Brunel - History E HOMEPAGES F Britain - India

MODULE DESCRIPTION

This module looks at how Britain and India, two very different civilisations, dealt with each other at varied levels and in various ways between 1700 and 1947, during the rise-height-fall of the 'British Raj'. Toynbee's structural framework of challenge and response is combined with considering 'the role of the individual in history' through striking individuals associated with India - such as Clive of India, Rudyard Kipling, Churchill, Annie Besant, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Gandhi, Iqbal, Jinnah, etc. India's role as the Jewel in the Crown for British imperialism and the Great Game played between Britain and Russia over India throughout the 19th century are intertwined with India's attraction as the source of 'Oriental wisdom' and 'alluring mystery'. Meanwhile on the Indian side, concepts of the Hindu Renaissance and 'westernisation' lead into varied 'nation-formation' paradigms at play in the cataclysmic 'Partition' of the sub-continent in 1947.

LIBRARY MATERIALS

Click here for F Library books

ONLINE MATERIALS

Varied primary sources and secondary sources and websites have been assembled on the module website at www.thescotties.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/britain-india.htm. These can also be supplemented by varied JSTOR material

SCHEDULE

 ASSESSMENT

• 50% = 2000 words essay, deadline May 7th
• 50% = 2-hour exam (2 questions) (F specimen exam paper)

Submission of Assignments

The Department has very strict rules about how coursework assignments should be submitted, and where. Please observe the following guidelines very carefully to avoid any penalty.

Two copies of each assignment should be placed in the SIS Department essay chest. (This is located in Room SS223A, the room adjacent to the SIS Department Undergraduate Office, which is SS223). Assignments must never be handed direct to the module leader or seminar leader, or any other tutor. The Department does not accept assignments sent by email or fax. All assignments should be word-processed and must be marked with the following information:

• Name, Year, Department
• Module Code (i.e. PX2004)
• Module/Seminar Leader’s Name (i.e. Dr. D. Scott)
• Assignment Title

Each assignment must also have stapled to it a completed assignment form (available outside the SIS Department Undergraduate Office).

ALL COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE SUBMITTED BY 5:00 PM AT THE VERY LATEST. Staff will not stay after this time to collect late assignments. Please do not ask staff to print up assignments from a disk. You must make sure that you do not leave printing your assignment until just before the 5:00 p.m. deadline.

Remember that it is the your responsibility to plan your work and to hand it in on time. The SIS Department Exam Board is unsympathetic to pleas about lost computer disks, personal computer or printer breakdown, missed buses, delays in public transport, or being caught in traffic. Organise your time so that work is prepared before the last minute!

Assignment Submission Lists:

Once assignments have been received for a particular module, a list of students who have submitted the assignment will be displayed on the Department noticeboard outside room 227.

IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CHECK THAT YOUR NAME APPEARS ON THIS LIST. IF YOUR NAME DOES NOT APPEAR, THEN YOU HAVE NOT SUBMITTED THE ESSAY AND YOU SHOULD CHECK WITH THE DEPARTMENTAL ADMINISTRATOR OR UNDERGRADUATE CLERICAL OFFICER.

Late Assignments:

The following penalties will be automatically imposed on all coursework assignments which are submitted to the School of International Studie after the following deadlines:

• Within one week of the set submission deadline: coursework assignment is marked down by 10 marks.
• More than one week after the set submission deadline: coursework assignment receives zero.

Coursework Extensions:

Assignment deadlines are strictly enforced. Extensions will be granted only in the event of:

• self-certified illness of less than seven days duration;
• certified illness of more than seven days duration;
• death/serious illness of close relative/partner; severe personal difficulties.

We will not accept computer or transport problems as good reasons for late submission.

Any student seeking a coursework extension should apply to the Departmental Administrator’s Office (Social Sciences Building, room 224) for EITHER a Statement of Sickness Form (for self-certification of illness for seven days only) OR a Mitigating Circumstances Form (for illness of more than seven days duration or other serious cause). When submitting the latter form, students should attach the appropriate documentation. The completed form must be submitted to Claire Tapia/Margaret Hunt who are the only members of staff authorised to issue assignment extensions in the Department. Every effort will be made to keep the details of medical conditions or mitigating personal circumstances confidential to the Department Administrator, the appropriate Director of Studies, and the Head of Department. Students have the right of appeal to the Head of Department in his capacity as Chair of the SIS Department Exam Board.

Personal Tutors, Module and Seminar Leaders cannot give you an extension. Extensions will not be given for weddings, holidays, or other voluntary commitments.

You should not assume that having a medical certificate automatically means that you have an extension on your coursework. You must go through the above procedure if you wish to request an assignment extension.

Coursework Titles

1. With reference to one substantive primary source (as agreed with the module leader) analyse the light it sheds on the nature of the encounter between Britain and India between 170-1947.

2. Compare, contrast and evaluate two academic articles (as agreed with the module leader) that deal with the encounter of Britain and 'India' between 1700-1947.

3. How surprising, in retrospect was the establishment of British supremacy in the Indian subcontinent?

4. How far is Said's 'Orientalism' thesis applicable to British India?

5. Discuss the ways that 'India' responded to the challenge of British imperialism.

6. Discuss the role of Bengal in the growth of nationalist resistance to Britain.

7. What issues of historiography are at issue with regard to the events of '1857'.

8. Compare and contrast the roles played by Ram Roy and Vivekananda in the renewal of Hinduism.

9. How far was Besant's involvement in Indian politics a betrayal of Blavatsky's earlier concerns with India?

10. How far should Kipling merely be dismissed as a narrow "apostle of the Empire" with regard to British India?

11. Compare and contrast the messages and contexts of Forster's Passage to India and Kipling's Kim?

12. Why did Gandhi not achieve swaraj in the 1920s?

STUDY ADVICE

• Note making
• Primary source texts - some questions to ask
• Coursework - features to aim for
• Referencing - when and how
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Exams: what is looked for

• Word Processing
• Electronic sources - use & abuse, JSTOR, EBSCO
• Searching for web materials
• Evaluating web materials
• Referencing web materials
• Plagiarism and the Web

Brunel - History E HOMEPAGES F Britain - India