BA in History
Engaging with India’s myriad pasts to understand ourselves in relationship with the world.
Introduction
The study of history teaches us that the past is always contested by those of us in the present. In India and the Indian subcontinent, we encounter these contested, myriad pasts in our everyday lives.
Our programme hopes to help you develop a historical consciousness with which you can examine the past in a clear and comprehensive manner. Our courses will help you examine arguments and claims to independently assess their authenticity, and to understand different periods and themes. Our focus is to help you learn how to communicate our knowledge of history into diverse contexts, and to speak to history from your own experiences.
We hope this programme will help you practice history in everyday and institutional contexts, and to bring your understanding of the historical transformations of the past into possible ways forward into the future.
WE BRING YOU INTERDISCIPLINARY OPENNESS
Our degree encourages you to explore and follow your interests. We design our courses to ensure that you can specialise in a subject of your choice while learning a variety of subjects across disciplines.
A COMMON CURRICULUM FOR ALL STUDENTS
You will meet all your classmates at the beginning of your degree to build all the tools you need for your three years of study. This includes foundational courses, an understanding of India, interdisciplinary studies, and a workshop in creative expressions.
WE OFFER ACADEMIC ASSISTANCE
We provide active academic assistance and ensure that you are able to meet the requirements of the academic programme to fulfil your aspirations.
WE ENSURE FINANCIAL SUPPORT
We ensure that no student has to drop out of university because of financial trouble or social disadvantage. We provide financial assistance to deserving students.
Course structure
In our classrooms, we train you to grow familiar with different kinds of archives and primary sources that make up the practice of history. We will explore different theoretical and empirical fields of enquiry within the discipline. We believe that it is important to understand the past as an active part of material and discursive lives.
We bring in opportunities for practicing history with some archaeology, oral history, heritage and folklore. Our courses have an interdisciplinary openness, bringing in sociology, economics, environmental science, political science, cultural studies and literature into our examination of history. You will learn about different historical periods across specific topics that examine society, culture, politics, religion and ecology. We will study different times and spaces and take a close look at the lives of marginalised communities. These courses will train you to think historically, working with facts to analyse and critically evaluate the past in relation to the present.
We will train you to read, write and think critically, and to examine ideas of ethical responsibility and action. Reading and writing matter not only for your study of history but for future careers, and written and oral communication across a range of platforms are an important part of this programme.
BA in History (84 credits)
This is elementary for the undergraduate degree with a Major in History.
BA in History with Honours (96 credits)
We offer you the opportunity to take up an additional research project around a topic and work closely with a member of the faculty to write a thesis.
You will meet all your classmates at the beginning of the year for these set of courses. These courses help you understand the broader contexts of each discipline and the porous borders between them. We help you build all the tools you will need for your years of study in the undergraduate programme.
We introduce you to different modes of thought and themes, including writing and communication skills, strong critical abilities, a facility for language, and the ability to connect ideas across fields of study and inquiry.
We encourage you to make links between your chosen field of study and the world in which we live.
Foundations
These courses will help you develop a toolkit to prepare for your undergraduate study. You will develop your critical reading and writing skills and communication abilities.
The key areas you will work on are language capacities, reading, writing and speaking. We will work with different forms of writing, ranging from autobiographical writing to mappings and note-taking. These classes will include classroom discussions, presentations, collaborative works, group work and practicums.
Public Reasoning
How do we make claims in the public realm?
Critical reading and writing
Developing the skills and capacities to read, write and communicate effectively.
Creative Expressions
We relate to the world not only through the intellect but also with our bodies and creative abilities.
In this set of courses and workshops, you will explore aesthetic, physical and expressive traditions. You can choose workshops in art, music, theatre, dance and sports or fitness. You will develop a guided self-study and choose to learn a sport, art or craft. You could make a performance, produce a piece of work or build a portfolio.
We offer you a chance to play cricket, basketball, table tennis, or even practice Yoga, Tai Chi or the martial arts. You can choose music, painting, sculpture, dance or photography.
Understanding India
In these courses, we will explore the nature and diversity of the Indian experience. We study the vast diversity of historical, cultural and linguistic aspects that define Indianness.
You will learn to understand how the subcontinent has changed in its environment, across geography, geology and territory. We will think together about debates on the people who live here, their culture, and the larger questions around population and inequality. Most importantly, we examine the many structures that organise Indian society.
The Many Pasts of India’s Present
An inquiry into the 'origin' questions of India: geological, ecological, cultural and political.
India’s Present and Its Futures
How do we address India's problems and our limited ecological resources in this globalised world?
Interdisciplinary Studies
You can choose one interdisciplinary area of study of four courses and a field internship of two weeks.
These courses are about current Indian and global scenarios, whether social, political, cultural or ecological conditions.
Interdisciplinary Studies in Development
How are development issues framed and what issues are involved in bringing about social change?
Interdisciplinary Studies in Sustainability
A socioecological systems perspective for you to understand the interactions between society and nature that impacts sustainability.
Interdisciplinary Studies in Media and Democracy
The role of media and technologies in shaping democracy and democratic policies and publics in India.
Interdisciplinary Studies in Education
The nature and content of education in the Indian context.
The focus of our core courses is to help you develop domain and methodological knowledge and learn historiography, with a sustained focus on reading, writing and analytical thinking.
An important aspect of our course is that we believe it is important not only to understand the role of history in society but to preserve and conserve historical knowledge. The role of tradition and heritage whether in museums of urban planning, or art and architecture in archives and folklore, or oral histories, are a very important part of this programme.
Doing History
What is history? How is it done and with what timeline?
Ancient India
Beyond Kings, Palaces and Temples – An introduction to the history and archaeology of Early South Asia.
Medieval India
Millennial Transformations: State and Society in Medieval and Early Modern India, c.800-1800.
Indian Ocean Worlds
Ideas, culture and trade across continents.
Empires, Imperialisms and Colonialisms: c.1500-1950
What were the historical processes leading to the formation of colonies in the Americas, Africa and the Middle East?
Colonial India: Polity, Economy and Culture
How was the course of Indian history shaped by colonial governance? How did the East India Company slowly become the colonial state?
Quantitative Reasoning and Methods for History
Quantitative reasoning to bring together mathematical skills, critical thinking and real world problems in an integrated manner.
History of the Present
Key ideas that have shaped Independent India.
These elective courses are for you to pursue a particular interest in a set of themes or methods to deepen your knowledge of history as a discipline. We have thematically oriented courses across historical periods.
You can choose two elective courses each semester that are on offer. You are required to take a mix of writing courses, or a field and practice based course.
Economy, Labour, and Environmental Histories
Using well-established historiographic approaches and subfields in the discipline of history, this set of courses explore key social, economic and political processes that have had impacted labouring peoples and historically marginalised social groups across time.
Themes in Labour History
A history of labour in India across different contexts and different times.
Histories of Capitalism
The transformation of human life with the rise of industrial capitalism.
Rethinking the Border: Understanding the Western Himalayas
The long history of frontiers and borderlands of the Western Himalayas.
Intellectual and Cultural Histories
This is a set of courses that look at the meta questions of history and the everyday and material aspects of social life across different time periods. These courses explore intellectual and conceptual history, the history of ideas, the philosophy of history and historiography. These courses are concerned with theoretical movements in the humanities and social sciences, especially anthropology which looks at culture.
The Intellectual and Cultural Aspects of Modernity
How did modernity come to be in India and what shaped it as it is?
South Asian Feminisms in Historical Perspective
Looking at feminisms across South Asia, and the discrete historical experiences of caste patriarchy, religious nationalism, and social reform.
History from the Margins
Looking at the margins of historical writing, to find marginalised and subaltern pasts.
History and the Idea of India
Does history matter? A look at this question through histories of India.
Public Histories
In these courses, you will explore the interface between disciplinary aspects of history and the popular dissemination through media. You will also explore contemporary practices of historical preservation, from documents to monuments.
We hope these courses will help you communicate history for popular audiences. You will explore a wide range of practices in history, from ‘guide’ narratives, folklore and oral history to institutional practices.
Professional Histories, Popular Histories, Ourselves
How do disciplinary practices of doing history relate to the way in which history is accessed by the people?
Introduction to Material Culture: How to Think about Things
A focus on material culture - texts, artifacts, and how they shape human society.
Global and Connected Histories
Courses in this cluster of electives will expose students to history in an interconnected and global perspective. They break away from a nationalist mooring of the discipline of history (and its implicit Eurocentrism) to ask questions about shifting territorial and fluvial frontiers, oceanic worlds, diasporas and migrations, and the travel of people, cultures, and ideas across the globe.
Islam in a Global Perspective
Understanding Islam as religious thought, practice and a global phenomena.
Colonialism and Religion
The impact of colonial expansion on religious traditions.
Theories and Histories of Nonviolence
How can nonviolent thoughts and actions survive in times of violence?
Science, Technology, and Society: Past and Present
Debates on science and technology in the contemporary world.
We offer you the opportunity to take up an additional research project around a topic and work closely with a member of the faculty to write a thesis. This includes a practice element in which you will work with data visualisation, cataloguing, collection, archiving, surveying and preserving historical materials.
You will need to complete 12 additional credits.
Total 96 credits
