ASIA 204 - Independent India: 1947-1990s

1 unit(s)

(Same as HIST 204) When India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru looked at the new nation in 1947, he saw “unity in diversity.” When Nobel Prize winning author V. S. Naipal looked again in 1990, he saw “a million mutinies now.” We investigate the major political, social, communal, and environmental struggles that South Asian peoples have engaged in since winning their independence from the British. The political integration of seventeen provinces and some five hundred princely states that began in 1947 continues today in movements demanding reorganization on linguistic, tribal, and economic grounds. Meanwhile, diplomatic, territorial, and resource-driven conflicts embroil India with its neighbors to the north and south, while nations farther afield apply pressure and deliver conditional aid. Dalits, women, LGBTQ communities, rural folk, and minorities take their struggles to the streets and the Supreme Court, while religious factions try to live in peace or to suppress one another. Foreign elites, educated urbanites, and rural folk forge tentative alliances to demand environmental justice. As we study India’s struggles, we gain crucial insight into Indian secularism, communal violence, caste politics, gender norms, and the challenges of development and globalization. Ms. Hughes.

Not offered in 2015/16.

Two 75-minute periods.