BA in History
To help connect our roots with our future path
The undergraduate programme in History at Azim Premji University brings together a committed and critical engagement with the myriad pasts of the peoples in the Indian subcontinent alongside a vision of transformative social change via education.
In this endeavour, the History programme marks a pedagogic departure from the typical ways in which the subject is taught in school contexts, where rote learning of historical facts is privileged.
The History curriculum at Azim Premji University aims to develop amongst students critical and methodologically rigorous ways of understanding and interpreting the past in all its complexities and pluralities. We emphasise that the past, regardless of whether we see it as continuous or as marked by ruptures, is always contentious. And nowhere is this more apparent than in India, where the past is also always present.
In India, we encounter these varied contested pasts in our everyday lives. The History programme aims to inculcate historical consciousness amongst its students. It prepares students to examine the past in a clear, comprehensive, and critical manner.
Our courses will familiarise students with different periods and themes within Indian history. We train students to examine historical arguments and claims independently to assess their validity. Students are exposed to a range of primary sources, such as inscriptions, texts, architecture, archaeology, and archives. We also teach students to communicate History in diverse contexts and across different platforms, while relating to it based on their own lived experiences.
Who should join us?
At Azim Premji University, join us if you wish to learn both Indian and World History, focusing on several fascinating themes along the way. The programme is open to students from all disciplinary backgrounds. All you need to bring with you is curiosity about the past and a desire to learn for yourself the historian’s tools.
Why study with us?
We offer Interdisciplinary Openness
Our programmes encourage 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 various subjects across disciplines.
A Common Curriculum for all students
You will meet all your classmates at the beginning of your course to build all the tools you need for your four years of study. This includes foundational courses, an understanding of India, interdisciplinary studies, and courses in creative expressions.
We provide Academic Assistance
Our consistent academic assistance through language support, peer tutoring, faculty mentorship etc ensures that you meet the programme’s academic requirements.
We ensure Financial Support
We extend need-based financial assistance to students that cover tuition and accommodation expenses.
Programme Structure
Programme Overview
Course Structure
The Common Curriculum will introduce students to the study of the themes and areas that emphasise and build critical and analytical abilities, and sensibilities for dialogue, reflection and cooperative learning. The Common Curriculum has four sub-components organised as below:
Academic Reading and Writing: Introduces students to domain specific reading and writing skills
Creative Expressions: Students are empowered to participate with meaningful social connection, fostering a community of active and responsible citizens
Public Reasoning/The World of Computing: The students will do one of the two courses.
- Public Reasoning: Introduces students to the practices of understanding as well arguing for claims in the public realm.
- The World of Computing: This enables students to explore the potential of computing devices and computational reasoning
Understanding India: India’s history, society and possible future.
Doing History
Disciplinary Major
Introduces students to methods and tools used by historians and also encourages them to start thinking historically.
Early South Asia upto 4th CE
Disciplinary Major
Covers the earliest period of South Asian history, spanning the earliest peopling of the Indian subcontinent all the way till the emergence of complex political structures like city-states and empires.
Ancient World (10,000 BCE-500 CE)
Disciplinary Major
Introduces students to important historical and archaeological questions in human prehistory and history from a global perspective.
Into the Medieval: 4th to 14th century CE
Disciplinary Major
Deals with medieval Indian history emphasising major state systems like the Guptas, Cholas, and the Delhi Sultanate and examines developments in lesser-studied regions of the Indian subcontinent.
Indian Ocean Worlds, c. 700‑1700
Disciplinary Major
Offers a transnational perspective on the history of the Indian subcontinent, exploring its maritime connections with the rest of the world using a long term perspective.
Late Medieval India, c. 1400 – 1800
Disciplinary Major
Explores structures and processes at work in the late medieval period, covering Mughal influence in the North, etc., and concludes with an examination of the 18th-century ‘transition’ to colonial rule.
Empires and Imperialism
Disciplinary Major
Explores the historical forces that led, in the 18th-19th centuries, to the creation of European imperial colonies all around the globe.
Colonial India
Disciplinary Major
Explores the political, economic, and cultural changes in British colonial India from 1750 to 1920, emphasising the impact on various aspects of South Asian life.
India in Transition: 1930 – 1970
Disciplinary Major
Covers key decades in modern India’s history – from 1920 to 1970 focussing on mass movements, political economy of development and imaginaries of nation building.
History and the Idea of India
Disciplinary Major
Orients students to the development of History as an academic discipline, specifically in the context of India, reflecting critically on History’s methods, as well as its philosophical underpinnings and political commitment.
Students must be prepared for the world of work at the end of the programme should they choose to enter it. We aim to provide the required skills and competencies for this through a Minor featuring courses in an Occupational or Interdisciplinary theme. These sets of courses are aimed to provide both conceptual understanding and skills and tools that will allow students to contribute through work and further study.
Students can opt for a Minor in any one of the indicative areas listed below.
The selection of these indicative areas is based on the availability of courses and our evaluation of the student’s interests and academic needs. For each cohort, a final list of available courses will be announced at the end of their second semester.
Biodiversity Conservation
Biodiversity conservation, management, and habitat restoration requires a multi-pronged approach, and an interdisciplinary understanding is essential. This OT will acquaint students with the rich biodiversity of the Indian subcontinent and the associated threats to them, and provide the students with the lens to identify pertinent questions such as — what to conserve, why to conserve, when to conserve, and how to conserve. The field of conservation binds the need for species and ecosystem conservation with the requirements for human well-being, livelihood, and rights. Through this curriculum, the students will be aware of the interdisciplinary approach in this field and will…Climate Studies
These courses will help you develop the knowledge necessary to understand the earth’s climate systems. You will examine and analyse the role of human activity on the earth’s climate and its effects on the present and future climate scenarios, and identify the effects of climate change on biodiversity through the lens of historical changes in the Holocene. We hope you will apply systems thinking to examine the origins of the climate crisis and proposed solutions and grow comfortable with civic engagement and transfer of knowledge and resources for climate solutions at different levels.Data, Democracy and Development
The set of courses will orient you to think about data as an essential part of building empathy and democratic values. We ensure you have the requisite tools for data collection, analysis, presentation, and dissemination so that you can construct the right platforms and build technologies that embody democratic principles. These courses will foster a culture of investigation with data, keeping in mind questions of ethics and politics.Design for Communities
Design concerns itself with envisioning, planning and creating objects, spaces or interactive systems to address a need or a problem. It attempts to meet the needs of a variety of users with responses that are aligned with their specific contexts. It aims to understand situations and create holistic, appropriate solutions. While design is a large discipline with many domains, this Occupational Track will look at the design of products, the practical use of technology in various enterprises and the design of spaces for accessibility and interaction. It includes the process of ideating, developing and refining products that meet specific market…Disability, Accessibility and Inclusion
The Occupational Track (Minor) prepares students to understand disability as a social, political, and rights-based issue while building the practical skills needed to create more inclusive environments. Rooted in contemporary disability studies, the programme explores the shift from a medical model of disability to a social model that focuses on removing barriers and ensuring dignity, participation, and equal opportunity.Students engage with the realities of disability in India, where access is shaped by intersections of caste, class, gender, poverty, and geography. The track introduces learners to disability rights frameworks, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities…Education
The Occupational Track (OT) in Education at Azim Premji University leverages the liberal arts tradition by fostering a deep understanding of human society and its relationship with education. This program delves into psychology, sociology, politics, and philosophy, revealing how these disciplines influence how individuals and societies approach learning. Additionally, the arts, humanities, and diverse philosophical perspectives enrich our understanding of educational thought and practice.The OT in Education recognizes the importance of analysing educational processes and systems at various levels, from individual student experiences to national and international trends. By examining different perspectives – personal, communal, organisational, national, and international –…Financial Management for the Social Sector
This Occupational Track (Minor) is designed to prepare students to address the financial and governance needs of social sector organisations. Rooted in the liberal arts tradition, it combines conceptual understanding with practical skills to help students engage with the financial realities of nonprofits, community institutions, cooperatives, foundations, and mission-driven enterprises.Students learn the fundamentals of accounting, budgeting, financial planning, internal controls, and statutory compliance while also examining how finance can promote equity, accountability, and sustainability. The programme pays special attention to the role of financial systems in communities, including access to savings, credit, insurance, pensions, and other services for low-income households.Through…Heritage Studies
This Occupational Track (Minor) prepares students to engage with heritage as a dynamic field of study and practice. Moving beyond monuments and museums, the programme recognises heritage as something continuously created, interpreted, documented, and sustained through communities, institutions, and public engagement.Students explore diverse forms of heritage in India and beyond, including cultural traditions, neighbourhood histories, archives, scientific collections, technological knowledge, landscapes, and digital records. The track combines perspectives from the humanities, social sciences, and sciences to help students understand how heritage is shaped by history, ethics, policy, and everyday practice.Through a strongly applied learning model, students develop practical skills in…Media and Journalism
These courses will introduce you to the critical and conceptual tools involved in media texts. This course is based on research and practice, and you will study how media texts are created and their social, historical and political contexts. This course is for students who wish to prepare for careers in journalism, communications, and social work.Music Education
The undergraduate Occupational Track programme in Music Education is designed in collaboration with SaPa, the Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts. SaPa is on a mission to make quality music education accessible to all. A large part of this involves creating enough music teachers to build the ecosystem for music education, and creating certifications and knowledge sets to make music teachers employable, both in schools and at music institutions.The Music Education OT aligns with this objective and aims to offer students an understanding of music itself, and how music may be taught in different environments. This will help students be employable,…Public Health
This Occupational Track (Minor) combines critical perspectives on health with practical skills that prepare students to contribute meaningfully to public health in diverse work settings. Rooted in the liberal arts tradition, the programme helps students understand health not only as a biological condition, but as a social phenomenon shaped by economic, political, environmental, and cultural factors.Students explore key public health challenges in India and globally, while examining how governments, communities, and non-state actors respond to them. The track introduces foundational analytical skills in epidemiology to understand disease burden, patterns of illness, and population health outcomes. It also develops the ability…Sports and Fitness
We believe that a regimen of physical activity can have a powerful effect on an individual’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Sport can be used as an effective tool to help an individual learn crucial life skills and also to build an empathetic, equitable community. In these set of courses, we want you to have a powerful experience of sport not just as a physical activity but as a way to build yourself and your social surroundings. We also want to teach you ways in which you can create these transformational experiences for others.Technology for Social Good
The Technology for Social Good occupational track has been designed based on the Azim Premji Foundation’s extensive experience in working with social sector organizations. Many of these organizations are addressing long-standing social problems through utmost dedication and a strong desire to improve the society we live in. There is a lot of scope for facilitating the work of these organizations through the use of digital technology. While accomplishing social change is a slow process requiring long-term engagement, digital technology can assist these organizations in making their operations more effective and by permitting better utilization of scarce resources. At present, these…
Students can craft their own educational experience by selecting courses in the following ways:
- Students will have the option to take additional courses in their Disciplinary Major.
- Interdisciplinary Minor that will enable them for their further higher studies or career pathways.
These courses could also be selected to enhance and broaden their
- Language skills and Quantitative reasoning capacities/programming skills.
- Understanding of themes outside their Major subject.
Classroom Practices
In the first two years of coursework, classroom pedagogy will be mainly rooted in lectures and discussions, but with the active encouragement of student participation and collaboration. As students come to their third and fourth-year courses, they will begin undertaking small, independent research projects on a theme of their choice. Through this, as well as other on-site engagements carried on outside the classroom, students learn the practice of doing history, which is a central curricular objective of the four year undergraduate programme in History at Azim Premji University.
Selected Honours Projects
- Madura Mission: The Gender Question, Rohith Sony, mentored by Varuni Bhatia.
- Identity, Experience and Violence: The Intersection of Gender, Caste and Crime in India, Thammireddy Gamya, mentored by Amit Kumar.
- Understanding Periyar’s Idea In The Contemporary Through The Village Of Chekkadikuppam, Yazhini A. S., mentored by Karuna Dietrich-Wielenga.
- The Intervention of Law in Religion: An analysis through the Sabarimala case, Neha Karri, mentored by Varuni Bhatia.
- Mangalore: A Case Study of the Indian Ocean Trade Network, Dhruv Kasthuri, mentored by Subir Dey.
Our Graduates
- Working in the social sector.
- Many are pursuing higher education in a range of disciplines including History, Law, and Journalism.
- Teaching in schools.
- Pursuing doctoral programmes (PhD) abroad.
Explore career options after studying History
Our faculty member, Jaya Menon, shares unique career paths and possibilities in archaeology here. Beyond conventional careers, our focus continues to broaden the realm of public history; whether it’s writing, leading heritage walks, or contributing to digital archives, discover the under bubbling and lucrative career opportunities that one can pursue and history accessible to a broader audience through public history and public archaeology.
There is an active History club on campus that organises a range of activities, including movie screenings, talks, game nights, and more. Some recent sessions include:
● Stone tool workshop with Vinayak
● Interaction with popular historian, Anirudh Kanisetti
● Pop-up exhibition by the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP)
● Talk on maps and history by Bhavani Raman
● Field trips in and around Bengaluru: Bhoganandeeshwara temple, Nandi Hills; Tipu’s Palace, Bengaluru; Indian Music Experience Museum
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