History II Assignment

Term I, 2023-24

In-class written assignment based on a research book prepared in

advance, over 3-4 weeks.

In this term, we have decided to conduct an in-class written assignment (TBA) towards the
fulfillment of your project requirements. There shall be no viva; instead we will be evaluating you
on 40 marks on a research essay you will be writing in class over a stipulated period of time.
The duration, date, and format of the in-class exam will be announced in due time by your
respective section instructors.

How should you prepare for this assignment?

Get yourself a small notebook for research purposes. Make sure it is new; this will be an open
book exam (the “book” being this research notebook) and any material outside of the research
area will not be allowed. Over the next few weeks, spend time studying and making relevant
notes on the research topic assigned to you (see below). Make sure of the following
requirements:

● For every new material that you peruse, make sure to write down the correct citation for
the source in your notebook. For example: Partha Chatterjee, Nation and Its Fragments,1
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
● While copying quotations from books, make sure to write the page number from where
the passage has been taken. You will have to mention the page number if you use the
quotation in your essay. For example: Partha Chatterjee, Nation and Its Fragments,
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993, p. 33.
● Study the source carefully. What kind of material are you looking at? Is it a primary or
secondary source? Does the piece have an argument? What is the crux of the
argument? Note it down. Does the primary source discuss a specific event/ personal
memory? How will you connect it to a larger historic phenomenon?

1 It may be difficult to italicize while writing notes by hand. In such cases, underline the name of the book
as an alternative. You may do the same while citing your references in the exam.
 ● Do all your sources make similar arguments? If not, in what ways do they differ? Existing
scholarship should be read in conjunction with one another. Is there a conversation
happening across different texts in the way in which the authors agree/disagree with
each other? On what points do two or more authors converge; in what ways do they
diverge from each other?
● How has each author defined the key theme (e.g., the nation) you are researching?
● Study the examples in the text. Can you think of other relevant examples on your own?

Research Topic: The Region in History

You will be required to read around the theme, “The Region in History”. In keeping with the
broad theme for History II, you are encouraged to think about how a region has been explored
in Indian historical writing. That said, there are no restrictions to how you may research this
topic. Cast your net as wide as you would like. Here are some references that should help you
start the research process:
1. Raziuddin Aqil and Partha Chatterjee (eds.), History in the Vernacular, New Delhi: Orient
Blackswan, 2010, “Introduction” and any one or two chapter(s) of your interest.
2. Prachi Deshpande, Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700-
1960, Columbia University Press, 2007, Chapters 1-5.
3. Janaki Nair, Mysore Modern: Rethinking the Region Under Princely Rule, Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2011.
4. Sanjib Baruah, In the Name of the Nation: India and Its Northeast, Stanford University
Press, 2020, “Introduction” and Chapters 1, 2 and 3.
5. Chitralekha Zutshi, Kashmir’s Contested Pasts: Narratives, Sacred Geographies, and the
Historical Imagination, Oxford University Press, 2018.
6. Madhava Prasad, Cinepolitics: Film Stars and Political Existence in South India, Orient
Blackswan, 2014, Chapters 1-4.
7. M.S.S Pandian, Brahmin and Non-Brahmin: Genealogies of the Tamil Political Present,
Permanent Black, 2007, Chapters 1-4.
8. Bernard Cohn, “Regions Subjective and Objective: Their Relations to the Study of Modern
Indian History and Society”, Regions and Regionalism in South Asian Studies: An
Exploratory Study, https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.110397.
9. https://khidki.hydlab.co.in/ - Skim through the website.
Study the bibliography and footnotes of your research material; it will direct you to other relevant
sources.

Key Research Questions

You may ask yourself some overarching questions while reading these materials.
a. Do you think regional histories are small histories in the way that national histories are big
histories?
b. Does focussing on a specific area naturally make it a “regional history”? If not, how do you
think geography plays an active role in history writing?
c. In what ways do language and culture play important roles in writing about a region?
d. Do you think the historical events you have read about in these texts could also have
happened in other regions? If not, what do you think made them endemic to specific
geographies?
e. Region is not a fixed idea – how have politics and time impacted how a region is perceived
and represented in history?
f. In terms of scale and method, should we treat local, regional, and provincial histories as
similar?
g. How have maps enabled knowledge production about a region? Can you think of other
sources that help “define” a region?