Life under Colonial Rule: Society and Politics in British India, c.1800-1920s - HIS00176I

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Module summary

India has often been described as the ‘jewel’ in the crown of the British Empire. Two centuries of British colonial rule shaped the histories of modern-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh while also financially, politically and ideologically sustaining the imperial headquarters in Britain. But, how did Indians contend with colonialism? How did the British colonial state, in turn, make sense of society in South Asia? For many Britons, India offered a space to cultivate their political careers and pursue new financial opportunities. At the same time, colonial presence in India was limited and the state’s control over Indians was never absolute. Thus, on the one hand, this module examines how British men and women experienced life in India and how the British state attempted to produce knowledge about India and Indians. On the other, it explores moments of resistance, reform and nationalism from Indian actors that disrupted the idea of a seamless and all-powerful colonial state. 

Beginning with early-nineteenth century efforts by servants of the English East India Company to assimilate in India and ending with the anti-colonial nationalism of the early-twentieth century, this module tells a chronological yet thematic story of South Asia. It offers opportunities to analyse a range of official texts (including reports and government correspondence), first-hand accounts from Britons and Indians (like letters, diaries and handbooks) and visual sources (such as paintings, political cartoons and photographs).

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 1 2026-27

Module aims

The aims of this module are:

• To provide students with the opportunity to study particular historical topics in depth
• To develop students’ ability to examine a topic from a range of perspectives and to strengthen their ability to work critically and reflectively with secondary and primary material

Module learning outcomes

Students who complete this module successfully will:

• Have acquired a deep knowledge of the specific topic studied
• Have developed their ability to use and synthesise a range of primary and secondary sources
• Be able to evaluate the arguments that historians have made about the topic studied
• Have developed their ability to study independently through seminar-based teaching

Module content

Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1. Students will then attend a 1-hour plenary/lecture and a 2-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW) during which there are no seminars. Students prepare for and participate in eight 1-hour plenaries/lectures and eight 2-hour seminars in all.

Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:

1. Sahibs, Memsahibs and Servants: Settling in India
2. Cities, Spaces and Colonial Urbanism 
3. Riots, Rebels, Rumours: The Rebellion of 1857
4. Masculinity, Femininity, and the Women’s Question
5. Life in the Princely States
6. Health, Disease and Controlling the Body
7. Caste, Census and Colonial Knowledge Formation
8. The Rise of Anti-Colonial Nationalism

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

For formative assessment, students will complete a referenced 1200 to 1500-word essay relating to the themes and issues of the module. This will be submitted in either the Week 5 or Week 9 RAW week (on the day of the weekly seminar).

For summative assessment, students will complete an Assessed Essay (2000 words, footnoted). This will comprise 100% of the overall module mark.

Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Module feedback

Following their formative assessment task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.

Work will be returned to students in their seminars and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their formative work during their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.

For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.

Indicative reading

For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:

• Christopher Alan Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
• Elizabeth Collingham, Imperial Bodies: The Physical Experience of the Raj, c. 1800-1947 (London: Polity Press,
• 2001).
• Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy (London: Routledge, 2022).