HIST327

[WesMaps Home Page] [Course Search] [Course Search by CID]

HIST327

War and Society in India HIST327 FA

Section	Class Size	*Available	Times
1	15	7	Times: M...... 1:10PM-4:00PM;

*The number of spaces listed as available is based on class seats open for the current phase of registration. Some seats may be taken in previous phases while others may be held out for subsequent phases of registration. (Last Updated on Wed Mar 4 05:01:03 EST 1998 )

Photo Caption and Credits

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 will 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 particular 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 revolt in May of 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: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: SBS HIST

Prerequisites: None

Section 01: Pinch, W; Times: M...... 1:10PM- 4:00PM;; Grading Mode: A/F; Registration Preference (1 high to 6 low, 0=Excluded) Sr: 1, Jr: 1, So: 2, Fr: 3; Major Preference Given

Last Updated on MAR-03-1998

About the Photo:

This Indian flag was officially adopted in 1947

Reference:

Smith, Whitney. FLAGS THROUGH THE AGES AND ACROSS THE WORLD, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975

Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.