Browse Hierarchy HSZ5726: Violence and Modernity in Twentieth-Century India

This module provides an introduction to modern Indian history through the thematic of violence and its relationship to politics and social change. Interrogating India's momentous twentieth century - from the dawn of mass anti-colonial politics to the independent state's emergence as global power - students will explore how the triumphant story of Gandhian satyagraha and postcolonial democracy is shadowed throughout by a 'history of violence'. We will consider how critics and advocates of violence negotiate and respond to developments in modern technology - from bombs and trains to nuclear power and the internet. This module gives students an opportunity to reflect on the transformations and meaning of 'modernity' and `democracy' in a global context, and to analyse the importance of political and intellectual debates in the historiography of modern India.