Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LH Advanced Option: The Making of the British Raj: Gender, Conquest and Race in early colonial India, c.1757-1885
School	History and Cultures
Department	History
Module Code	09 38757
Module Lead	Dr Manu Sehgal
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	This module is to introduce students to the history of the British Empire and explores the history of how British rule was established in India, through a process of conquest and the shaping of new racial and gender hierarchies. It uses cultural imprints of Britain's long imperial connection with India in contemporary British society to engage students. Students will explore how gender, race, the family, sexuality and law in Indian society were transformed by this encounter between British ideas and South Asia. From the religiously sanctioned 'tradition' of burning Hindu widows as Satis to critiques of Muslim 'despotic' rule – this module will explain how the creation of religious difference shaped colonial rule in South Asia. Conflict and conquest were accompanied in this early colonial period by ambitious imperial projects to survey, classify, count and tax colonial subjects.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: analyse and explain key events and historical processes relevant to the subject under scrutiny, analyse and explain reasons for and implications of these events and processes (including analysis of primary evidence where appropriate) compare and evaluate the main scholarly views on the subject under investigation, critically evaluate the historiographical context and trends of the subject under exploration work with an appropriate degree of learner independence to explain and analyse the material under scrutiny summarise, analyse and evaluate the subject material clearly and effectively in writing, synthesise and evaluate themes across a wide range of diverse material
Assessment	38757-01 : 3,000 word take home paper : Exam (School Arranged) - Written Unseen (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: S1 = 1 x 3,000 word essay (100%) S2 = 1 x 3,000 word Take Home Examination (100%) Reassessment: Resubmission of failed component(s)
Other
Reading List