Irulan

I'm reading massive general-popular histories for fun as this is exactly the stuff its hard to justify reading when your on a program. Just Finished: India after Gandi Now Reading: Postwar, Europe since 1945 Next: Penguin History of Latin America + Fall and Rise of Modern China

Yeah I neglected to edit that after I posted it, figured people would get the point. 'Middle Eastern' would have been more appropriate, I was just getting at that you'd be generally encouraged to think about Iran in comparison to countries on its west rather than its east. But you can really compare any country with any country as long as you can make a rigorous academic case for it - probably best achieved through some sort of thematic specialization like ethnic conflict and identity/Labour or Gender history etc. In general terms though Iran and India despite their proximity are segregated into different regional fields.

No probably not. I'd specialize in one and then maybe as a subfield or long-term project you can still keep the other in mind. If you do modern India you'll be encouraged to think comparatively within South Asia especially doing readings about Pakistan,Nepal, Bangladesh, as well as getting to grips with the tremendous internal variation of India. I can't speak for Iran but I imagine your encouraged to look for your comparisons to other arabic countries - unless you have some compelling case for the comparison with India above being interested in both. Also what's great about doing Modern India (probably also true for Iran) is that there are a few parallel disciplines to history which take up the topic. You might want to keep in mind disciplines like international development, South Asian Studies, or political science in order to broaden your search - there could be excellent supervisors or more funding opportunities outside history.