Comparative Partitions: Religion, Identity, and the Nation-State

This course looks at demands for representation made by religious minority communities, specifically by Indian Muslim and European Jewish intellectuals, in the twentieth century. We will explore what national belonging means from the perspective of minorities against the backdrop of global discussions of anticolonialism, national self determination, and equal representation. Through primary sources, namely political tracts and speeches, oral histories, literary sources, and historical maps, we question how authors from different backgrounds constructed religious communities as nations in need of states.