POLITICS IN INDIA

(Political Science III)

POLITICS IN INDIA(Paper Code: )

Course Teacher:

Resource Persons (Guest Lectures): Research Scholars & Academia

Objectives:

This course focuses on societal dynamics and their impact on political processes in India. It identifies specific themes which are significant for the study of politics in India, explores the way in which these themes have acquired momentum, and how their changing forms have impacted upon the nature and course of Indian politics. It seeks in particular to understand how state and politics are informed by social processes and political mobilizations, historically and in contemporary contexts.

Duration: The course will comprise of 60 units of one hour duration.

Syllabus:

UNIT I

1.1.Introduction:

  1. Approaches to Indian Politics

Historical, cultural, legal and political economy perspectives

  1. State in India

Democratic, developmental and coercive dimensions

  1. Class, Caste, Tribe and Gender

UNITII

1.2.The changing nature of class dominance in India:

  1. Politics and social mobilizations
  2. Issues of equality and representation
  3. Religion, Region & Language, Communalism and secular politics
  4. Region and language: issues of recognition, autonomy and secession

UNITIII

1.3.Development Process:

  1. Concept, strategies, policies, and critiques
  2. Poverty alleviation programmes
  3. Globalization and impact on the weaker sections
  4. Food security as fundamental right as developed in India

UNITIV

1.4.Political Parties

  1. Party system and reforms
  2. Elections: Election Commission, Caste/class/religion/gender/region in electoral politics, and electoral reforms
  3. Social Movements: objectives, methods, impact and recent trends
  4. Labour: organized and unorganized, (b) Peasantry, (c) Adivasis, (d) Women

Required Reading:

  1. A.R.Desai (ed.), Peasant Struggles in India, OUP, New Delhi, 1974.
  2. A.R. Desai (ed.), Agrarian Struggles in India, OUP, New Delhi, 1986.- 12 –
  3. Abhay Kumar Dube (ed.), Rajniti ki kitab, Rajni Kothari ka krititva, Vani, Delhi, 2003.
  4. Abhay Kumar Dube (ed.), Bharat ka Bhumandalikaran, Vani, Delhi, 2005.
  5. Achin Vanaik, The Painful Transition: Bourgeois Democracy in India, Verso, London, 1990.
  6. Aditya Nigam, The Insurrection of Little Selves: The Crisis of Secular-Nationalism in India,

OUP, New Delhi, 2006.

  1. Ashis Nandy, At the Edge of Psychology, OUP, New Delhi, 1980, second impression 1993.
  2. Atul Kohli, India’s Democracy: An Analysis of Changing State-Society Relations, Orient
  3. Longman, New Delhi, 1991.
  4. Atul Kohli (ed.), The Success of India’s Democracy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001.
  5. Atul Kohli, Democracy and Development: Essays on State, Society, and Economy, OUP, New Delhi, 2009.
  6. Atul Kohli, State and Development, CUP,Cambridge, 2007
  7. Baldev Raj Nayar (ed.), Globalization and Politics in India, OUP, New Delhi, 2007.
  8. Bina Agarwal (ed.), Structures of Patriarchy: State, Community and Household in Modernizing Asia, Kali for Women, New Delhi, 1988.
  9. Christophe Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics, 1925 to the 1990s, Penguin, New Delhi, 1996.
  10. Francine Frankel and M.S.A.Rao (eds.), Dominance and State Power in India: Decline of a Social Order,Volume I and II, OUP, New Delhi, 1989.
  11. Gail Omvedt, Reinventing Revolution, New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India, Sharpe, 1993.
  12. Ghanshyam Shah (ed.), Dalit Identity and Politics, Sage, New Delhi, 2001.
  13. Ghanshyam Shah (ed.), Social Movements and the State, Sage, New Delhi, 2002.
  14. Ghanshyam Shah (ed.), Social Movements in India, A Review of Literature, Sage, New Delhi, 2004.
  15. Javeed Alam, Who Wants Democracy?, Orient Longman, New Delhi, (2004) 2006.
  16. John Zavos, Thomas Blom Hansen and Christophe Jaffrelot (eds.), Hindu Nationalism andIndian Politics: An Omnibus, OUP, New Delhi, 2004.
  17. Leela Fernandes, India’s New Middle Class: Democratic Politics in an Era of Economic Reform, OUP, New Delhi, 2007.
  18. M.P. Singh andRekha Saxena, India at the Polls: Parliamentary Elections in a Federal

Phase, Orient Longman, Delhi, 2003

Additional Reading

  1. Manoranjan Mohanty, Partha Nath Mukherji with Olle Tornquist (ed.), People’s Rights,
  2. Social Movements and the State in the Third World, Sage, New Delhi, 1998.
  3. Manoranjan Mohanty ed., Caste, Class and Gender, Sage, New Delhi, 2000.
  4. Niraja Gopal Jayal (ed.), Democracy in India, OUP, New Delhi, 2001.
  5. Nivedita Menon, (ed.), Gender and Politics in India, OUP, New Delhi, 2001.
  6. Nivedita Menon and Aditya Nigam, Power and Contestation in India: India since 1989,
  7. Orient Longman, New Delhi, 2007.
  8. Partha Chatterjee (ed.), State and Politics in India, OUP, New Delhi, (1997), 2004.
  9. Partha Chatterjee, The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of
  10. the World, Permanent Black, Delhi, 2004.
  11. Paul R. Brass, Language, Religion and Politics in North India, CUP, London, 1974.
  12. Paul R. Brass, The Politics in India since Independence, CUP, reprinted by Foundation Book,
  13. New Delhi, 1999.
  14. Peter Ronald deSouza, (ed.), Contemporary India – transitions, Fundacao Oriente and Sage,
  15. New Delhi, 2000.
  16. Peter Ronald deSouza and E. Sridharan (eds.), India’s Political Parties, Sage, New
  17. Delhi,2006.
  18. Pralay Kanungo, RSS’s Tryst with Politics: From Hedgewar to Sudarshan, Manohar, Delhi,
  19. 2004.
  20. Pranab Bardhan, The Political Economy of Development in India, OUP, New Delhi, 1998.
  21. Rajni Kothari, Politics in India, Orient Longman, Delhi, (1970), 1985.
  22. Rajni Kothari, Bharat Mein Rajniti: Kal aur Aaj, Hindi presentation by Abhay Kumar Dube,
  23. Vaani, Delhi, 2005.
  24. Ranajit Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies I: Writings on South Asian History and Society, OUP,
  25. New Delhi, 1982.
  26. Randhir Singh, Of Marxism and Indian Politics, Ajanta, Delhi, 1990.
  27. Rajendra Vora and Suhas Palshikar (ed.), Indian Democracy, Meanings and Practices, Sage,
  28. New Delhi, 2004.- 14 -
  29. Rajeev Bhargava ed., Secularism and Its Critics, OUP, New Delhi (1998), 2006.
  30. Raka Ray and Mary Fainsod Katzenstein (ed.), Social Movements in India, Poverty, Power,
  31. and Politics, OUP, New Delhi, 2006.
  32. Sandeep Shastri, Yogendra Yadav and K.C Suri , Electoral Politics in Indian States, OUP,
  33. New Delhi, 2009.
  34. Sanjib Baruah, India Against Itself: Assam and the politics of nationality, OUP, New Delhi,
  35. 2003.
  36. Sanjib Baruah, Durable Disorder: Understanding the Politics of Northeast India, OUP, New
  37. Delhi, 2007.
  38. Sudha Pai, Dalit Assertion and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution: The Bahujan Samaj
  39. Party in Uttar Pradesh, Sage, New Delhi, 2002.
  40. Sudipta Kaviraj (ed.), Politics in India, OUP, New Delhi, 1997.
  41. Sumit Ganguly, Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner, The State of India’s Democracy, OUP,
  42. New Delhi, 2008.
  43. T.V.Sathyamurthy ed., Region, Religion, Caste, Gender and Culture in India, OUP, New
  44. Delhi, 1998.
  45. Thomas Hansen and Christophe Jaffrelot eds., The BJP and the Compulsions of Politics in
  46. India, OUP, New Delhi, 1998.
  47. Ujjwal Kumar Singh, Institutions and Democratic Governance: A Study of the Election
  48. Commission and Electoral Governance in India, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
  49. (NMML), New Delhi, 2004.
  50. Veena Das (ed.), The Oxford India Companion to Sociology and Social Anthropolgy, OUP,
  51. New Delhi, 2003.
  52. Zoya Hasan (ed.), Politics and the State in India, Sage, New Delhi, 2000.

Evaluation components

Maximum marks allotted for the paper is 100 out of which 50% is allotted for semester

end university examination, and 50% for continuous evaluation by the concerned course teachers.