Inequality + Change: South Asia after 1947

With a focus on inequality and change this lecture course will survey South Asia's history post-1947, with the end of colonial rule and the making of nation-states. With a historical attention to 'inequality', we will interrogate the inequalities cast by rural poverty, environment, religion, caste, gender and ethnicity and the remarkable contestations of people in the region that have challenged state power, and have thus shaped South Asia's postcolonial histories. We will particularly focus on histories from below, and engage historical and literary writings, newspapers as well as documentary films.