Transition from pre-colonial to colonial; Founding of the British Empire: Assam valley, Surma valley, Nagaland, Khasi Hills, Inner line; Managing natural resources: forms and mechanism, land, forest and mineral resources; Colonial rule and resistance: peasants, workers, tribes; Middle class: ideals and social transformation, collaboration and resistance with the colonial state; Freedom movement: ideology, forms, polity; Post-independence dilemmas: from linguistic nationalism to ethnic aspirations, re-organisation of state, claims and struggle for natural resources, identity and anti-foreigner’s movement.
Text:
H.K. Barpuzari, A Comprehensive History of Assam, Vol. 4 and 5, Assam Publication Board, 2005.^$^Amalendu Guha, Planters Raj to Swaraj, Tulika, 2006.^$^Rajen Saikia, Social and Economic History of Assam, Manohar, 2005.^$^H.K. Barpuzari,. Assam in the Days of Company (1826-1856), 2nd edition, LBS, 1980.
Course References:
Sanjib Baruah, India Against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality, OUP, 1999.^$^Yasmin Saikia, Fragmented Memories: Struggling to Be Tai-Ahom in India, Duke University Press, 2004.^$^Ramchandra Guha, India After Gandhi, Viking, 2007^$^Arupjyoti Saikia, Jungles, Reserves, Wildlife: A History of Forests in Assam, Wildlife Welfare Trust of Assam, 2005.^$^Amalendu Guha, Medieval and Early Colonial Assam: Society, Polity, Economy, K.P. Bagchi, 1993.^$^Maheswar Neog, Socio Political Events in Assam Leading to the Militancy of the Mayamoria Vaishnavas K.P. Bagchi, 1982.
