Early Modern India, 1500-1800

Catalog description

This course surveys historical developments in what are now the modern nation states of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh between roughly the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Students will explore South Asian society, culture, and religion in the broader context of state-formation, imperial expansion, and global economic transformations. We will examine the makings of the Mughal Empire, one of the most influential states in the subcontinent’s history, its predecessors, successors, and rivals, as well as its complex and contested legacy. This course will also consider why myriad European individuals, corporations, and states turned to South Asia in pursuit of their commercial as well as political fortunes. The course will conclude with a discussion of the ruptures of the eighteenth century, particularly the advent of multiple provincial kingdoms, and the establishment of British political authority. P