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The Making of Modern India

When you'll study it
Semester 2
CATS points
15
ECTS points
7.5
Level
Level 5
Module lead
Pritipuspa Mishra
Academic year
2025-26

Module overview

India as we know it today did not exist before decolonization in 1947. During British imperial rule, India was a collection of British colonial territories and loosely colonized Princely states. And, for almost three thousand years before colonial rule, the territory we know as India was in fact many different states. How did India become one nation with many official languages and the biggest functioning democracy in the world?

This module will address this question by tracing how stories about ‘one India’ have been told in the last 150 years by important commentators of the time. We will read James Mills’ 1818 History of India alongside Jawaharlal Nehru’s Discovery of India which was written in 1935. Through these readings we will think about how a modern nation state comes to be. What are the processes through which new unity is imagined?

Effectively, this module will introduce you to debates in the history of nationalism through a case study of Indian nationalism.