| Mahatma to Mao : Politics & Society in India

It is a course designed to expose students to the dominant ideas of state-society- market relationships that envelope our everyday experiences and future, hence students of law and public policy can benefit from it.
The scrutiny of the contending and even overlapping imaginations of how society should wok can help the students in recognizing and negotiating the socio- historical forces intervening in their everyday professional practices.

This course does not require any prior exposure to Sociology or Political Theory.

As an intensive course, the readings are a mix of primary and secondary materials. The vastness of the course demands a quick overview of the fundamental propositions of the various elements and overlooks certain internal differentiations of the topics. Few case studies illustrate the orchestration of the dominant imaginations of state-society-market relationship.

Lectures peppered with class discussion based on the readings will animate the class.

Part I

Constructing Socio-Political Order
Gandhi’s Non-Violent Politics
Hedgewar & Man-Making Methodology
Ambedkarite Social Revolution
Nehruvian Liberalism
Communist Search for Equity and Reforms
Semi-Feudal, Semi-Colonial Society of the Maoists

Part II

Rupture & Continuity

Democracy at Cross-Roads: JP Movement (1974-75) & Emergency (1975-1977)
Limits of Secularism: Shah Bano Case (1985) & Ram Janmabhoomi Movement (1990-1992)
Past in Present: Text-Book Banning (1977-79) to Content Generation (2002-2004)
Debating Nationalism: Azadi & JNU (2016)

Part III

Possible Futures
The Indian ‘Right’ & Decolonization of Minds
Public Intellectuals & Identity Liberalism
Urban Maoism: Dissent, Dissenters and State
Post-Secular & Post-Truth Compulsions
Selections from the books will be declared once the course is floated.