Part 1: Empire and the Making of Modern India
From the Mughals through the British Conquest
Preparatory Reading
Empire and the Making of Modern India
The subcontinent's geography, the Mughal Empire and its collapse, the East India Company, and the structure of British rule.
Rammohan Roy: The Future of India (1 p.)
The earliest major Indian intellectual asks what India should become under British rule.
Shah Abdul-Aziz: Islam in Danger (2 pp.)
A Muslim scholar declares British-ruled India is no longer safe for Islam.
Queen Victoria: Proclamation of 1858 (3 pp.)
The constitutional framework establishing the British Raj.
Interactive
The Last Maharaja: Survival 1790–1857
Play through 67 years as the ruler of a princely state, balancing your treasury, British favor, and your people's loyalty.
Part 2: The Birth of Indian Nationalism
From the Indian National Congress to Gandhi's Arrival (1885–1919)
Preparatory Reading
The Birth of Indian Nationalism
The rise of Congress, Hindu revivalism, Muslim separatism, and Gandhi's arrival on the political stage.
Dadabhai Naoroji: The Pros and Cons of British Rule (4 pp.)
The "drain of wealth" argument: Britain is impoverishing India.
Bankim Chandra Chatterji: Hail to the Mother (7 pp.)
The poem that became the anthem of Indian nationalism.
Sayyid Ahmad Khan: Congress as a Danger and a Folly (8 pp.)
The founding argument for Muslim separatism.
Interactive
Divide and Rule: The Bengal Partition Crisis of 1905
Play the Raj during the 1905 Bengal Partition crisis: keep Hindus and Muslims, Moderates and Extremists from uniting, without losing anyone's loyalty.
Part 3: Fracturing and the Struggles for Independence
From Non-Cooperation to the Eve of Simla (1920–1945)
Preparatory Reading
Fracturing and the Struggles for Independence
Gandhi's campaigns, Ambedkar's fight for Untouchable rights, Jinnah's demand for Pakistan, and the road to Simla.
Ambedkar: The Evils of Caste (5 pp.)
Ambedkar's indictment of the caste system.
Gandhi: Responses to Ambedkar's Indictment (3 pp.)
Gandhi's reply on caste and the stakes of separate electorates.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah: Founder of Pakistan (9 pp.)
Jinnah's case for Pakistan, including the 1940 Lahore Resolution.
Interactive
Unleashed: Congress and the Mass Movement, 1920–1942
Run Congress's three mass campaigns. Each turn, escalate or call it off: build enough pressure to make the British leave without losing control of the movement.