Department of History

Level: 2

Semester: 1

Prerequisite: None

Course Description:

This course provides a survey of the history of the Indian sub-continent from the advent of the Mughals to the assumption of Crown Rule by Britain.  Topics include: Hindu beginnings and Islamic penetration;  The establishment of the Mughal Empire and its political, economic and social policies;  The state and the cultivator;  Akbar and the imperial idea;  Islam in Indian life, Conversion and new religious currents;  The Hindu South, the Sikhs and the Marathas;  Mughal decline and Western intrusion;  Trade, tribute and empire in the 17th and 18th centuries;  British attitudes towards India, social and cultural contacts to 1850 and the Indian response;  The Bengali Renaissance; the 1857 Revolt and its aftermath.