HIS101 | History I

This introductory course offers a brief survey of the history of India from prehistoric times to the mid-twentieth century. It invites students to think about the function of history as a method of knowing the past. We will be discussing the histories of South Asian society, polity, and economy through empirical sources and key historiographical debates in order to understand the ways in which the present is informed by our conceptions of the past.

In this course we will try to find answers to fundamental questions like the importance of studying history, the development of historical processes, the ways of reading about a historical period, the reliability of sources, and the analytical tools deployed in any form of historical writing.