Historical Context Analysis

The research essay (2400 words) is your opportunity to examine one of the topics raised
in the module in greater depth. Please choose the topic of your essay from the following
ten questions.

When researching for your essay, you must draw on the readings listed under the
weekly lectures, including both essential and recommended reading.
Your research essay should:

• address the question asked;
• demonstrate an understanding of the historical context;
• show your ability to engage critically with primary and secondary sources;
• present a coherent argument;
• include a concluding paragraph with your personal reflections on the
  historical material you have discussed in the essay.
  Your essay should provide bibliography and footnotes. Footnotes will count towards the
  final word count; the bibliography does not. You can pick whichever style of bibliography
  you prefer, but please be consistent.

Questions – answer any one of the following:

1. ‘Independence must begin at the bottom.’ With close reference to the works of at
   least two writers/thinkers discussed in class, analyse how ideas of freedom
   were being discussed, debated and fought for during the first half of the
   twentieth century in South Asia.
2. ‘The English have not taken India; we have given it to them. They are not in India
   because of their strength, but because we keep them.’ Assess the implications of
   this quote by Gandhi, and compare and contrast it with at least one other
   anticolonial writer/thinker discussed in class.
3. ‘And there is an expenditure, too great for words, in this country, of black and red
   pepper (i.e. Hindustani and British troops).’ Examine the experiences of Indian
   soldiers during the First World War, drawing upon at least two types of primary
   sources, such as soldiers’ letters, colonial photographs, the novel and so on,
   as discussed in class.
4. ‘It is only when Hindu society becomes a casteless society that it can hope to
   have strength enough to defend itself.’Compare and contrast Ambedkar’s views
   on liberation from internal caste prejudices with at least one other
   writer/thinker’s views on South Asian freedom, as discussed in class.
5. ‘His noblest achievement, surest of them all / A place for his mother tongue in
   his stepmother’s hall.’ What are the implications of this quote for the
   development of South Asian art in the first half of the twentieth century? Discuss
   with reference to at least two artists discussed in class.
6. ‘Our friend is going away, so we want a really good photograph of him.’ Analyse
   the importance of visual culture in the South Asian militant struggle against
   anticolonialism with reference to at least two revolutionaries discussed in
   class.
7. ‘All that arouses in us the critical spirit, which examines institutions and customs
   in the light of reason, which helps us to act, to organise ourselves, to transform,
   we accept as progressive.’ Examine the effects of transnational movements in
   South Asia, such as communism and anti-fascism, in the first half of the
   twentieth century. You must reference at least two writers/thinkers and/or
   social groups, as discussed in class.
8. ‘Letters mean half meetings and they are a great consolation to us.’ Analyse the
   social, political and economic contexts in which Indian men signed up to serve
   the British in the Second World War, with reference to at least two types of
   primary sources discussed in class, such as soldiers’ letters, colonial
   photographs, artwork and so on.
9. ‘Narratives can make us understand. Photographs do something else: they haunt
   us.’ Do you agree with this statement by the American writer Susan Sontag?
   Discuss in relation to the 1943 Bengal Famine, drawing upon at least two types
   of primary sources discussed in class, such as artwork, photography, letters
   and so on.
   10.‘My father never wanted to leave Pakistan because my father loved the place so
   much.’ Examine the effects of Partition on the Indian subcontinent, studying at
   least two ways by which difficult and traumatic histories can be told, as
   discussed in class. You can draw upon oral history, the study of objects,
   photographs, and so on.