Understanding Indian Politics

PLIT10088

Understanding Indian Politics

Course Guide

Politics/IR Honours Option

2012-2013

Dr. Wilfried Swenden (convenor)

Welcome to Understanding Indian Politics

Understanding Indian Politics is a Politics/IR Honors Option, convened by Dr. Wilfried Swenden. It builds on the courses South Asian Studies 2A and 2B (offered as options to all first and second year Politics and IR students) However, students should not have taken those courses previously to enter this course, even though some preliminary readings on Indian politics may be advisable.

Course related enquiries should be addressed in the first instance to the course convenor, Dr Wilfried Swenden, Chrystal Macmillan Building, third floor, room 5; tel: 0131 650 4255, Email: . Office hours: Wednesday 14:30 – 16:30. Where possible, students are encouraged to make use of these office hours. Meetings outside of office hours may be arranged by email.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

· understand the dynamics of Indian politics since Independence, and demonstrate processes of continuity and change in Indian politics

· critically appraise competing theoretical perspectives and empirical analyses on the transformation of Indian politics and society since Independence

· situate Indian domestic and foreign politics in a broader comparative perspective, especially by drawing comparisons with other developing states, situating India within comparative understandings of state-market-society relations, comparative theories of state and nation-building, comparative federalism, comparative theories for governing divided societies.

· develop research, analytical and presentation skills, through guided research in preparation for assessment and tutorial presentations

Course Structure, Venue and Time

This course adopts a lecture-tutorial format. Lectures are on Monday, 15.10-16:00, in Zone: Central. Forrest Hill, room D.02 (3.D02) on the third floor. Tutorials will held on Thursdays 10-10.50 (DHT, 7.01); 11.10-12.00 (Faculty Room South) and 15.10-16.00 (Dugald Stewart Building, 3.10 Peter Lodefoged Room). Students will be asked to sign up for a tutorial group via the course Learn page in week 1. Tutorials begin in week 2.

Tutorial Format

All students are expected to participate in tutorial discussions, and take part in group presentations. In the first tutorial (week 2), students will be divided in groups of 3-4 and will remain in these groups throughout the semester. Each group will lead two tutorial discussions, including delivering a 15 minute powerpoint presentation (see Annex 1). Tutorial participation will be assessed and count towards 15 percent of your final mark.

Course Material: Course Guide + Learn

The Course Guide is your first source of information: it provides a list of core, tutorial, and further readings. Most of the core or tutorial readings can be accessed as e-journals or e-publications. We will make some tutorial readings available on Learn. Book chapters or books can be found in the Library (the most important books are put on reserve). Lecture handouts will be made available on Learn on the day of the lecture.

Course Assessment

This course has three components of assessment:

1) 40% essay (2500 words)

2) 15% tutorial participation (based on two group based assessments: 20 minute presentations in which a group of four students addresses a question and prepares questions for discussion; with one mark per group)

3) 45% take home exam (students must answer two questions posted on Learn and are given 48 hours to hand back a typed home exam)

DEADLINES:

Essay Deadline: Tuesday 26 February 2013, 12pm

Take Home Exam: released: Monday 8 April 2013, 10am – submission 11 April 2013, 10am

All coursework will be marked and returned to students within 3 working weeks of the submission deadline. Once marked, essays will be distributed in class or can be collected from the course convenor during office hours. Feedback will be provided for all assessed work. All marks are provisional until confirmed by the Exam Board, which meets in early June 2013. Topics and guidance for the essay and Take Home Exam are listed in Annex 2 and 3 of this document.

For further information regarding Submission of coursework [ESSAY + TAKEHOME EXAM], LPW, plagiarism, learning disabilities, special circumstances, common marking descriptors, re-marking procedures and appeals, see ‘The Politics/IR Honours Handbook’

LATE SUBMISSION

Penalties for late submission OF Essays are set by College, and are as follows:

· Five marks per working day (i.e. excluding weekends) for up to 5 days;

· Coursework handed in more than 5 days late will receive a mark of zero

· PLEASE NOTE that failure to submit an electronic version along with the hard copy of your coursework will be treated as failure to submit, and subject to the same lateness penalties set out above.

For the late submission of your Take Home Exam You will lose 5 marks per half hour past the due date and time and will automatically receive a mark of 0 if you are more than twenty-four hours late. The submission procedure is exactly the same as for an essay.

Students who feel they have a legitimate reason for late submission of assessed work must apply for a lateness penalty waiver. For guidance on policy and procedure regarding work submitted after the deadline, please see the Politics and Internationals Relations Honours Handbooks: http://www.pol.ed.ac.uk/studying_politics#oncourseug. The School looks sympathetically on students with a legitimate reason for late submission. Please also consult the PIR Honours Handbooks for information on the extended marking scheme, plagiarism and freedom of information rules.

Assessment Criteria

The following are key assessment criteria for the Essay. However, it is important to note that the overall mark is a result of a holistic assessment of the assignment as a whole.

a. Does the essay address the question set, and with sufficient focus?

b. Does the essay show a grasp of the relevant concepts and knowledge?

c. Does the essay demonstrate a logical and effective pattern of argument?

d. Does the essay, if appropriate, support arguments with relevant, accurate and effective forms of evidence?

e. Does the essay demonstrate reflexivity and critical thinking in relation to arguments and evidence?

f. Is the essay adequately presented in terms of: correct referencing and quoting; spelling, grammar and style; layout and visual presentation?

The following are key assessment criteria for the Take Home exam:

a. Does the exam address the question set, and with sufficient focus?

b. Does the exam show a grasp of the relevant concepts and knowledge?

c. Does the exam demonstrate a logical and effective pattern of argument?

d. Does the exam if appropriate, support arguments with relevant, accurate and effective forms of evidence?

e. Does the exam demonstrate reflexivity and critical thinking in relation to arguments and evidence?

f. Does the (typed) exam make reference to some key resources (but not more than 8 per answer)

g. Does the exam stay within the prescribed word limit

The following are key assessment criteria for tutorial participation:

With respect to tutorial presentations:

a. Does the tutorial presentation discuss the set question in a clear, concise and engaging manner?

b. Does the group repond well to the questions posed by the rest of the class?

c. Does the group lead a vibrant and relevant discussion on the set research question?

d. Do the presentation and discussion demonstrate a positive group dynamic which demonstrates the collective effort that went into preparing and executing the presentation?

With respect to participation in tutorial discussions:

Attendance: You are expected to attend every tutorial, unless you have a very good reason to be absent. Absences should be explained in advance and justified with evidence where appropriate. Note that absence may affect your final grade.

Preparation: You are expected to complete the required reading every week. You may be called on at any point in any week to contribute to the discussion as part of your participation assessment. There may sometimes be more specific instructions, found in the reading list below. The required reading is the bare minimum you are expected to do; the more you read, the better the discussion, the better your essays will be, and the easier your exam revision will be.

Listening and Etiquette: You are expected to listen when others talk, both in small and large group discussions. Ideally, you will be able to incorporate or build off the ideas of others. Please be respectful of other people’s opinions!

COURSE OVERVIEW
Week / Date / LECTURE (Monday) / TUTORIAL (Thursday)
1 / 14-1 / The Formation of the Indian State: Past Legacies, New Beginnings / NO TUTORIAL – tutorial sign-up via LEARN
2 / 21-1 / Imagining the Indian Nation
Guest Lecturer: Dr. Crispin Bates / Introduction & discussion: What unites India? What sets the process of Indian state building apart from state-building in other countries? In what sense is India a plurinational state?
3 / 28-1 / Designing Institutions for a Complex Society / Is India a power-sharing democracy?
Group A presents
4 / 4-2 / The transformation of the Indian Party System : from One Party Dominance to Party Fragmentation / How can we explain the transformation of the Indian party system from a one party dominant to a multi-party system?
Group B presents
5 / 11-2 / The transformation of Indian Society and the assertion of the Lower Castes: from Exclusion to Inclusion
Guest Lecturer: Dr. Hugo Gorringe / To what extent has the assertion of Dalit and OBC politics helped their inclusion in Indian society (politics, public administration and economics)?
Group C presents
7 / 25-2 / The Saffronization of Indian Politics: from secularism to Hindutva? / Why explains the rise of Hindu nationalism in the 1980s? To what extent does Hindu nationalism undermine Indian democracy? Is the BJP still –first and foremost- a Hindu nationalist party?
Open tutorial since essay is due this week – no group presentations
Essay due 26 February 2013, 12pm
8 / 4-3 /

The Political Economy of India: from Planning to Free Market?

/ Has the liberalization of the Indian economy made India a more affluent society?
Group A presents
9 / 11-3 / The transformation of Indian Federalism: from Centralized Federalism to Confederalism? / How and why has the transformation of Indian federalism affected inter-state inequalities?
Group B presents
10 / 18-3 /

India meets the World: From Non-Alignment to Western Rapprochement?

/ Which IR paradigm best explains contemporary Indian foreign policy: Nehruvianism, liberalism or realism? Use Indo-Chinese, Indo-American and/or Indo-Pakistani relations as an example
Group C presents
11 / 25-3 /

Looking Ahead: Eight Challenges for Indian Politics and Democracy

/ Open tutorial, based on challenges identified in final class + revision tutorial
Essay deadline: 26 February 2013
Take Home Exam: Released on 8 April, 10 am (Learn); submit (as for essay via Learn), 11 April 10am

GENERAL READINGS:

There is no set textbook for this course, but students may find the following books or review essays helpful:

· Adeney, Katherine and Andrew Wyatt (2010), Contemporary India (Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan)

· Bates, C (2007), Subalterns and Raj. South Asia since 1600 (Abingdon: Routledge)

· Brass, Paul (1994), The Politics of India since Independence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

· Gopal Jayal, Niraja (2008), Democracy in India (Delhi: Oxford University Press)

· Gopal Jayal, Niraja and Pratap Bhanu Metha, eds., (2010), The Oxford Companion to Politics in India (Delhi: Oxford University Press)

· Guha, Ramachandra (2007). India after Gandhi. The History of the World’s Largest Democracy (New York: Harpers Collins).

· Subrata K. Mitra (2011), Politics in India. Structure, Process and Policy (London: Routledge)

· Stepan, Alfred, Linz, Juan J. and Yogendra Yadav (2011). State-Nations. India and other Multinational Democracies (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press)

JOURNALS

Journal articles are also a valuable source of good quality academic research. Many social science journals carry articles of relevance to this course, especially Asian Survey, Contemporary South Asia, Economic and Political Weekly, Journal of Contemporary Asia, India Review, Pacific Affairs, Seminar. Students may also wish to consult general political science journals such as Comparative Political Studies, Party Politics, American Journal of Political Science, World Politics, International Organization, Foreign Affairs which occasionally publish articles with Indian content. All of these are available as electronic journals via the Information Services website. Finally, for current affairs, it is advisable to check India’s leading newspapers, The Hindu or the Times of India, on a regular basis as well as India Today, a weekly current affairs magazine. Of further use is Caravan magazine: http://caravanmagazine.in/ a new Indian on-line journal of Politics & Culture.

Detailed Course programme

Monday 14 January 2013

Lecture 1: The Formation of the Indian State: Past Legacies, New Beginnings

The lecture will provide an overview of course learning outcomes and administration, and clarify the key concepts at the centre of an analysis of Indian Politics. It provides the historical context, i.e. the key challenges facing Indian democracy at Independence and the process of Indian state formation (and Partition) and how it compared with state formation elsewhere.

Core Reading

Katherine Adeney and Andrew Wyatt, ‘The Making of Modern India’, in Katherine Adeney and Andrew Wyatt (2010), Modern India (Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan), 7-35

Rudolph, S.H. (1987), ‘Presidential Address: State Formation in Asia – Prolegomenon to a Comparative Study’, Journal of Asian Studies, 46, (4), 731-46

Talbot, I and Singh, G. (2009), The Partition of India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 25-60