How do people free themselves from oppressive systems of government? What does it take for them to collectively resist, and how do they go about organising such resistance? What are their visions of freedom, and what forms, furthermore does their resistance take? What, moreover, are the outcomes of such resistance—and is it possible for them to fully overcome their oppression? Such questions are particularly pressing—and difficult—for peoples seeking to overthrow colonial systems of rule. This module will explore such challenges through focusing on India between the 1880s and the partition of the country into two independent nation-states in 1947.
India is an interesting case study to explore because it was one of the few colonies, following the breakup of the European empires in the aftermath of the Second World War, that managed to successfully transform itself into a democratic nation-state. But what makes India particularly fascinating to explore is that its struggle for freedom witnessed the emergence of so many competing conceptions of the meaning and nature of freedom, some of which were accommodated within the Indian nation-state, and some of which were not—although, as the rise of the right-wing Hindu populist, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demonstrates, they continue to haunt it.