Conclusion: The British Raj and the Origins of Modern India
Week I: Introduction: Foundations of Indian Civilization
Jan 21: Introduction to the course; Ancient India: geography and history
Jan 23: The foundations of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism
Reading: Embree, 1-114 Thapar, 15-49
Week II: Classical India
Jan 26: The Mauryas and the Greeks; Early Western perceptions of India
Jan 28: Indian culture, religion, and state formation in late antiquity
Jan 30: Discussion
Reading: Embree, 203-273 Thapar, 50-91
Documents: Ashoka, Pillar Edicts (c.250 BCE) Herodotus, "Greek Reports from India and Aryavarta" in History of the Persian Wars (c.430 BCE)
Week III: The Coming of Islam
Feb 2: Foundations of Islam: theology, law, and tradition
Feb 4: The Arabs and the arrival of Islam in India
Feb 6: Discussion
Reading: Embree, 381-407 Eaton, 3-18 Richard Eaton, "Introduction" in India's Islamic Traditions, 1-34 Marshall G.S. Hodgson, "The Role of Islam in World History"
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 1:2 (1970), 99-123 [JSTOR]
Feb 9: The entry point: early Turko-Afghan incursions into India
Feb 11: The "Slave Sultans" and consolidation of Turkish rule in North India
Feb 13: Discussion
Reading: Embree, 408-446 Eaton, 19-61 Thapar, 221-240 Satish Chandra, "The Impact of Central Asian Institutions
on the State and Society in Medieval India" in Essays on Medieval Indian History, 23-32 Mohammad Mujeeb, "The Qutub Complex as a social document"
in Islamic Influences on Indian Society, 111-124 Southik Biswas, "Why India’s tallest minaret landed in court"
BBC News, May 2022
RESPONSE PAPER #1 DUE FEB 9
Week V: The Delhi Sultanate
Feb 16: The Khaljis and the rise of the Delhi Sultans
Feb 18: Early Indo-Islamic religious and cultural accommodation
Feb 20: Discussion
Reading: Eaton, 62-99 Thapar, 241-265 Cynthia Talbot, "Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self: Hindu-Muslim identities in Pre-colonial India," Comparative Studies in Society and History 37:4 (1995) [JSTOR]
Document: Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, Alberuni's India (1030 CE | 421 AH)
Week VI: Religious Developments in the Indo-Islamic World
Feb 23: Bhakti, devotional literature, and the transformation of Hindu worship
Feb 25: Sufism and the Islamic mystical tradition in India
Feb 27: Discussion
Reading: Embree, 342-378, 447-463 Eaton, 100-141 Thapar, 289-320 Simon Digby, "The Sufi Shaikh as a Source of Authority in Medieval India" in Eaton, India's Islamic Traditions, 234-262
Mar 9: The Indian Ocean: commerce, culture, and communication
Mar 11: The Silk Road: Indian merchants and overland trade
Mar 13: Discussion
Reading: Stephen Dale, "An Indian world economy" in Indian Merchants and Eurasian Trade, 1-44 Janet Rizvi, "Silk, Spices, and Salt: The Trades of Inner Asia" in Trans-Himalayan Caravans, 3-21 Om Prakash, "Introduction" and "India in the Indian Ocean Trade c.1500" in European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-colonial India, 1-22
Documents: The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century CE) Ibn Battuta, "Sind and North-western India" in The Travels of Ibn Battuta (1354 CE | 755 AH)
Mar 16: The Portuguese and the Estado da India
Mar 18: The Jesuits in India: religion, politics, and cultural exchange
Mar 20: Discussion
Reading: M.N. Pearson, "The Portuguese arrival in India" and "Catholics and Hindus" in The Portuguese in India, 5-39, 116-130 Paul Axelrod and Michelle A. Fuerch, "Flight of the Deities: Hindu Resistance in Portuguese Goa," Modern Asian Studies, 30:2 (1996), 387-421 [JSTOR]
Documents: Vasco da Gama, "Round Africa to India" (1498) Francis Xavier, "Letter from Goa" (1542) Pope Gregory XIII, "Letter to Akbar"; Jesuit letters from Fatehpur Sikri (1580-83)
RESPONSE PAPER #3 DUE MAR 20
Week X: The Rise of the Mughals
Mar 30: Babur, Humayun, and early Mughal political competition
Apr 1: Akbar and his world
Apr 3: Discussion
Reading: Eaton, 195-243 Embree, 463-475, 483-489 Rosalind O'Hanlon, "History, Gender, and Imperial Service under Akbar," Modern Asian Studies, 41:5 (2007), 889-923 [JSTOR] "Wine and Tulips in Kabul," The Economist (Dec 2010), 80-82 Dwight Garner, "A Warlord's Memoir" in The New York Times (Nov 2020)
Apr 6: Mughal social, agrarian, and administrative systems
Apr 8: Imperial patronage: art, architecture, and literature
Apr 10: Discussion
Reading: Eaton, 244-287 Satish Chandra, "Mughal-Rajput Relations in the seventeenth century: Problems of a Class Alliance" in Essays on Medieval Indian History, 407-445 Ahsan Jan Qaisar, "Painting, Architecture and Music" in The Indian Response to European Technology and Culture, 85-127 Jason Farago, "What a Tiny Masterpiece reveals about Power and Beauty" in The New York Times (April 2021)
Documents: François Bernier, "An Account of India and the Great Moghul" (1655) Jahangir, "Letter to King James I of England" (1617)
Apr 13: The Sikhs of the Punjab
Apr 15: Shivaji and the Maratha Confederacy
Apr 17: Discussion
Reading: Embree, 491-510 Eaton, 340-379 J.S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab, 1-8, 28-81 M.N. Pearson, "Shivaji and the Decline of the Mughal Empire," Journal of Asian Studies, 35:2 (1976), 221-235 [JSTOR]
Week XIII: The Decline of the Mughals and the Rise of the British
Apr 20: Mughal fragmentation and the growth of successor states
Apr 22: The East India Company and the British conquest of Bengal
Apr 24: Discussion
Reading: Eaton, 288-339 Om Prakash, "The Supremacy of the East India Company, 1740-1800" in European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-colonial India, 268-314
Documents: Aurangzeb, Farewell (1707) 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 (1783) Edmund Burke, Speech in the House of Commons on India (1783)
Week XIV: Conclusion: The British Raj and the Origins of Modern India
Apr 27: The Orientalists, the Bengal Renaissance, and the Anglo-Indian encounter
Apr 29: Conclusion: some final thoughts about India in the "Age of Empire"
Reading: Eaton, 380-398 Om Prakash, "Conclusion" in European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-colonial India, 337-351 Aatish Taseer, "In India, a Name is Rarely Just a Name" in The New York Times (Jul 2017)
Documents: Rammohan Roy, "A defense of Hindu theism" (1817) and "Remarks on settlement in India by Europeans" (1832)
