History 1910/Asian 1191/CAPS 1910 Fall 2012

Introduction to Modern Asian History

D. Ghosh dg256@cornell.edu 321 McGraw/254-5092 Office hours: T: 12:30-2:30 Lectures: T/Th 11:15 to 12:05 McGraw Hall, Rm. 165 E. Tagliacozzo et54@cornell.edu 346 McGraw/254-6564 Office hours: TR: 1:45-2:45 Discussion sections: Sec. 1: F 10:10-11:00 Sec. 2: F 11:15-12:05 Sec. 3: F 12:20-1:10 Sec. 4: F 11:15-12:05

This course is intended to introduce students to Asian history in modern times and to Asia as a region, not just as a collection of disparate nation-states. For this purpose we plan to draw a distinction between inland and maritime Asia through four overlapping chronological phases: under Pre-modern Asian Internationalisms between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries; under Western Imperialism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; under Wartime Asia in the first half of the twentieth century; and under American influence during the second half of the twentieth century. Each week we shall concentrate on maritime and inland Asia within this historical framework, examining what changes took place and how people reacted to those changes. The Tuesday and Thursday lectures will address these questions broadly, while the section meetings on Fridays will provide opportunities for students to respond. Each student is required to write three papers (each about five double-spaced, typewritten pages), one on each of three first historical periods. The first paper is due on September 17; the second on October 15; and the third on November 12. Papers are to be written in response to the discussion questions listed in the syllabus and should be based primarily upon the texts which are required reading each week. The texts in paperback (marked pb) can be found in books on stock at the Campus Store and on reserve in Uris Library; and the ones marked bb can be found on Blackboard. You may consult other texts (and we will be happy to suggest relevant items), but you are not required to read any more than the assignments in preparing for discussions or in writing papers. Grades will be based on the three papers and participation in the discussion sections (20% each) and an examination be during the finals period (20%). You are welcome to consult us about paper topics and other matters during the semester. Visit during office hours, which will be announced, or speak to us after class to arrange an appointment.
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Th 23 Aug

Introduction (DG + ET)

No discussion section this week, since there are no assigned readings

I. Pre-modern Asian Internationalisms

Week 2 (Aug. 28-Sept. 1 ): India Before Europe (DG) 1. India at a crossroads: spiritual traditions and Sanskritization 2. India and Islam Questions for Discussion and Essays: How might one define India in the premodern period? How did the subcontinent relate to other parts of the world? Assigned Readings: John F. Richards, Early Modern History and World History, Journal of World History 8.2 (1997) 197-209.bb Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20068593 Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Making of a Munshi, in Forms of knowledge in early modern Asia: explorations in the intellectual history of India and Tibet, 1500-1800, edited by Sheldon Pollock (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011), pp. 185-209. [available as a networked book] Tu 28 Aug Th 30 Aug Fri 31 Aug. Week 3 (Sept 4-8): Maritime Asia: Views from the Periphery (ET) 3. 18th-Century Southeast Asia: Political Culture 4. Intra-regional, Inter-regional, and Global Connections Question for Discussion and Essays: In 18th and early 19th century Southeast Asia, were Chinese identified as Southeast Asian, as outsiders, or otherwise? Assigned Readings: In Search of Southeast Asia, ed. David J. Steinberg (1987), pp. 1-6, 9-20, 26-82.pb Dhiravat na Pombejra, Ayutthaya at the End of the Seventeenth Century, in Reid, ed., Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Era (1993), 250-272. bb Wang Gungwu, Merchants Without Empires: The Hokkien Sojourning Communities in his China and the Chinese Overseas (1991), 79-102..bb Lynn Pan, East Meets West, Sons of the Yellow Emperor (1990), pp. 23-42.bb Tu 4 Sept Th 6 Sept Fri 7 Sept. Week 4 (Sept 11-15): India and Europe Tu 11 Sept 5. Political decline and economic opportunity Th 13 Sept 6. The establishment of British dominance Fri 14 Sept. Question for Discussion and Essays: What does the novel by Senapati reflect about the transition from Mughal to British rule? What changes do the characters in the novel experience, particularly in terms of their daily lives? Assigned Readings: Six Acres and a Third, Fakir Mohan Senapati, translated and with an introduction by Satya Mohanty, pp. 35-217. pb
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II. Western Imperialism in Asia

Week 5 (Sept 18-22): Maritime Asia and Western Imperialism (ET) 7. Western Imperialism in Maritime Asia 8. Imperial Ideologies Question for Discussion and Essays: What is the relationship between imperialism and nationalism? How was race used to further nationalistic goals? Assigned Readings: In Search of Southeast Asia, ed. Steinberg, pp. 111-122, 139-159.pb Chris Dixon, Western Penetration: From Trade to Colonial Annexation, Chapter 3 of his Southeast Asia and the World-Economy (1993), pp. 57-84.bb Mr McCarthys Letter to Mr. Palgrave, March 29, 1883, in Ian Nish, British Documents on Foreign Affairs (1995), pp. 37-46. bb 17 September: Paper # 1 due Tu 18 Sept Th 20 Sept Fri 21 Sept. Week 6 (Sept 25-29): Improving tradition (DG) Tu 25 Sept 9. Liberalism and empire Th 27 Sept 10. White men are saving brown women from brown men Fri 28 Sept. Question for Discussion and Essays: how does the logic of improvement justify imperial expansion? Why do women and their bodies need special intervention from colonizers and nationalists? Assigned Readings: Debates on sati: Petition of Orthodox Hindus against the ordinance to abolish sati (1830): http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/modules/lesson5/lesson5.php?menu=1&s=7 Rammohun Roy, A debate on sati: an advocate and an opponent (1818) http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/modules/lesson5/lesson5.php?menu=1&s=4 Governor-general Bentincks position (1829) http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/modules/lesson5/lesson5.php?menu=1&s=6 Lata Mani, Contentious Traditions: the debate on sati in colonial India, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), ch. 1 (pp. 11-41) [available as a networked book] Small feet of the Chinese females: remarks on the origin of the custom of compressing the feet; the extent and effects of the practice; with an anatomical description of a small foot. Chinese Repository 3 (1835): 537-539. http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/p/61.html Lay, G. Tradescant. Remarks on Chinese Character and Customs. Chinese Repository 12 (1843): 139-142. http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/p/58.html The Rules and Regulations of Marriage from the anti-footbinding society of Hunan http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/sources/footbinding.html Dorothy Ko, Cinderella's sisters: a revisionist history of footbinding (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), ch. 1 (pp. 9-37)
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[available as a networked book] Week 7 (Oct 2-6): Colonial States and Resistance (ET) Tu 2 Oct 11. Modern Colonial States Th 4 Oct 12. Race, Rule, and Resistance Fri 5 Oct. Question for Discussion and Essays: Can peasant rebellions ever be nationalistic or are they always localized and traditional in their goals? Assigned Readings: In Search of Southeast Asia, ed. Steinberg, 173-176; 180-199; 203-214; 247-268.pb Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (1991), ch. 10, pp. 163-185.bb [available as a networked book] Ann Stoler, Capitalism and Confrontation on Sumatras Plantation Belt, 18701979 (1985), pp. 1-13.bb Donald Nonini, British Colonial Rule and the Resistance of the Malay Peasantry (1992), pp. 37-61.bb Thongchai Winichakul, Siam Mapped: A History of the Geobody of a Nation (1994), Chapter 3, pp. 62-80.bb [available as a networked book] Week 8 (Oct. 9-13): Nationalisms: India and Burma (DG) 13. fall break 14. The collision of colonialism and nationalism Question for Discussion and Essays: What were the demands put on those who colonized and those who were colonized? How did indigenous peoples and groups respond to the colonizers in their midst? Assigned Readings: Bernard S. Cohn, Representing Authority in Victorian India, from Anthropologist Among the Historians, pp. 632-82. [available as a networked book] Film: Passage to India Tu 9 Oct Th 11 Oct Fri 12 Oct.

III. Wartime Asia

Week 9 (Oct. 16-20): Postwar Political Identity (ET) 15. Southeast Asian Identity Formation 16. Pan-Asianism, Japan, and WWII Question for Discussion and Essays: Was the Japanese occupation a watershed for modern political development in Southeast Asia? Assigned Readings: In Search of Southeast Asia, ed. Steinberg, pp. 292-311, 324-331, 349-355.pb Benda and Larkin, Japanese Blueprint for Southeast Asia, The World of Southeast Asia (1967), pp. 219-223.bb Alfred McCoy, Introduction, in McCoy, ed., Southeast Asia Under Japanese Occupation (1985), 1-13.bb Tu 16 Oct Th 18 Oct Fri 19 Oct.
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Benedict Anderson, Japan: The Light of Asia. in Josef Silverstein, ed., Southeast Asia in World War II (1966), pp. 13-50.bb 15 October: paper #2 due Week 10 (Oct 23-27): The world wars in Asia (DG) Tu 23 Oct 17. Japans wars: India and its responses Th 25 Oct 18. The battle for independence Fri 26 Oct. Question for Discussion and Essays: Assigned Readings: Sunil Khilnani, The Idea of India (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1997).pb

IV. America's Asia and Beyond

Week 11 (Oct 30-Nov. 3): Postcolonial South Asia (DG) Tu 30 Oct 21. The development of nations: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka Th 1 Nov 22. India and its neighbors Fri 2 Nov. Question for Discussion and Essays: How different was postcolonial South Asia from colonial South Asia? How did South Asia perceive itself in the context of cold war politics? Assigned Readings: Amitav Ghosh, Dancing in Cambodia and other essays (New Delhi, 2008). George Perkovich, Indias Nuclear Bomb (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), Introduction and chapter 1.bb [available as an e-book on the library gateway] Week 12 (Nov 6-10) America's Asia (ET) 19. Decolonization and the Onset of the Cold War 20. Cold War Manifestations in Indochina Question for Discussion and Essays: Was Southeast Asian political activity during the Cold War formed around a common national community, was it formed against a former colonizer, or was it formed against an ideology (such as communism or capitalism)? Assigned Readings: In Search of Southeast Asia, ed. Steinberg, pp. 356-382, 387-393, 418-430.pb Nayan Chanda, Silkworms and Mice, in Brother Enemy (1986), 46-73, 418-421.bb Planning the Past: The Forced Confessions of Hu Nim, in Chandler, et. al, Pol Pot Plans the Future (1988), 227-232, 276-317, 332-3, 340-346.bb Tu 6 Nov Th 8 Nov Fri 9 Nov Week 13 (Nov 13-17): Fear and Loathing in Contemporary SE Asia (ET) Tu 13 Nov 23. The 1965 Coup and Killings in Indonesia Th 15 Nov 24. Illegal Economies of Southeast Asia Fri 16 Nov. Question for Discussion and Essays: Is violence an integral part of Modern SE Asias History? Assigned Readings: Geoffrey Robinson, The Dark Side of Paradise: Political Violence in Bali (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1995): 1-18. bb
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Anton Lucas (transl.), Survival: Bu Yetis Story, in Robert Cribb, ed., The Indonesian Killings of 1965-1966 (Clayton: Tuesash Papers on Southeast Asia #21): 227-239. bb Anonymous, Additional Data on Counter-Revolutionary Cruelty in Indonesia, Especially East Java, in Robert Cribb, ed., The Indonesian Killings of 1965-1966 (Clayton: Monash Papers on Southeast Asia #21): 169-176. bb Nancy Lee Peluso, Teak and Temptation on the Extreme Periphery: Cultural Perspectives on Forest Crime, Chapter 7 of her Rich Forests, Poor People: Resource Control and Resistance in Java (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992): 201-232. bb Bertil Lintner, Land of Jade: A Journey Through Insurgent Burma (Kiskadale, White Lotus, 1990): 137-158. bb 12 November: paper #3 due Film: A Year of Living Dangerously Week 14 (Nov 20-22): South Asia goes Global (DG) Tu 20 Nov Th 22 Nov 25. Diasporas and traveling cultures Thanksgiving break

No discussion sections this week due to Thanksgiving break.

V. Reflections
Tu 26 Nov Th 28 Nov Week 15 (Nov. 27-Dec. 1): Inland and Maritime Asia (DG and ET) 26. Variations on a Theme Review session

No discussion sections this week.

History 1910/Asian 1191 Syllabus/2012