Overview
In this module, we will turn our attention to the legacies left behind by empire. Sam Dalrymple’s interview (2026) is a podcast that speaks to the multiple partitions that structured Asia in the wake of the British Empire. While it is common parlance to speak of a singular Partition in 1947, Dalrymple’s work asks us to look further. Susan Pedersen’s article (2010) brings us to Iraq in the early twentieth century and questions of independence, British grand strategy, and the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, a short piece by Fazelminallah Qazizai and Laura Cesaretti brings us what contemporary life is like at the Durand Line: an 1893 British-imposed border which is still today at the center of Pakistan’s war on Afghanistan. The documentary for this module, Bacha Khan, speaks to the history of the regions around the Durand Line and how the ramifications of both imperial and national policy continue affecting people in the region at present.
The discussion boards are meant to be wide-ranging and conversational in nature. This means that I do not expect you to provide full-fledged academic citations on the boards. I do expect you to ground your responses in the reading through those parenthetical citations in order to gain full marks. When page numbers are available, I do expect you to provide them in your parenthetical citations when bringing up evidence. I also expect your citations to provide direct quotes from the material.
How do our sources construct empire and imperialism? What does it mean to them? Are the authors’ arguments convincing? Why or why not?
At all times, remember that this conversation is grounded in the materials we have all read.
Module 6 Required Readings:
“The Invisible Lines That Divided South Asia,” The Lede, 26 February 2026
Susan Pedersen, “Getting Out of Iraq—in 1932: The League of Nations and the Road to Normative Statehood,” American Historical Review, vol. 115, no. 4 (2010)
Laura Cesaretti & Fazelminallah Qazizai, “On the Afghan-Pakistan Frontier, the Danger is Never Over,” New Lines, 8 January 2021