: 360° panaromic view from the summit of Mount Everest

Suggested films: The Home and the World (1984), A Passage to India (1984)


Week VI: The Anglo-Indian Encounter

Feb 20: The "Jewel in the Crown": India and the British imperial identity
Feb 22: Rabindranath Tagore and his world: the development of modern South Asian literature
Feb 24: Discussion


Reading:
Hay, 130-139, 277-288
Bernard S. Cohn, "Representing Authority in Victorian India" in Hobsbawm and Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition
R.J. Moore, "Imperial India, 1858-1914," Ch.19 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol III

Documents:
Rudyard Kipling, "Gunga Din" (1891) and "The White Man's Burden" (1898)
Rabindranath Tagore, "Once there was a king" (1916)

Suggested films: Devdas (1998), Kim (1950), The Man Who Would be King (1974)

RESPONSE PAPER #2 DUE FEB 20



Week VII: War and Reform

Feb 27: First steps toward reform: Morley-Minto and the "Indianization" of government
Feb 29: India in the Great War, 1914-1918
Mar 2: MIDTERM EXAMINATION


Documents:
Viscount Morley of Blackburn, Speech to the House of Commons (1909)
G.K. Gokhale, Political Testament (1915)
Lucknow Pact (1916)
Edwin S. Montagu, Speech to the House of Commons (1917)
Government of India, Notification granting military commissions to Indians (1918)
King George V, Proclamation on the Government of India Act (1919)

SPECIAL EVENT: 49th Annual Throckmorton Lecture
Prof. Mary Elizabeth Berry, University of California, Berkeley
"Catechisms of Consumption for the Material Girl in Early Modern Japan"
Monday, Feb 27, 3:30 PM - Council Chamber




Week VIII: Mahatma Gandhi: The Man and the Image

Mar 5: The life, philosophy, and politics of Mohandas K. Gandhi
Mar 7: Gandhi, Nehru, and the rise of "civil disobedience"
Mar 9: Discussion


Reading:
Metcalf, 167-202
Hay, 243-275
Partha Chatterjee, "Gandhi and the Critique of Civil Society" in Ranajit Guha (ed.) Subaltern Studies III

Documents:
Mohandas K. Gandhi, "Indian Home Rule" (1909) and "Quit India" Resolution [original draft] (1942)

Suggested film: Bhowani Junction (1956), Gandhi (1982), Rang de Basanti (2006)
The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002)
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE MAR 9



Week IX: The End of Empire and the Transfer of Power

Mar 12: India's war at home and abroad, 1939-1945
Mar 14: A bloody birth: Independence and Partition
-------- Film: Earth, 7-10PM, Miller 102
Mar 16: Discussion


Reading:
Metcalf, 203-230
Hay, 195-242, 304-314
Ian Talbot, "Literature and the Human Drama of the 1947 Partition" in Talbot and Singh (eds.) Region and Partition

Documents:
Subhas Chandra Bose, Plan for cooperation between the Axis powers and India (1941)
Joachim von Ribbentrop, Brief for the Führer on "British India" (1941)
US State Department, Orders to American Forces in India (1942)
Clement Attlee, "The end of British rule in India" (1947)
Winston Churchill, "Britain's shameful flight from India" (1947)
Jawaharlal Nehru, "A tryst with destiny" (1947) [Audio: BBC Radio Archive]

Images:
BBC Photo Archive, Photographs of the partition of India and Pakistan (1947)

Video and Audio:
BBC Film Archive, Lord Mountbatten reads address by King George VI on Indian independence (1947)
BBC Radio Archive, Muhammad Ali Jinnah's address on Pakistan's independence (1947)

Suggested films: 1942, A Love Story (1994), Jinnah (1998), Hey Ram (2000)
Mountbatten: Last Viceroy (1986), Jewel in the Crown (1984), Staying On (1979)

RESPONSE PAPER #3 DUE MAR 16



Week X: Postwar South Asia and the World

Mar 19: The Indian Republic comes of age: The Nehruvian state and the planned economy
Mar 21: On the world stage: Indian and Pakistani foreign policy in the Cold War
Mar 23: Discussion


Reading:
Metcalf, 231-264
Jones 1-42
Hay, 315-352
Robert J. McMahon, "United States Cold War strategy in South Asia", Journal of American History, 75 (1988)

Documents:
Maharaja Hari Singh, Instrument of Accession, Jammu and Kashmir State (1947)
Jawaharlal Nehru, "Marxism, Capitalism and India's Future" (1941), Speech to the Bandung Conference Political Committee (1955), and "Economic Development and Nonalignment" (1956)

RESPONSE PAPER #4 DUE MAR 23



Week XI: The Dynamics of South Asian Politics

Apr 2: The Congress Party, separatist movements, Indira Gandhi, and the "Emergency"
Apr 4: Pakistan and Bangladesh: Islam and the nation state
Apr 6: Discussion


Reading:
Hay, 379-411
Jones, 43-75, 140-180

Suggested films: Such a Long Journey (1998), Bhopal Express (2001), The Terrorist (1999)



Week XII: The Lives of the Powerful and the Excluded

Apr 9: The ties that divide: caste, religion, and language in Modern India and Sri Lanka
Apr 11: From purdah to prime minister: women in contemporary South Asian society
Apr 13: Discussion


Reading:
Bumiller, May you be the Mother of a Hundred Sons, 3-147, 230-289

Suggested films: Mr. & Mrs. Iyer (2002), Bandit Queen (1995), Mirch Masala (1985)
Water (2006), Salaam Bombay (1988), Fire (1997), White Rainbow (2005)

RESPONSE PAPER #5 DUE APR 13



Week XIII: Contemporary South Asian Society

Apr 16: Secularism, religious fundamentalism, and the battle for power in India and Pakistan
Apr 18: Cultures and identities in the South Asian Diaspora
Apr 20: Discussion


Reading:
Jones, 181-290
Hay, 289-296, 359-365
Salman Rushdie, "The New Empire within Britain" in Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, "Clothes" and "The Ultrasound" in Arranged Marriage

Suggested films: Monsoon Wedding (2002), East is East (1998), Bombay (1995)
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), My Son the Fanatic (1997), Silent Waters (2003)

RESEARCH ESSAY DUE APR 20



Week XIV: South Asia: Present and Future

Apr 23: South Asia's short fuse: Kashmir, nuclear proliferation, and implications for the world
Apr 25: Conclusion: The Future of South Asia


Reading:
Metcalf, 265-304
Jones, 76-139, 291-325
"Perilous Journey" in The Economist, Feb 2012

Documents:
Declaration of India and Pakistan on Jammu and Kashmir (1966)
Simla Agreement on Kashmir (1972)

Suggested films: Mission Kashmir (2000), Kandahar (2001), In This World (2002)
Born into Brothels (2004)

FINAL EXAMINATION: THURSDAY 3 MAY, 8:30-11:30 AM



Night view of the Mumbai Skyline

Created by campion@lclark.edu
Updated: August 2012