Essay Questions for Thinking through Sources 18

1. Describing alternative futures: What can you infer about the kind of future for India that the authors or creators of these sources anticipate?
2. Assessing change through time: In what ways did understandings of British colonial rule change over time? How might you account for these changes?
3. Considering visual and written sources: How do these visual and written sources differ in terms of the understanding they convey about British India?
4. Noticing what’s missing: What voices are not represented in these sources? How might such people have articulated a different understanding of the colonial experience?
5. Responding to Gandhi: How might each of the other authors or artists have responded to Gandhi’s analysis of British colonial role and his understanding of “civilization”? To what extent do you find Gandhi’s views relevant to the conditions of the early twenty-first century?