- from assimilation to isolation;

- evolution of aristocratic pretensions;

- a society under siege.

- creation of 'brown Englishmen';

- the renaissance of Hinduism;

- from imitation to Indianness;

(e) High Noon of Empire 1870-1905:

- trusteeship redefmed;

- the 'white-man's' burden;

- Imperial images of India

- R. Kipling, E.M. Forster.

The following books have been prescribed

AIlen,C. Plain Tales from the Raj

Brown, J.M. Modern India, OUP

Hibbert, C. The Great Mutiny: India 1857, Penguin

Metcalf, T.R. Ideologies of the Raj, CUP [Indian edition]

Recommended Books

Hutchins, F.G. The Illusion of Permanence. British Imperialism in India, Princeton Univ. Press. [At present out of prinL]

Moore, R.J. Liberalism and Indian Politics 1872-1922, Arnold. [At present out of print.]

Marshall, P.J. The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire.

Masselos, J.C. Indian Nationalism, Sterling

Rothermund, D. An Economic History oflndia., Routledge

Woodruff, P. The Men Who Ruled India
Vol.1. The Founders
Vol.2. The Guardians [Woodruff and P. Mason are one and the same person]

Please Note:

From time to time some prescribed books may go out of print. Don't despair. The Dixson Library has multiple copies of most of them.

P. Woodruff, The Men Who Ruled India, is currently out of print, but there are plenty of copies in the Dixon Library.

Woodruff is particularly valuable, as is F.G. Hutchins, The Illusion of Permanence, for their focus on the development of British attitudes and approaches to the task of ruling India.

Woodruff's study, a very idiosyncratic treatment, is an intriguing if highly slanted attempt to present India through the eyes of the bureaucratic class who came to rule it.

Both books offer challenging introductions to this unit.

Course Objectives

The broad aim of this unit is that, like the discipline of history overall, it makes a credible contribution to knowledge.

Here is a workable definition:

'History consists of interpretative reconstructions of past events which are considered by historians to be consequential.'

In short, history is an account not of the complete past but of a selective past for which evidence survives and to which importance is attached.

According to E.H.Tapp the proper function of the historian is not to describe the past but to explain it.

Since the present is the direct consequence of the past, it is the job of the historian to trace the causal connections joining them.

Only in this way, as a form of inquiry, would history acquire meaning, relevance and utility.

In this unit history will be treated likewise, not so much as a narrative of what happened, but as an explanation of why it happened in the way it did.

The underlying premise in LIFE AND SOCIETY IN KIPLING'S BRITISH INDIA is that the history this unit will explore is consequential in the way Tapp envisaged.

Britain's conquest and control of India not only changed the face of the 19th world, it altered the face of the 20th century's as well.

One cannot say this of many events, but it can be said of the Raj. Why?

* The British acquisition of India created the British empire and gave rise to imperialism as we know it.

By having to secure its prized possession, Britain captured territory along the trade routes to India, absorbing large parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle-East, starting imperialism in the process.

Convinced that empire was the secret of Britain's new found strength, other European powers began to scramble for colonies too, a scramble that was one of the contributing causes of World War One.

* Similarly, the way Britain lost empire also left its mark on the world.

India and Pakistan were the first of the European colonies to have power transferred to them as independent nations, via partition, in 1947.

Establishing the precedent for decolonisation, Britain thus set off a kind of chain reaction that began to sweep through colonial Asia and Africa, a process that clearly has yet to run its full course.

At the end of the unit it is expected that you will have acquired:

- an understanding of the colonial system and how it worked.

- a knowledge of the particular philosophies which sustained it.

- and an insight into how imperialism has informed the material and mental framework in which much of Indian development in the twentieth century has taken place.

Personal development

It is the intention of the University of New England that students develop a range of attributes in the course of their studies.

In the School of Classics, History and Religion you will have an opportunity to practise a wide range of skills that contribute to that goal.

These fall under the following broad categories: Communication skills, information literacy, problem-solving, life-long learning, team work, social responsibility, and global perspectives.

* Students who pursue the study of history will make extensive use of oral and written communication skills in presenting well-reasoned and well-expressed arguments in tutorials and essays.

* Tutorials will also give you an opportunity to work in a collective and collaborative environment towards a common goal.

* A central part of your study will involve solving the problems posed by your assessment tasks. This will require you to identify the critical elements in the problem before you formulate a method of solving it and proceed to collect, collate and analyse the relevant information.

* The research you do while studying history will give you an information literacy appropriate to the discipline as you locate, evaluate and use a variety of primary and secondary sources.

In the humanities information is chiefly drawn from printed sources but visual material will be encountered from time to time.

While books and journals will continue to be the principal information base in the foreseeable future, it is likely you will increasingly draw material from the internet and thus develop a facility in technology-based research.

* In your study of history you will acquire a significant body of knowledge which by its very nature will enlarge your cultural awareness so that you better understand the multicultural and global context of Australia in the 21st century.

* Because history is the pre-eminent study of human beings and their behaviour in various times and places, you will be able to recognise the impact of social change, assess issues of social justice, appreciate the moral imperatives behind individual and collective action and become a more informed citizen.

* Above all else, your study in the School of Classics, History and Religion will equip you for life-long learning in pursuit of personal and professional development.

The academic skills you acquire together with the capacity for independent thought history fosters will enable you to apply yourself to a variety of tasks and situations.