Course description
The Indian intellectual history is approached with the perspectives of the Connected History (Sanjay Subrahmanyam) and the comparative history of religions. The concept of Orientalism will be discussed and the approach of Said critically evaluated in the case of the Indian sub-continent. The course also deals with the history of the various encounters between Europe and India, with a concentration on modern times. This includes a study of colonialism and its impact on India on a political, social, economic, religious and juridical level. This situation has brought about an identity crisis of the Indian world which can be analyzed best by studying main thinkers and revolutionaries of the Indian modernity. We will specifically concentrate on indic movements, which can be seen as a reaction to the impact of Western ideas. This includes the movements of Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, Prarthana Samaj and the Aligarh Movement for 19th century. For each of these movements we study their attitude towards tradition, towards change with a specific focus on the question of education, women and religion. Representative figures are Ram Mohan Roy, M. G. Ranade and Syed Ahmad Khan. For the 20th century, we deal with M. K. Gandhi, J. Nehru and M. A. Jinnah on the political level, and with Aurobindo, R. Tagore and B. R. Ambedkar on the religious level, all of whom have played significant part in the partition and post-partition history.
The aim of the course is to allow students to acquire familiarity with the conceptual pair Orient – Occident; the knowledge about the relations of India and Europe during the 19th and 20th century; and the skills to study Indian intellectuals and their contributions during this period; students develop the ability to ask critical questions and deal with challenges at stake. They are expected to actively contribute to the class, through one oral presentation, and a final research paper, developing themes of personal interest, in agreement with the course. Group work mixing nationalities will be encouraged. Research papers must include bibliographical references and notes. A specific attention is given to reading material written by the concerned authors and to discuss it critically with the other students.
Detailed information, guidelines and useful materials will be available during the semester in the e-learning platform, which students will be asked to consult on a weekly basis.

Syllabus (weekly distribution will depend on number of students attending)

Orientalism
The history of encounter of Europe and India
The beginning of Orientalism. Pioneers and institutionalizations Critical analysis of E. Said and evaluation

19th century India: social and political set up of the colonial situation
The transformations of the Indian society in the set-up of colonial encounter
Reform figures of 19th century: Ram Mohan Roy, B. C. Chattopadhyay, Syed Ahmad Khan Reform Movements
Reform Movements of Women

20th Century: Struggle for Independence
The key figures of M. K. Gandhi, J. Nehru and M. A. Jinnah
Religious reformer: Sri Aurobindo and B. R. Ambedkar
Nationalist movements, the question of democracy, question of religion

Postcolonial developments and critical evaluations
Theories of Postcolonialism and the case of India: Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, Dipesh Chakrabarty

Evaluation
10% attendance and participation
20% individual out of class discussion with professor
30% oral presentations in class
40% written final research paper

Reading
Selected Bibliography. The bibliography sketches the horizon which students are expected to have acquired by the end of the semester. Selections from books, source texts and articles will be distributed as reading assignments according to the subjects studied. Students are asked to read excerpts from the studied authors.
REFERENCE BOOK : HALBFASS, Wilhelm, India and Europe : an Essay in Understanding, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1988 (selective parts).
Selected articles from the studied intellectuals.
BHABHA Homi, The Location of Culture, Abingdon: Routledge, 1990.
BOSE, Sugata, Cosmopolitan thought zones: South Asia and the global circulation of ideas, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
BURKE, Samuel Martin & QURAISHI, Din, The British Raj in India : an Historical Review, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
CHAKRABARTY, Dipesh, Provincializing Europe, Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference, Preinceton: University Press, 2000.
- Henning Trüper and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (eds.), Historical Teleologies in the Modern World (2015), London: Bloomsbury Academic, e-book, 2015.
CLARKE, J.J., Oriental Enlightenment. The encounter between Asian and Western thought, London/New York: Routledge, 1997.
GOTTSCHALK, Peter, « British Rule (1757-1947) », in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, ed. by Knut A. JACOBSEN, Helene BASU, Angelika MALINAR & Vasudha NARAYANAN, Brill Online, 2014.
GUHA, Ramachandra, Makers of Modern India, Cambridge/London : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.
JONES, Kenneth W., The New Cambridge History of India, III-1, Socio-religious Reform Movements in British India, Cambridge/NY/Port Chester/Melbourne/Sydney : Cambridge University Press, 1989.
LUBELSKY, Isaac, Celestial India. Madame Blavatsky and the Birth of Indian Nationalism, Oakville : Equinox, 2012.
SAID, Edward, Orientalism, New York : Vintage Books, 1979.
SEN, Amartya, « Indian Traditions and the Western Imagination », in Daedalus, Vol. 126/2, 1997, pp. 1-26.
SPIVAK, Gayatri, “Can the Subaltern Speak”, in Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory, A Reader, P. Williams, L.Chrisman, Columbia University Press, New York, 1994, pp.66-111.
SUBRAHMANYAM, Sanjay, Explorations in Connected History: From the Tagus to the Ganges, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004.