| Political Ideas in Twentieth-Century India

This course surveys the writings of a selection of political thinkers in their attempt to radically reconceptualise politico-legal ideas in colonial India. Concerned with forging the grammar of modern Indian politics, these thinkers pushed towards newer ethical and political horizons by countering and remaking normative vocabularies received from the West. As most were trained in the law, their ring-side view of colonial politics enabled critical, productive engagements with the idea of the modern state, the political subject, the authority of law, and the discrete national community embodied in ‘the People’. The course surveys six ideas of central concern to the study of law: sovereignty, equality, freedom, revolution, nation, and fraternity. Although each political idea is designated a week (Weeks 3-9), a key aim of the course is to demonstrate their interconnectedness in political imagination.

The course builds on and complements undergraduate courses on legal history, jurisprudence, and political philosophy. It would appeal to senior year students interested in political philosophy, Indian democracy, and contemporary politics.

This course enables students to:

• Understand the development of radical politico-legal ideas in India, and acknowledge the significance of context in their development;
• Understand and appreciate the non-universality of conceptualisations of ‘the political’;
• Analyse possible contributions of Indian political thought to legal philosophy