HST7705 – Indian Political Thought 2024/25

India began the twentieth century as a colonial possession and entered the twenty-first as a global power, routinely celebrated as the ‘world’s largest democracy’. The path between these points – shaped by the drama of anti-colonial struggle, the tumult of decolonization, and the pursuit of postcolonial ‘development’ – offered Indian political thinkers and practitioners urgent and critical opportunities to grapple with some of the central questions of modern politics. This module traces the shape and form of India’s political modernity, exploring its implications for the method and practice of intellectual history.