Introductory description

This module will seek to introduce students to the turbulent history of Indian democracy. It will explore “a history of events”, using six key moments in the history of post-Independence India as springboards for investigations of deep-rooted social, political and ideological tensions. The themes covered will be: the Communist Left and insurrectionary challenges to the Indian state; feminist mobilizations around the pervasiveness of sexual violence; anti-caste radicalism and the complex links between democracy and caste hierarchies; the rise of right-wing Hindu supremacism to its present hegemonic position in Indian life; and the authoritarian potentials of a formally democratic state. Each theme will be elaborated across a series of weeks, beginning with a dense narrative exploration of a discrete event, and broadening out subsequently to trace both the historical roots and the legacies of the events in question. These engagements will be designed to introduce students to the relationships between events, processes and contexts; as well as to the connections between micro-historical and macro-historical modes of analysis.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

• Week 1: Introduction;
• Weeks 2-3: Transitions from Colonialism;
• Weeks 4-5: India as A Postcolonial Democracy;
• Week 7: Authoritarian Populism - I: The Emergency, 1975-77;
• Weeks 8-10: The Left In Postcolonial India;
• Weeks 11-12: Gender And Feminist Movements;
• Weeks 13-15: Caste And Democratic Politics;
• Weeks 17-19: The Hindu Right and the Politics of Majoritarianism;
• Week 20: Authoritarian Populism - II: The Present

Learning outcomes

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

• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of a major democratic experience in the decolonized world, and the fraught history of “the world’s largest democracy”
• Critically analyse and evaluate a broad range of sources relating to the history of democracy in India
• Effectively communicate ideas, and make informed, coherent and persuasive arguments, relating to problems of democracy, authoritarianism and populism; left and right; majoritarianism and minorities
• Critically review and consolidate theoretical, methodological, and historiographical ideas relating to the intersections of history and political theory, and to the history of democracy

Indicative reading list

1. Ramachandra Guha: India After Gandhi: The History Of The World’s Largest Democracy (2007)
2. Achin Vanaik: The Painful Transition: Bourgeois Democracy in India (1990)
3. Sudipta Kaviraj: The Trajectories of The Indian State (2010)
4. Sudipta Kaviraj: The Enchantment of Democracy And India (2011)
5. Nivedita Menon and Aditya Nigam: Power And Contestation: India Since 1989 (2007)
6. Achin Vanaik: The Furies of Indian Communalism (2017)
7. K. Balagopal: Ear To The Ground: Selected Writings on Class And Caste (2011)
8. Gail Omvedt: Dalits And The Democratic Revolution: Dr Ambedkar And The Dalit Movement In Colonial India (1994)
9. Praful Bidwai: The Phoenix Moment: Challenges Confronting The Indian Left (2015)
10. Ajay Gudavarthy: Maoism, Democracy And Globalization
11. Thomas Blom Hansen: The Saffron Wave: Democracy And Hindu Nationalism in Modern India (1999)
12. Concerned Citizens Tribunal – 2002: An Inquiry Into The Carnage in Gujarat (2002)
13. Nikita Sud: Liberalization, Hindu Nationalism and the State: A Biography of Gujarat (2012)
14. Tapan Basu et al: Khaki Shorts And Saffron Flags: A Critique of the Hindu Right (1993)
15. Gyan Prakash: Emergency Chronicles: Indira Gandhi And Democracy’s Turning Point (2018)
16. Inukonda Thirumali: Against Dora And Nizam: People’s Movement in Telengana, 1939-1948 (2003)
17. Ania Loomba: Revolutionary Desires: Women, Communism and Feminism in India (2018)
18. Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (eds.): Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History (1989)
19. Radha Kumar: The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism in India, 1800-1990 (1993)
20. Nandita Gandhi and Nandita Shah: The Issues At Stake: Theory And Practice in the Contemporary Women’s Movement (1992)
21. Mala Khullar (ed.): Writing The Women’s Movement: A Reader (2003)
22. Nivedita Menon: Seeing Like A Feminist (2012)
23. Bernard D’Mello: India After Naxalbari: Unfinished History (2018)
24. Srila Roy: Remembering Revolution: Gender, Violence And Subjectivity in India’s Naxalbari Movement (2013)
25. Christophe Jaffrelot: India’s Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India (2003)
26. Anupama Rao: The Caste Question: Dalits and the Politics of Modern India (2009)
27. Manoranjan Byapari: Interrogating My Chandal Life: An Autobiography of A Dalit (2017)
28. Sujatha Gidla: Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India (2017)
29. Partha Chatterjee: The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World (2004)
30. Partha Chatterjee: Lineages of Political Society: Studies in Postcolonial Democracy (2008)

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.