Taking a historical approach towards understanding gender and sexuality in South Asia, this course focuses particularly on the history of women in the region. As is suggested in the translated title of one of India's most celebrated writers Rabindranath Tagore's novel, Home and the World, this course's themes also pivot around questions of women's belonging in circumscribed spaces. From this center it reaches out to offer an understanding of the great diversity and heterogeneity of women's experiences in India, an analysis of women's movements, forays into women's voices, and colonial policies towards women. Apart from a robust historiographical literature, this course introduces students to poems, fiction, literature, plays, art, and cinema from India.