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Academic Year 2005/2006
Sophomore Seminar: War in India, 1757-1857
HIST 157 SP
In 1857 the bulk of Britain's Bengal ("sepoy") Army rose up in mutiny. This mutiny soon erupted into a widespread civil rebellion across northern India, involving peasants, landlords, and royals. The uprising was
brutally
suppressed in the course of the following year, but it led to profound changes in the nature of British imperialism and set the stage for the Indian nationalist movement. 1857 has been understood as a religious
conspiracy,
a military mutiny, a popular rebellion, even as India's first national war of independence. It has not been understood as a civil war, though casting it as such prompts a more nuanced apprehension of what, precisely,
was
constituted by the social and political formation that was the British Empire in Asia. This sophomore seminar begins with the cataclysmic events of 1857 as a lens through which to understand India's multi-pronged
response
to British imperialism. We then turn to a detailed consideration of the global "military revolution" and what it entailed for state and society in southern Asia.
MAJOR READINGS
Required texts:
G. Parker, THE MILITARY REVOLUTION
Jos Gommans, MUGHAL WARFARE: INDIAN FRONTIERS AND HIGHROADS TO EMPIRE 1500-1700
C. A. Bayly, INDIAN SOCIETY AND THE MAKING OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Rudrangshu Mukherjee, AWADH IN REVOLT
1857-1858: ASTUDY OF POPULAR RESISTANCE
In addition, we will also read and report on the following major assessments of the Mutiny/Rebellion:
William Howard Russell, THE INDIAN MUTINY: A DIARY OF THE SEPOY
REBELLION (London 1859)
Sir Say
yid Ahmad Khan, HISTORY OF THE BIJNOR REBELLION (North India 1860s)
John William Kaye, HISTORY OF THE INDIAN MUTINY OF 1857-8 (London 1870-79)
G. B Malleson, THE INDIAN MUTINY OF 1857 (London 1891)
Vinayak
Damodar Savarkar, THE INDIAN WAR OF
INDEPENDENCE (Kuala Lumpur 1909, London 1910)
Edward John Thompson, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MEDAL (London 1925)
Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, THE SEPOY MUTINY AND THE REVOLT OF 1857 (Calcutta 1957)
Surendra Nath Sen,
EIGHTEEN FIFTY-SEVEN (Delhi 1957)
Eric Stokes, THE PEASANT AND THE RAJ: STUDIES IN AGRARIAN SOCIETY AND THE PEASANT REBELLION IN COLONIAL INDIA (Cambridge 1978)
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Students will be graded on short papers, formal presentations, seminar discussion, and a final research paper of fifteen pages.
COURSE FORMAT:
Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
NONE
SECTION 01
- Instructor(s): Pinch,William R.
- Times: ....R.. 01:10PM-04:00PM; Location: PAC413;
- Reserved Seats: (Total Limit: 12)
- SR. major: 1 Jr. major: 0
- SR. non-major: 0 Jr. non-major: 1 SO: 10 FR: 0
Special Attributes:
Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-30-2006
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