Q Indian Democracy: Ideas in Action, c. 1947-2007
Dr. Shruti Kapila
This wide-ranging new option explores the ideas, individuals, and practices that have informed democracy in India since the important yet largely neglected 1970s. Sustained periods of rapid economic growth have moved India from the periphery to the centre of narratives of global change, as we enter the second decade of the much-heralded but ambiguous ‘Asian Century.’ The special subject will historically locate the rise of Indian democracy. While scholars and journalists alike commonly attach the now-clichéd descriptor ‘the world’s largest democracy’ to India, the life and career of democracy in India have made significant departures from its Western counterparts, and have had markedly more radical outcomes. Discussions will encompass varieties of democracy including republican, representative, deliberative, republican and agonistic ones that have shaped its form in India.
A primary focus will be an interrogation of India’s experiments with some of the biggest questions of global political modernity. These include affirmative action and social justice, linguistic diversity, territorial sovereignty, religious and cultural recognition, and the ways both socialism and capitalism were thought anew in India. Scholars writing in the last four decades have consistently described Indian democracy as in a state of crisis, but this course seeks instead to understand this ‘crisis’ in terms of the often conflictual democratization of Indian society, and to understand how conflict and crisis, in this sense, is both threatening to but importantly, generative of democratic change.
Moreover, while India boasts high levels of voter action and the state is an important site of democratic competition, this special subject seeks to explore the life and career of democracy beyond the state in India. The mass anti-colonial mobilizations of the interwar period informed and in many ways made possible the radical and ambitious project of republican democracy. The course will explore the ways in which the Constitution of India adopted in 1950 to found the Republic has had lasting consequences on and imbued a logic to the postcolonial trajectory of democracy, both in regard to the state and society. The role of the press,
1 mobilizations, campaigns and election manifesto rhetoric would be explored in this Paper.
By highlighting the role of ideas in driving historical change in India, the course will explore important thinkers of India’s political modernity, including but not limited to prominent figures such as Jawaharlal Nehru and B.R. Ambedkar. While most scholarship has approached India as a ‘culture’ or ‘society,’ this course will explore India as a locus of the generative and transformative potential of political ideas and their impact in making India an enduring democracy.
The sources for the course are diverse including Collected Papers of major political figures, extracts from newspapers, election manifestos, official reports and contemporary secondary literature.
The format will be introductory lectures followed by class-based discussion with relevant sources discussed each week. There will be an informal (out of class hours) film programme to complement the teaching programme. Revision and further gobbet discussion will be organised for the final term.
A course pack of sources (barring those from published and online collected works) will be provided.
(Members of the Constituent Assembly, 1946 that drafted the Constitution and India’s democratic architecture)
2 Proposed Themes and Classes :
Week One:
Introduction to Postcolonial India
Week Two: Ideas and Forms of Democracy
Constituent Assembly Debates (1946-49), 170 pages
Week Three:
Foundations and Thinkers of Indian Democracy, Part I: Gandhi CWMG (Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi): 110 pages: online selections
BAWS: 3 (B R Ambedkar Works and Speeches): 60 pages
Week Four:
Foundations and Thinkers of Indian Democracy Part II :
Ambedkar, Patel and Republican Democracy
Sunderlal Report: 20 pages
BAWS : 60 pages
Patel, For a United India: Speeches of Sardar Patel, 1947-1950, 30 pages
Week Five:
Nehru: The State of Democracy and the Conservative Challenge Nehru, SWJN (Selected works of Jawaharlal Nehru): 80 pages
Rajagopalachari, C. Birth of Swatantra Party (Freedom): 40 pages
Dar Commission, 30 pages
3 Week Six:
Communism, Socialism and Democracy
Lohia, R Marx, Gandhi and Socialism, 40 pages
Nehru, SWJN: 20 pages
Selected works of Charu Majumdar , 30 pages
Ranadive, B.T. Collected Works , 40 pages Communist Party of India (Marxist), Selected Documents and manifesto : 10 pages
Week Seven: Indira and Indian Populism
Gandhi, Indira Selected Speeches of Indira Gandhi, 30 pages
JP Narayan, Three Basic Problems of India: From Socialism to Sarvodaya, 70 pages
Mrs. Gandhi’s 20-point programme, 10 pages
Shah Commission, 40 pages
Week Eight:
Violence and Democracy
Report of the Bhagalpur Riot Inquiry Commission (1995) – two reports Srikrishna Commission (1998) – on Bombay riots
Tewary Commission Report (1983)
194 Riots:http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2003/who-are- guilty.htm, plus newspaper clipping, all online
Approx: 160 pages
Week Nine:
New India and Coalition Democracy or the Second Democratic Upsurge
Savarkar, V.D. Hindutva: who is a Hindu?, 20 pages
4 Lokniti National Election Surveys, 1992-2002, 60 pages
Rao, P.V. Narasimha Ayodhya 6 December 1992, 20 pages
Advani, L.K. My Country, My Life, 15 pages
Kanshi Ram, online speech, 3 pages
Election manifesto BSP (1992-2002), 20 pages
Mandal commission, 20 pages
Week Ten:
Power and Corruption in Indian Democracy India Corruption Study, 2005, Transparency International, 35 pages
Ethics Committee, Rajya Sabha, (Upper House), 2002, 30 pages
Kejriwal, Arvind India Against Corruption, Swaraj document, 35 pages
Week Eleven:
The New Economy and Maoism
History of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and the development of Maoism in India, http://www.wengewang.org/read.php?tid=22618 , 20 pages
Commanding Heights, 2000, Speech and Interview with Manmohan Singh on economic reforms, 15 pages
Sanhati (journal): 20 pages, Liberation (journal), 20 pages
Lokniti National Election Surveys, 1992-2002, 30 pages
Week Twelve:
The Peasant and Indian Democracy
Roy, Prannoy, et al, eds., India Decides: Elections 1952-1991 , 40 pages
Lokniti National Election Surveys, 1992-2002, 20 pages
SP election manifestos, 1990-2007, 10 pages
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Week Thirteen:
The City and Indian Democracy
Roy, Prannoy, et al, eds., India Decides: Elections 1952-1991 , 40 pages
Lokniti National Election Surveys, 1992-2002, 20 pages
Plus city memoirs of Bombay/Delhi/Calcutta/Madras/Bangalore: 12pages
Week Fourteen:
The Environment of Indian Democracy
Medha Patkar et al India's Environment , 40 pages
Interview with Chipko (hug/stick to trees) movement leader, http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jul/08inter.htm
Save Narmada (biggest dam and anti-dam movement) aims and literature, http://www.narmada.org
Approx: 10 pages
Plus documentary by
Van Maximillian Carlson’s film on Union Carbide and Bhopal Gas tragedy http://www.bhopalithemovie.com
Week Fifteen:
Cinema and the Pleasures of Democracy
Discussion and selected viewing of
Television series on the Ramayana , (1980s)
Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur , (2012) Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti [Politics] (2005)
Shyam Bengal’s series on the Indian constitution (2013)
6 Week Sixteen:
Internationalism and India as the world’s largest democracy
Nehru, CWJN, on Non-alignment, 25 pages
Mrs Gandhi on Bangladesh War, with Chris Panos, 28 mins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3RLKYXQ39M
PM Vajpeyi on Nuclear India, 7 mins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eSlyYQhnso
US –India nuclear Deal 20 pages http://www.cfr.org/india/us-india-nuclear-deal/p9663
Approx: 1668 pages, plus clippings
Primary Sources
Writings of Major Political Figures:
Ambedkar, B.R. Collected Works
Azad, Maulana Abul Kalam Selected Speeches and Writings , Syed Shahabuddin, editor (New Delhi, 2007)
Communist Party of India (Marxist): Documents, proceedings and History
Gandhi, Indira Selected Speeches of Indira Gandhi (New Delhi)
Gandhi, M.K. Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule (Ahmedabad, 2001 [1938]) and The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (New Delhi, 1969-94)
Lohia, Ram Manohar Collected Works of Dr. Lohia (New Delhi, 2009); Marx, Gandhi and Socialism (Hyderabad, 1963)
Masani, M.R. Congress misrule and the Swatantra alternative , foreword by C. Rajagopalachari (Bombay, 1966) Narayan, Jayaprakash Selected Works , Bimal Prasad, editor (New Delhi, 2000-9); Three Basic Problems of India: From Socialism to Sarvodaya (London, 1964); Towards Total Revolution (Bombay, 1978)
7 Nehru, Jawaharlal Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru (New Delhi)
Patel, Vallabhbhai For a United India: Speeches of Sardar Patel, 1947-1950 (Delhi, 1949); Sardar Patel – In Tune with the Millions , 2 vols., (Ahmedabad, 1975-76)
Rajagopalachari, C. Birth of Swatantra Party (Freedom): Protect Farm and Family (Madras, 1959); 21 Principles of the Swatantra Party (Madras, 1959); Swarajya (journal)
Ranadive, B.T. Collected Works
Rao, P.V. Narasimha Ayodhya 6 December 1992 (New Delhi, 2006)
Savarkar, V.D. Hindutva: who is a Hindu? (Mumbai, 1999) ; Hindu Rashtra Darshan (Bombay, 1949)
Tandon, P.D., ed., Vinoba Bhave: The Man and His Mission (Bombay, 1952)
Biographies and Autobiographies
Advani, L.K. My Country, My Life (New Delhi, 2008)
Azad, Maulana Abul Kalam India Wins Freedom (Hyderabad, 1988 [1959])
Brass, Paul An Indian Political Life: Charan Singh and Congress Politics, 1937-61 (London, 2011)
Frank, Katherine Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi (London, 2001)
Gandhi, M.K. An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments With Truth (London, 2012 [1925])
Gandhi, Rajmohan Rajaji: a life (New Delhi, 1997)
Nehru Jawaharlal An Autobiography: with musings on recent events in India (London, 1989 [1936]) Sundarayya, P. An Autobiography , Atlury Murali, editor (New Delhi, 2009)
Official Commissions and Reports
Constituent Assembly Debates (1946-49)
Sunderlal Report (1948) – on Hyderabad
Shah Commission (1978) – on Emergency
Report of the Bhagalpur Riot Inquiry Commission (1995) – two reports
Srikrishna Commission (1998) – on Bombay riots
8 Tewary Commission Report (1983) – on Nellie massacre
Report of the Backward Classes Commission (1953-55)
Report of the Backward Classes Commission (1980) – i.e. Mandal Report
Report of the Linguistic Provinces Commission (1948) – i.e. Dar Commission
Annual reports of the Commissioner of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (c. 1950-1984)
Election Studies
Roy, Prannoy, et al, eds., India Decides: Elections 1952-1991 (New Delhi, 1991)
Election Manifestos of Major Political Parties (INC, BJP, BSP) Years 1978-2007.
Lokniti National Election Surveys (1967-2009) Lokniti State of South Asian Democracy (Oxford, 2007)
Secondary Sources: Anderson, Perry, The Indian Ideology (London, 2013) with rebuttal from Pankaj Mishra, ‘India and Ideology: Why Western Thinkers Struggle With the Subcontinent’, Foreign Affairs , December 2013
Arendt, Hannah On Revolution (London, 1963)
Banerjee, Abhijit and Duflo, Esther Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (New York, 2011)
Bardhan, Pranab The Political Economy of Development in India (Delhi, 1998)
Bass, Gary The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide (New York, 2013)
Bayly, C A, Recovering Liberties: Indian thought in the age of Liberalism and Empire (Cambridge 2012)
‘The ends of liberalism and the political thought of Nehru’s India ’ MIH forthcoming, and podcast available online on King’s India S Gopal Annual lecture
Blom Hansen, Thomas The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu nationalism in modern India (Princeton, 1999)
Wages of Violence: Naming and identity in postcolonial Bombay (Princeton, 2001).
Chandra, Kanchan Why Ethnic Parties Succeed (Cambridge, 2004)
9 Chatterjee, Partha and Ira Katznelson, eds, Anxieties of Democracy: Toquevillean Reflections on India and the United States (New Delhi, 2012)
Chatterjee, Partha The Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton, 1994)
Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World (New York, 2004)
editor, Wages of Freedom: Fifty Years of the Indian Nation-State (Delhi, 1998)
Das , Veena Critical Events: An Anthropological Perspective on Contemporary India (Delhi, 1995)
Life and Words: Violence and the Descent into the Ordinary (Berkeley, 2007)
Mirrors of Violence: communities, riots and survivors (Delhi, 1990)
Devji, Faisal The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptations of Violence (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 2012)
Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea (Cambridge Mass., and London, 2013)
Doron, A. and R. Jeffrey, The Great Indian Phone Book: How the Cheap Cell Phone Changes Business, Politics, and Daily Life (Cambridge, MA, 2013)
Dwyer, Rachel Bollywood’s India: Hindi cinema as a guide to modern India (London, 2014)
Giri, Saroj ‘The Maoists and the Poor: Against Democracy?’ Economic & Political Weekly , XLIV, 49 (December 2009)
‘Whither Maoists?’ Sanhati (28 April 2010)
Gupta, Akhil Red Tape: Bureaucracy, Structural Violence, and Poverty in India (Durham, 2012) with K. Sivaramakrishnan, The Indian State After Liberalization (London, 2012)
with Aradhana Sharma, The Anthropology of the State (London, 2006)
Gupta, Dipankar Interrogating Caste: Understanding Hierarchy & Difference in Indian Society (New Delhi, 2000)
Held, David Models of Democracy (Cambridge, 2006)
Jaffrelot, Christophe India’s Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India (London, 2003)
10 Jayal, Niraja Gopal Citizenship and its Discontents: An Indian History (Cambridge, MA, 2013)
Kapila, Shruti and Devji Faisal (eds.), Political thought in Action: The Bhagavad Gita and Modern India (Cambridge, 2012)
Kapila, Shruti, ‘Global Intellectual History and the Indian Political’ in McMahon and Moyn (eds.) Rethinking Modern European Intellectual History
Kaviraj, Sudipta The Imaginary Institution of India: politics and ideas (New York, 2010)
Khilnani, Sunil The Idea of India (New York, 1997)
Khilnani, Sunil, et al, Nonalignment 2.0: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the Twenty First Century (New Delhi, 2012)
Khilnani, Sunil and Sudipta Kaviraj, eds., Civil Society: History and Possibilities (Cambridge, 20013) Khosla, Madhav The Indian Constitution (Oxford, 2012)
Kohli, Atul The Success of India’s Democracy (Cambridge, 2001)
Democracy and Development in India: From Socialism to Pro-Business (New Delhi 2010)
Democracy and Discontent: India’s Growing Crisis of Governability (Cambridge, 1990)
Kothari, Rajni Politics in India (Boston, 1970)
Mahajan, Gurpreet India: Politics Ideas and the Making of a Democratic Discourse (London, 2013)
Identities and Rights: Aspects of Liberal Democracy in India (Oxford, 1998) McMahon Darrin M. and Moyn Samuel (eds) Rethinking Modern European Intellectual History, (New York, 2013) essays by Moyn and Breckman
Mehta, Pratap Bhanu The Burden of Democracy (New York, 2003)
Mehta, Uday “The Social Question and the Absolutism of Politics,” Seminar , 615 (November 2010)
Michelutti, Lucia The Vernacularisation of Democracy: Politics, Caste and Religion in India (New Delhi, 2008)
Nandy, Ashis, et al, Creating a Nationality: the Ramjanmabhumi Movement and Fear of the Self (Oxford, 1995)
11 Nandy, Ashis, ed., The Secret Politics of Our Desires: Innocence, Culpability and Indian Popular Cinema (London, 1998)
Prakash, Gyan Mumbai Fables (Princeton, 2010)
Raghavan, Srinath War and peace in modern India (Basingstoke, 2010)
Rajagopal, Arvind Politics after Television: religious nationalism and the reshaping of the Indian public (Cambridge, 2001)
‘The Emergency as Prehistory of the New Indian Middle Class,’ Modern Asian Studies , 45, 5 (September 2011), pp. 1003-1049
Rosanvallon, Pierre and Goldhammer, Arthur Counter-democracy: Politics in an Age of Distrust (Cambridge, 2008)
Sen, Amartya and Dreze, Jean An Uncertain glory: India and its contradictions (London, 2013) Sen, Amartya Development as Freedom (Oxford, 1999)
Shiva, Vandana The Violence of the Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology and Politics (London, 1991)
Sundar, Nandini Subalterns and Sovereigns: An Anthropological History of Bastar, 1854-2006 (Oxford, 2007)
‘The People Need to Breathe,’ Outlook (27 August 2012)
‘Bastar, Maoism and Salwa Judum,’ Economic & Political Weekly , 41, 29 (July 2006), pp. 3187-3192
Tarlo, Emma Unsettling Memories: narratives of the emergency in Delhi (London, 2003)
Varshney, Ashutosh Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India (New Haven, 2002) Vasudevan, Ravi The Melodramatic Public: Film Form and Spectatorship in Indian Cinema (Basingstoke, 2011)
Vora, Rajendra and Palshikar, Suhas, Indian Democracy: Meanings and Practices (New Delhi, 2004)
Yadav, Yogendra “On Remembering Lohia,” Economic & Political Weekly , XLV, 40 (2 October 2010)
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Sample Questions
How and why was democracy an outcome of Indian nationalism?
Why was independent India declared a Republic?
How important was the Indian liberal tradition in preparing the ground for independent India's democratic path?
How important were one of the following in creating the structures of Indian democratic politics and values a) M K Gandhi b) Jawaharlal Nehru c) B. R. Ambedkar d) Vallabhbhai Patel.
‘The Constitution of 1950 has above all produced political absolutism in India.’ Discuss.
Has democratic government transformed the status of the economically or socially disadvantaged Indians? You may answer either for the period between 1950 and 1980 or between 1980 and 2010.
How far was the ending of Mrs. Gandhi's 'Emergency' a triumph of democratic government?
How important are ‘middle class’ politics to Indian democracy and how have they changed since the 1970s?
Why and in what ways has caste become a political category?
Are the concepts of ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ useful for understanding Indian democracy. If so, why?
Why did even India's Communist governments in Bengal and Kerala maintain full representative government?
‘Increased urbanization has hindered the democratization of Indian society.’ Discuss.
In what ways has the idea of ‘revolution’ continued to be an important political concept since 1947? Is the tension between ‘development’ and the environment essentially one of different conceptions democracy?
13 What role has violence played in democratic competition?
‘Mass media has democratized Indian democracy since 1990. ‘ Discuss.
Explain the causes and consequences of the ‘second democratic upsurge’ in India since 1992.
‘Republican but agonistic.’ Discuss this view of Indian democracy.
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