Our programme will explore the specific characteristics of contemporary India by connecting theory and practice at a concrete level. Students can study themes including India’s democratic politics, contemporary history, foreign policy and security issues, dilemmas of secularism, urban and public health problems, varieties of cultural production and consumption, economic growth and diverse social change, the role of India's media and consequences of India's science and technology policy choices. Our programme is built around two core courses, which aim to develop your awareness of, on the one hand, the working of political power and the changing social and economic order in India and, on the other, the deep historical forces that shaped the Indian subcontinent both before and after independence and partition in 1947: • Making of Contemporary India: Political Power and Social Order in Historical Perspective • Contemporary India: State, Society and Economy since 1947. You can build on these core modules with a wide range of optional modules to pursue degree programmes tailored to your principal interests. In addition, you receive expert supervision and research methods training to write a 15,000-word dissertation. You also have access to a range of external modules offered by departments across the Schools of Arts & Humanities and Social Science & Public Policy. Our MA is based in the King’s India Institute and benefits from a growing and dynamic staff strongly committed to research and teaching. You will also benefit from the expertise of affiliate faculties of the King’s India Institute based in a number of departments across the university.

Our programme aims to prepare you for both research and non-academic professional careers: in government, media and publishing, business and the corporate sector, international agencies and NGOS, and policy research.