This course examines the history of South Asia since the 1940s. Using a combination of memoir, history, and film, we examine the forces that have shaped South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka) in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We begin with the trauma of Partition in 1947 and then work backwards and forwards in time to explore key themes like religious nationalism, popular media, caste, language politics, war, separatism, policing, the logistics of democracy, and economic development. |