HIST 6001.10/JSTD 2002.87/ IAFF 3188.83, 6379.10 Partitions & Border Making in the Modern Middle East: A Transnational History
Arie Dubnov
Partition—the physical division of territory along ethno-religious lines into separate nation-states—is often presented as a successful political "solution" to ethnic conflict. In the twentieth century, at least three new political entities—the Irish Free State (1921), the Dominions (later Republics) of India and Pakistan (1947), and the State of Israel (1948)—emerged as a result of partition. Most notably, partition dreams and anxieties not only shaped the history of the Middle East after WWII but continue to loom large in contemporary discussions about its future. But where did this idea come from? How should we define partition, and what distinguishes it from older forms of imperial reform and control? To what extent did it respond to the increasing demands for self-determination and rising anti-colonial sentiments? How is it connected, if at all, with a longer history of British imperial intervention in the Near and Middle Easts since the nineteenth century? To what extent did partition emerge as an attempt to “answer” some of the notorious “social questions” of the previous century, including the so-called Eastern Question, the Irish Question, and the Jewish Question?
The over-arching goal of this advanced-level graduate seminar is to begin answering these questions, putting Middle Eastern partitions in a comparative and trans-local framework. Focusing on the history of political theories and their dissemination, the seminar aims to explore and contextualize the historical specificity of these twentieth-century British imperial partitions and to locate them in several historical contexts. These acts of separation were always more than simply about drawing new lines on maps: First, unlike older forms of imperial “divide-and-rule” techniques, these partitions suggested the separation of groups that were defined using an ethnonational vocabulary, as opposed to older differentiating criteria (religious differences, linguistic barriers, etc.), and thus their history is part of the history of nationalism; Second, these partitions were about a separation into independent states, and thus their history is part of the history of decolonization, self-determination and the emergence of the postcolonial nation-state; Third, in at least two cases (the South Asian and Middle Eastern partition), partition went hand in hand with massive uprooting and transfer of population, and thus their history is inherently connected to the study of twentieth-century expulsion and population exchange policies. Taught Spring 2025.