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Academic Year 2001/2002

War and Society in India
HIST 327 FA
Clusters:

Southern Asia and Indian Ocean

This seminar examines war in society, with a particular focus on the transition to British colonial rule in India from 1757 (the battle of Plassey) to 1857 (the Sepoy Rebellion). Though we will be concerned with the outcome of specific battles, the decision-making processes implicit to military command and the varying merits of weaponry. Of greater importance to the seminar will be discerning the social, cultural, and technological dimensions of war-making in an India that was increasingly tied to Europe. We will begin with a general theoretical consideration of the history of warfare and its relation to state-building before turning to the complexities of the Indian scene around 1750. Our examination of the transition to British colonial rule wil l hinge on the related questions of martial identity (i.e., as Rajput, Sikh, Maratha, Naga, Sepoy, Afghan, Gurkha, etc.) and military recruitment, and how issues of caste informed the process of war-making and state-building in southern Asia. Of particula r interest in this regard will be the rise of the English East India Company's Bengal Army, one of the most successful military machines of its time--until it ventured through the Khyber Pass and into Afgfhanistan in the late 1830s and then rose up in rev olt in May 1857. One of our final questions will be whether this military mutiny also constituted and/or joined forces with a popular, peasant-based rebellion.

MAJOR READINGS

(depending on availability) Philip Woodruff, A MATTER OF HONOUR Seema, Alavi, THE SEPOY AND THE COMPANY Dirk Koff, NAUKAR, RAJPUT AND SEPOY Sita Ram Pandey, FROM SEPOY TO SUBEDAR Rudrangshu Mukherjee, AWADH IN REVOLT [and lots of primary sources, interspersed]

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

By the fifth or sixth week students will have settled on a research topic; each student will produce by the end of the semester a big research paper based on primary documents and informed by relevant theoretical and secondary works. The grade for that paper will constitute the main basis for the grade in the course. A smaller but significant portion of the grade will be based on participation in the seminar discussion.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2002

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