CONTENTS

1. Introduction 3

2. Faculty Members 07

3. Select Publications from Current CPS Faculty 10

4. Administrative Staff 14

5. Former Faculty Members 15

6. Scholarships, Fellowships and Endowments 16

7. M.A Programme 17

8. M.Phil/Ph.D Programme 20

9. Direct Ph.D Programme 22

10. B.A. Courses 25

11. M.A. Compulsory courses 25

12. Outline of Cources 26

13. M.Phil Compulsory courses 89

14. Research 105

List of Research Titles Submitted at CPS

1
1.INTRODUCTION
The Centre for Political Studies is the leading institution of teaching and research in the field
of Political Philosophy and Indian Government and Politics in the Jawaharlal Nehru
University (JNU) in New Delhi, India. The University was constituted under the Jawaharlal
Nehru University Act 1966 that came into existence in 1969. The vision and mission of
Jawaharlal Nehru University as stated in its Act 53/1966 is as follows: “The University shall
endeavour to promote the study of the principles for which Jawaharlal Nehru worked during
his life-time, national integration, social justice, secularism, democratic way of life,
international understanding and scientific approach to the problems of society”.
In order to offer academic programmes and conduct research, the Jawaharlal Nehru
University established Schools and Special Centres. Unlike other universities, the JNU’s
educational philosophy is reflected in its academic structure which is broad based and has
interdisciplinary functioning within the Schools/Centres/Special Centres. Therefore, the basic
academic units of the University are not single discipline departments but multidisciplinary
Schools of Studies. A School has been visualized as a community of scholars from various
disciplines which are linked with each other organically in terms of their subject-matter and
methodology as well as in terms of problem areas. Each School is made up of a number of
Centres which function within the broad framework of a School.
The Centre for Political Studies is located in the School of Social Sciences in JNU. It was
founded in 1970 and has since then become a major centre for focusing on issues critical to
India and by implication for the rest of the world. It is also a major centre for research
programmes in M.A. and M. Phil/PhD in politics. The graduate program, which has entered
into an exciting period of expansion, offers several new perspectives alongside more
traditional instruction in the study of politics. Long considered one of the top departments in
the country, it now has one of the largest and most intellectually diverse political science
programmes in the world. The alumni of the Centre for Political Studies occupy very
responsible positions in several walks of life all over the country and abroad. Graduates from
the centre go on to occupy key leadership positions in public, non-profit and private sectors.
The contribution of the centre to public life in India, both through its alumni and the ideas
and reflections that it has thrown up over the years, has been enormous.
Located in New Delhi, India, the Centre for Political Studies is uniquely positioned to offer
students, researchers and faculty diverse perspectives to the study of politics in this region. It
regularly organises and hosts international workshops and conferences and receives scholars
from all over the world
THRUST AREAS
During the past four decades, the centre has contributed to advancements in its field both
locally and internationally through excellence in research and teaching, and collaboration in
various projects. In the initial stages, the centre emphasized the study of the working of
political institutions and political processes in the Indian context. Moving away from the
behavioural tradition in the study of Political Science, it soon began to focus on the
complexity of state-society interactions from the perspective of political economy. The level
of political scrutiny of political institutions increased to include a more flexible, dynamic and
open way of studying governance and its limitations. The centre stressed, and provided to its

2
students, a theoretical foundation necessary to analyze modes of domination and
subordination, and overt and covert forms of expressions of power. It also distinguished itself
as being a leading institution for the study of political philosophy and political ideas in India.
In the first decade of its existence, the main concern of the Centre was to place its teaching
programme on a sound footing and lay the foundation of its research activities. Accordingly
the M.A. and M.Phil. programmes were developed so as to combine the requirement of
adequate training in the essentials of Political Science while retaining a multidisciplinary
perspective. Over the years, the centre has emerged as a dynamic and innovative department,
which has pioneered new courses and experimented with new modes of teaching and
learning. The M.Phil and Ph.D. programmes have set benchmarks for other Centres of
Political Science in India and elsewhere.
Drawing on a variety of philosophical, historical and interdisciplinary approaches, the
academic programme of the centre is distinguished by certain characteristic emphases which
set it apart from other departments specialising in Political Science in the country. Since its
inception, it has gathered a group of faculty internationally recognized for their seminal
contributions in the field of politics. Our faculty explain, interpret and evaluate those
assumptions that undergird political life. The assessment is done by several methods such as
performance in classrooms, home assignments, tutorials, seminars, term papers and mid-
semester tests, besides the end-semester examination. In this way the centre is uniquely
positioned to offer students and researchers precious insights for the study of politics in India.
The courses and research equip students to become high-performing creative leaders who are
ready to make a meaningful difference to their institutions, communities and themselves.
One of the notable achievements of the centre has been in blending the diverse subfields of
the discipline of Politics both in its teaching and research. The outcome of such an endeavour
has been a constant redefinition of the idea of the political, enabling the discipline to capture
the dynamics of a changing reality. It aims at contributing to the discipline of politics through
empirically sensitive theorizations rooted in social and political processes.
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT: REVISING EXISTING COURSES
Although the perspective which informed the teaching and research of the centre in the early
years, has continued to inform its work even today, over the years its syllabi have been
updated and revised significantly. New courses have also been introduced to reflect the
changes in the discipline of Political Science as well as the new social and political concerns
that emerged in society. While periodic reviews, perhaps inevitably, reflect a certain shift in
defining priority areas of research, the Centre has throughout retained its inter-disciplinary
perspective. Thus in the study of Political Theory and Philosophy, the interaction between
political ideas and social history is highlighted. Similarly, the study of Indian political
processes is substantially focused on the relationship between the polity, economy, society
and culture. Courses have been made methodologically sensitive and responsive to the
dramatic and structural changes underway in the world with the demise of the Soviet bloc,
shift to market economy and unipolarity, emergence of new regional blocs, rise of China,
growing democratization of closed societies and the piecing together of a new global order.
The interdisciplinary approach is also reflected in the significance that the centre attaches to
developing in the future the study of the cognate areas of Political Ideas of Asia, Ethics and

3
Politics, Law and Public Affairs, Urban Studies, Informalities and Settlements and
Environment and Politics.
REMEDIAL TEACHING
The Centre holds remedial coaching classes regularly every semester in order to help the
students to improve their grades. Student tutors are appointed for teaching these classes in
consultation with the teacher in-charge of the course.
STUDENT FACULTY COMMITTEE (SFC)
The Centre is holding SFC elections every year in end of September. The composition of the
SFC is as- 2 students from MA Second Semester, 3 students from MA Forth Semester and 5
students from M.Phil and Ph.D. The objective of the committee is to create dialogue and
forum for discussion between the students and faculty.
COLLABORATION
The Jawarharlal Nehru University has academic collaboration with many national and
international organizations and universities. The academic collaboration with international
universities allows exchange of faculty, students, joint research projects, joint seminars etc.
Many international Universities are showing keen interest in having academic collaboration
with JNU and JNU has signed MoU with about 150 international Universities from several
countries all around the Globe.

DSA-UGC PROGRAMME
The Centre for Political Studies was granted DSA-I by the University Grants Commission
(UGC) for a period of five years (2009-2014) which it has successfully completed. Under the
DSA Programme, the Thrust Areas of the Centre were:
i) Democracy, Development and Social Justice: Political Processes and State Practices
ii) Political Ideas in India: Historical and Comparative Perspectives
WEDNESDAY SEMINAR SERIES
The Centre has been organizing a Seminar or lecture on every Wednesday of the week. CPS
has invited many academics, scholars and activists to speak and engage in global dialogues
on India that transcend and forge boundaries between academic disciplines. It offers a lively
inter-disciplinary forum for the presentation of work by scholars in and outside JNU.
CPS FILM CLUB
Sourced from the department funds the film club hosts screenings of those films preferably
that have not received much public attention at least twice a month. The films can be short
documentaries, features and films and on such occasions, sometimes, the director also
participates in the event.
CPS COMPUPER AND TECHNOLOGY LAB
The Social Sciences in general and the discipline of political science in particular have
witnessed evolution of various research methods and techniques in the last four decades.
Besides, political scientists in India have been engaged in observing increasing magnitude of
4
political activities across the country. Such activities have opened up plethora of research
questions and possibility of diverse answers. In order to work on these research questions by
using the emerging research techniques and methods, a separate space with modern computer
technology can be extremely helpful. Keeping this requirement in mind the centre has
established a lab in the centre from January 2014.

5
2.FACULTY MEMBERS
Our department is home to around 17 faculty members and covers the major subfields of
political philosophy, political theory, Indian government and politics, comparative politics
and international relations. While compact, we are an intellectual vibrant community with a
broad spectrum of interests and backgrounds unified by a common desire to pursue academic
rigour. Among our faculty experts are the following:

Name Designation Photograph Area of Interest

Professor & Political Philosophy; Comparative Political

Vidhu Verma Thought, Feminist theory, Equality and
Chairperson Social Justice

Professor & Government and Politics in India; Politics of

Sudha Pai Developing Areas; State Politics; Dalit
Rector, JNU Studies.

Political Theory; Philosophy of Social

Gurpreet Professor &
Sciences; Democratic Theory and
Mahajan Coordinator DSA
Multiculturalism.

Indian Political Thought; Humiliation;

Gopal Guru Professor
Social Movements.

Political Philosophy; Social and Political

Valerian Thought in Modern India; Disadvantage and
Professor
Rodrigues Marginality; Representation and Public
Institutions.

Pralay Indian Politics; Religion, Culture and

Professor
Kanungo Identity; Indian Diaspora.

6
 Political Institutions; Laws and Rig
Anupama Roy Professor hts; Theory and Practice of Citizenship;
Gender and Migration

Political Theory; History of Western

Shefali Jha Professor Political Thought and Feminism; Rights and
Representation.

Social Science Research Methods; Marxist

Manindra
Associate Professor Theory; Indian Politics; Religion and
Nath Thakur
Politics; New Religious Movements.

Political and Cultural Economy of

Development in Modern India, Identity and
Asha Sarangi Associate Professor Politics in South Asia, the Politics of
Linguistic Nationalism in Modern India,
State in India.

Comparative Politics; Third World Studies;

T. G. Suresh Associate Professor
China

Narendra Indian politics, Local Government, Public

Associate Professor
Kumar Policy

Ajay Assistant Political Philosophy; Social Movements;

Gudavarthy Professor Indian Politics.

Political Theory; Secularism and

Multiculturalism; Western Political Thought;
Assistant Modern Indian Political Thought; Subaltern
Rinku Lamba Studies; Politics and Planning in Third
Professor
World Cities.

7
 Marxism; Democracy; Governance;
Rajarshi
Assistant Professor Development, Planning and Public Policy;
Dasgupta
Theories of Bio-politics.

Political Theory; Multiculturalism;

Amir Ali Assistant Professor
Group Rights.

Sudhir. K Comparative Politics, International Politics,

Assistant Professor
Suthar Global Public Policy

8
3. SELECT PUBLICATIONS FROM CURRENT CPS FACULTY
Sudha Pai, Handbook on Politics in the Indian States: Region, Political Parties and
Economic Reforms, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2013.

---------Dalit Assertion: Short Introduction, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2013.

---------Developmental State and the Dalit Question in Madhya Pradesh: Congress

Response, Routledge, New Delhi. 2010.

---------Political
Process in Uttar Pradesh: Identity, Economic Reforms and
Governance (edited) Pearson/Longman, New Delhi, 2007.

---------Interrogating Social Capital: the Indian Experience (edited with D. Bhattacharyya,

Bishnu Mohapatra and Niraja Jayal) Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2005.

---------Dalit Assertion and the Unfinished Revolution: the BSP in Uttar Pradesh. Sage
Publications, New Delhi, 2002.

---------Democratic Governance in India: Poverty, Development and Politics of

Identity (edited with Niraja Gopal Jayal) Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2001.

---------State Politics New Dimensions: Party System, Liberalization and Politics of

Identity. Shipra Publications, New Delhi. 1999.

---------Uttar Pradesh: Agrarian Change and Electoral Politics Shipra Publications, New
Delhi, 1993.

---------Agrarian Relations in Uttar Pradesh A Study of the Eastern Districts Inter-India

Publications, New Delhi, 1986

Gurpreet Mahajan, India: Political Ideas and the Making of a Democratic

Discourse, London: Zed Books, 2013.

---------(ed) Accommodating Diversity: Ideas and Institutional Practices, Oxford University

Press, New Delhi, 2011.

---------Gurpreet
Mahajan and Surinder Jodhka (eds.), Religion, Community and
Development: Changing Contours of Politics and Policy in India, Routledge, Delhi, 2010.

---------Explanation and Understanding in the Human Sciences, Oxford University Press,

Delhi (1992, Second edition1997, Third edition 2011)

---------Identities and Rights: Aspects of Liberal Democracy in India, Oxford University

Press, Delhi (1998; Paperback Nov.2000)

---------The Multicultural Path: Issues of Diversity and Discrimination in a Democracy,

Sage, Delhi, 2000

9
---------Democracy, Difference and Social Justice, (ed), Oxford University Press, Delhi
(1998; Paperback 2000).

---------Minorities and the Nation-State, (Jointly edited with D.L.Sheth) Oxford University
Press, Delhi, 1999.

---------The Public and the Private: Democratic Citizenship in a Comparative Framework,

(ed.), Sage, Delhi, 2003.

Valerian Rodrigues (with B.L.Shankar), The Indian Parliament: A Democracy at Work,

Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2011.

---------B.R. Ambedkar: Essential Writings, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2002 .

Gopal Guru etal, Cracked Mirror: An Indian Debate on Theory and Experience, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi, 2012 (Co-authored).

---------Humiliation: Claims and Context, New Delhi, OUP, 2009.

Pralay Kanungo, RSS’s Tryst with Politics: From Hedgewar to Sudarshan, New Delhi:
Manohar, 2002.
---------Cultural Entrenchment of Hindutava: Local mediations and forms of
convergence(coedited with Daniela Berti and Nicolas Jaoul).

---------(eds.), The Politics of Ethnicity in India, Nepal and China (Delhi: Primus, 2014)
(coedited with Marine Carrin and Gerard Toffin).

---------(co-edited with Daniela Berti and Nicolas Jaoul), Cultural Entrenchment of

Hindutva: Local Mediations and Forms of Convergence, Routledge, New Delhi, 2011.

Vidhu Verma, Equality and Non-discrimination: Contesting Boundaries of Social Justice in

India, Routledge, London, 2012.

--------- Malaysia: State and Civil Society in Transition. Lynne Rienner Publishers,
Colorado, USA, 2002.

---------Justice, Equality and Community. An Essay on Marxist Political Theory. Sage

Publishers, New Delhi, India, 2000.

Anupama Roy, Citizen/Outsider: Mapping Citizenship in India, Oxford University Press,

Delhi, 2010.

---------Mapping Citizenship in India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, September, 2010.

---------Poverty, Gender and Migration in Asia, (co-edited), Sage, Delhi, 2006.

---------Gendered Citizenship: Historical and Conceptual Explorations, Orient Longman,

Delhi, 2005

Shefali Jha, Western Political Thought: From Plato to Marx, Pearson, Delhi, 2010

10
Manindra Thakur, Democracy on the Move. Reflections on moments, promises and
contradictions. Aakar Publication, 2013. Edited with Dhananjay Rai.

---------Wounded History: Religion, Conflict, Psyche and Social Healing. Anamika

Publishers, 2006.

Asha Sarangi, Introduction to V.P.Menon, Integration of the States in India (Orient

Blackswan, New Delhi, 2014, First published 1955).

---------(coedited with Sudha Pai), Interrogating Reorganization of States: Culture, Identity

and Politics in Independent India, Routledge, New Delhi, 2011.

---------(ed) Language ansd Politics in India. Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
Published again as a paperback edition, 2010.

Narender Kumar,. Dalit Policies, Politics and Parliament, New Delhi: Shipra Publishers
2004.

Sukhadeo Thorat and Narender Kumar (ed.). 2008. B.R. Ambedkar: Perspective on Social
Exclusion and Inclusive Policies, New Delhi: Oxford University Press (Paperback edition
2009).
---------In Search of Inclusive Policy: Addressing Graded Inequality, Jaipur: Rawat
Publications.(edited with S. Thorat) 2008.

---------Dalit Leadership in Panchayats: A Comparative Study of Four States, Jaipur: Rawat

Publications.(edited with Manor Rai) 2006.

---------Dalit Policies, Politics and Parliament, New Delhi: Shipra Publishers, 2004.

---------Scheduled Castes and Panchayat Elections in Haryana, New Delhi: Indian Social
Institute 2001.

Amir Ali, Terrorism and Genocide: Making sense of senselessness’, Economic and
Political Weekly, Vol. XXXIX, No. 6, February 6, 2004.
--------- ‘The Hindutva Gameplan to Checkmate Muslims’ in Mushirul Hasan (ed.) Living
With Secularism: The Destiny of Indian Muslims, Delhi, Manohar, 2006.

Ajay Gudavarthy, Politics of Post-Civil Society: Contemporary History of Political

Movements in India, Delhi: Sage, 2013.

--------- (ed) Reframing Democracy and Agency in India: Interrogating Political Society,
Anthem, London, March, 2012.

Rinku Lamba, ‘Nationalism’ in Sanjay Palshikar and P. K. Dutta (Eds.) Modern Indian
Political Thought (2003-2009), Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2013 (series
commissioned by the Indian Council of Social Science Research).

11
--------- ‘Bringing the State Back In, Yet Again: the Debate over Socioreligious Reform in
late-Nineteenth Century India’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle
East, 29, 2012.

Rajarshi Dasgupta, The Ascetic Modality: A Critique of Communist Self-fashioning in

Nivedita Menon, Aditya Nigam and Sanjay Palshikar eds., Critical Studies in Politics:
Exploring Sites, Selves, Power IIAS and Orient Blackswan, 2014, pp. 67-87.
---------, Ethics and Politics in Pradip Kumar Datta and Sanjay Palshikar eds., Volume
III, Indian Political Thought in Achin Vanaik ed., ICSSR Research Surveys and Explorations
in Political Science, Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 230-259.

Sudhir Kumar Suthar, Comparative Politics and Crisis of Governance: The Russian
Conundrum (New Delhi: Vij Publishers) 2011.

--------- (ed) with Nidhi Shukla, Shailza Singh, Theories of International Politics (New Delhi:
Tripura Central University and Vikas Publishing House) 2011.

FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS
Valerian Rodrigues was conferred Sri Pravananda Saraswati UGC National Award, 2006
(Received in 2009) for Political Science.

T.G. Suresh was conferred Asia Fellow Award, Asian Scholarship Foundation, Bangkok,
Thailand, 2008.

Asha Sarangi was conferred Social Scientist Award under the Indo-French Cultural Exchange
Programme, University Grant Commission, New Delhi, India, 2007.

Gopal Guru was conferred the Malcome Adiseshiah award, 2013.

12
4. ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF CPS

The Office of the Chairperson and staff of the Centre for Political Studies is in Room 108-
109 on the first floor of the School of Social Sciences Building I, JNU.
Apart from lecture rooms, this floor also has a committee room, tutorial rooms, fellows' room
and a DSA office and reading-cum library room. The DSA reading-cum library room funded
by the UGC has books on the areas that are studied in the centre and is presently supervised
by librarian Mr Rambir.
The reading room of the centre will be open to all students in the MA and M.Phil/Phd and
direct Phd programme on all working days of the centre from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm. Each
student will be subject to the general rules and procedures of readership. Please note that for
the time being the centre does not offer facilities for xeroxing or borrowing books.

Office Staff:

ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

Personal Assistant to
Rajni Koranga
Chairperson

Office Attendant
Jagmohan Singh

Rupendra Singh Senior Technical Assistant

Rambir Semi Professional Assistant

Satyendra Kumar Rawat Computer Operator/Assistant

13
5. FORMER FACULTY MEMBERS
Name of the faculty Work Tenure Areas of Specialization
Prof. K. Seshadri 1973-1986 Indian Politics, Public Administration, Marxism
Prof. Rasheeduddin Khan 1970-1989 Federalism, Indian Politics, West Asia
Prof. Sudipta Kaviraj 1971-1991 Political Theory, Socialism, Indian Politics
Prof. C P Bhambhri 1972-1998 Political Processes, Bureaucracy, Indian Politics
Prof. S.N. Jha 1978-2001 Methods in Social Sciences
Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad 1972-2002 Political Sociology, Minority Politics
Prof. Kuldeep Mathur 1986-2003 Public Policy, Development Administration
Prof. A. K. Ray 1974-2003 International Relations, Foreign Policy of India
Prof. Kiran Saxena 1975-2004 Trade Unionism, Gender Politics
Prof. Rajeev Bhargava 1980-2005 Political Philosophy, Political Thought,
Secularism
Dr. Bishnu Mahapatra 1994-2005 Nationalism, Politics and Culture
Prof. Balveer Arora 1973-2010 Federalism, Political Institutions In India
Prof. Zoya Hasan 1975-2014 Indian Government and Politics, Political
Institutions, Election process

14
6. SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS AND ENDOWMENTS
STUDENT FELLOWSHIPS
A large number of fellowships are available for students who are pursuing their Master
degree or the research degree. The details of the fellowships available are as follows:
M.A. Students
Means cum Merit Scholarship
A number of MCM scholarships are available for deserving and meritorious MA students
whose parents/guardian's income doesn't exceed Rs.1,00,000 per annum or as may be laid
down from time to time. The amount of the fellowship is Rs. 2000 for non-residents and Rs.
800 for resident students.
For more details click on the university main website link
http://www.jnu.ac.in/Students/FinancialAid.asp
Also visit http://www.jnu.ac.in/Students/Fellowships.asp
M.PHIL/PH. D Students
Junior Research Fellowship and Senior Research Fellowship under UGC
Both these fellowships are being provided by the UGC Scholarship Scheme.
This fellowship is available to only those candidates who will be eligible for the award of
fellowships who qualify in the national level test conducted by the UGC.
Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship for SC & ST
This fellowship is provided by the UGC in order to encourage students from the Scheduled
Caste and the Scheduled Tribes.
For more details click on the UGC's link http://www.ugc.ac.in/rgnf/
THE NIRMAN FOUNDATION
Nirman Foundation Fund I
Fellowships
This fellowship is part of a lifetime endowment given by the eminent political theorist, Lord
Professor Bhikhu Parekh to the centre. The centre provides this fellowship to MA students at
the rate of Rs. 2500/ per month for a period of upto two years. Students are selected by a
Committee constituted by the CPS faculty on the basis of criteria such as past academic
record, socio-economic background and potential for performing well in postgraduate studies.

15
Annual Lecture
The centre also organises an Annual Lecture by a well known scholar supported by the
Nirman Foundation. In the past lectures have been delivered by Professor Charles Taylor,
Professor Partha Chatterjee, Professor Marc Galanter, and Professor Upendra Baxi.
Nirman Foundation Grant II
The foundation has given another grant to the Centre for Political Studies from 2014 to
organise small annual workshops for M.Phil and Ph.D students and faculty. The basic idea of
the fund is to encourage research and creative inquiries in the field of politics widely defined.
The broad areas for the workshops are: (a) Comparative Political Theory; (b) Comparative
Political Thought: Select texts; (c) Law, State and legal justice; (f) The Ethics of political
action.

7. M.A PROGRAMME
Since its inception, the M.A. and M.Phil. programmes were developed so as to combine the
requirement of adequate training in the essentials of Political Science while retaining a
multidisciplinary perspective. Over the years, the Centre has emerged as a dynamic and
innovative department, which has pioneered new courses and experimented with new modes
of teaching and learning. The M.A. programme of the Centre for Political Studies encourages
students to develop their skills and dispositions to actively participate in all aspects of
democratic life that include the ability to think critically and to have commitment to some
core democratic values. The Centre has stressed, and provided to its students, a theoretical
foundation necessary to analyze modes of domination and subordination, and overt and
covert forms of expressions of power.
The M.A. degree will be awarded to those students who complete a total of 64 credits. The
Centre for Political Studies at present admits around 80 students (excluding direct foreign
admissions) to the M.A. programme each year, who are required to take 16 courses of which
10 courses are compulsory, over a four-semester period. Of these optional courses, at least
two should be taken from those offered by the Centre. The ten compulsory courses are
defined around broad rubrics: (1) Political Theory and Philosophy; (2) Indian Government
and Politics and (3) Comparative Politics and International Relations.
Under the semester system followed in the University, students are required to register at the
beginning of each semester for the courses, that they wish to offer in that particular semester.
The Centre may appoint a faculty adviser for each student who advises each student on the
courses to be taken. No student is allowed to attend a course without registration and is also
not entitled to any credits unless he/she has been formally registered for the course by the
scheduled date.
The Centre for Political Studies at present admits around 80 students (excluding direct
foreign admissions) to the M.A. programme each year. Students in the M.A. programme are
required to take 16 courses over a four-semester period out of which 10 are compulsory. Of
these optional courses, at least two should be taken from those offered by the Centre.
Currently the Centre's course list has 32 optional courses from which students may choose,
depending upon their interest and future plans as well as offer of the Course Instructor for the
concerned optional course. They may also cover these credits by taking optional courses

16
outside of the Centre, in other Centres of the School of Social Sciences. The ten compulsory
courses are defined around 3 broad rubrics: (1) Political Theory and Philosophy; (2) Indian
Government, Politics and (3) Comparative Politics and International Relations.
Within the M.A. programme, 4 of the 10 compulsory courses belong to the stream of Indian
Politics and cover a wide canvas, from Political Thought of Modern India to Development
Policy, in addition to the more customary grounding in political institutions, processes and
public policies. The large majority of optional courses also belong to this stream, and provide
students with the opportunity for a more intensive study of political parties, pressure groups,
regional politics, social movements, centre-state relations, development policy and
administration.
The compulsory Political Philosophy courses will evolve around a body of concepts and
themes. In Readings in Political Thought, the texts of Aristotle, J. S. Mill and Marx are
considered for an exhaustive study. All the political philosophy courses lay stress on studying
the texts and original writings. A more specialized fare is offered by way of optional courses
in equality and distributive justice, social justice, multiculturalism, Marxism and Early
Modern Political Thought. Analogous to these are a set of courses, which are intended to
secure analytical mastery over basic concepts, approaches and methods in political science.
In Methods in Social Science, the field work component is seen as necessary so that students
are exposed to a systematic and critical exploration of empirical reality. Courses in
comparative politics and international relations provide remaining part of the M.A. syllabus.
Rules and regulations for credits and Semester system
The credit requirement for the award of M.A. degree, as prescribed in the University
ordinances, is 64. The Centre has assigned four credits to each course. In case a student
wishes to offer more courses than the minimum number prescribed he/she may do so by
offering them as non-credit courses. He/she has to declare in advance the title of the non-
credit course and no transfer from non-credit courses and no transfer from non-credit course
to credit course is permitted.
Students may repeat a course once to improve their grade with the prior permission of the
Centre and subject to the total number of courses per semester. If a student fails in an optional
course he/she can be permitted to offer another course in its place. In accordance with School
policy, the Centre permits repetition of courses only when the grade obtained is B or below.
When a student is allowed to repeat a course, he/she is required to sign a declaration
prescribed by the School that the grade obtained by him/her earlier in the course may be
cancelled. Consequently, if he/she actually repeats that course and obtains a grade that will be
treated as final. Repeating a course involves fulfilling all the requirements of the course
afresh as no credit for the work done previously is carried over.
The evaluation system adopted by the Jawaharlal Nehru University in the "letter grade"
system in which an assessment is made of the student's performance throughout the semester
on a continuous basis. The objective of the letter grading system is to provide a measure of
the student's performance in each course. Each letter grade is given a numerical value for
computing the semester and cumulative averages. The main features of this evaluation system
are:

17
(a).It helps evaluate a student's performance in a continuous manner throughout the semester
in a course, and the assessment is done by several observations such as day-to-day
performance in classrooms, home assignments, tutorials seminars, term papers and mid-
semester tests, besides the end-semester examination.
(b). The final grade is awarded at the end of a semester after taking into account the totality of
the student's performance in the above aspects and not on the basis of a single final
examination as is conventionally done.
The evaluation is done on the 10 points scale on the same pattern that operates within entire
JNU evaluation system.
Revision of Courses 2007-2008

A substantial revision of the M. A Programme of study was undertaken during 2007-2008 and
the school of Social Science approved the same in its Board Meeting on 18.11.2008. In the
revision compulsory courses have been reduced from 12 to 10; there has been a major
overhaul in the content of the courses in Political Philosophy and a distinct approach to the
teaching of Political Ideas in Modern India is proposed. A substantial revision of the four
courses in Indian Politics and a closer bonding of the courses in Comparative and
International Politics have been proposed too. There is a pronounced emphasis on empirical
research, quantitative and qualitative, in the course, Methods in Social Sciences. Care has
been taken to bring about integration of the different subfields and courses to enable a student
to make better political analysis and formulate a comprehensive, and as far as possible
systematic, view of public affairs. The centre is presently revising the M.Phil and Phd
programme.

18
8. M.PHIL/PH.D PROGRAMME
M.Phil/Ph.D Programme
The Centre has two separate research degree programmes: the Master of Philosophy
programme leading to the award of an M.Phil. degree and the Doctor of Philosophy leading
to the award of the Ph.D degree.
The usual duration of a Ph.D degree at the Centre for Political Studies is four years full time.
The required standard of the doctorate is that of a distinct and original contribution to the
domain knowledge of the subject. The candidate must show initiative in presenting a
theoretical and conceptual framework for devising new ways of looking at problems. The
Centre places emphasis on acquisition of critical theoretical skills and in-depth regional,
linguistic and cultural knowledge. Prospective research students will have the unique
opportunity to work on an exceptionally wide range of topics, theoretical and critical,
supervised according to the expertise of a wide range of academic staff across the Faculty and
School of Social Sciences.
Eligibility
Students are initially registered for the M.Phil degree. The Centre at present admits around 38
students to the M.Phil programme each year. The M.Phil. programme is spread over four
semesters and students are expected to complete the course work in the first two semesters.
The students must obtain a Cumulative Grade Point Average of 5.00 to be awarded an M.Phil
degree. A student who obtains a CGPA of less than 5.00 in the Course work is not eligible to
submit his/her dissertation and is disqualified from earning the M.Phil. degree.
A student admitted to the M.Phil. programme must offer four courses, two of which are
compulsory:
1. Philosophy and Methods in Social Sciences
2. Approaches, Concepts and Methods of Political Analysis
In the first semester (monsoon) two compulsory courses are designed to equip and train
students in the methods and techniques of political research, along with an introduction to
methodological debates and issues in social sciences, as well as to the basic approaches and
concepts of political analysis. There will be an end-semester examination as part of the
M.Phil qualifying examination for students to be admitted to the second year.
In the second semester (winter), every student must select two optional courses, in
consonance with their research interests. The choice of the optional would be decided by the
research needs and specialization stream chosen by the student. Toward the end of the winter
semester, the M.Phil students will be allotted a supervisor after their research proposal is
approved by the faculty.
The progress of each student will be monitored and reviewed according to the guidance of the
faculty who is MPhil Programme In-charge and the Chairperson of the centre till the
supervisor is allotted.
The student has an entire second year to complete writing the thesis which is submitted in
mid-July. During this period each student will be required to make a presentation as part of
their progress report. Each dissertation will be examined by the supervisor and an external
examiner. Only after favourable reports reach the office of the Controller of the examinations
from both supervisors and external examiner will the viva voce be held. The supervisor and
the external examiner will jointly conduct viva-voce.
19
Grading system
Internal assessment follow the ten point lettering grade scale so that :
A+= 9; A=8; A- =7; B+= 6; B= 5; B-=4; C+= 3; C=2; C-= 1; F=0
Provisional registration for Phd programme
Those who are awarded an M.Phil degree by the Center for Political Studies can then get
registered under the provisional Phd programme. Students must get an approval for their title
and research proposal by the faculty in order to be considered suitable for transfer of their
registration to the Phd degree within two years. Subsequently they must complete their
dissertation within four years from the date of registration. No change in titles can be made
without approval of the supervisor and Dean of the School of Social Sciences.
Within the three broad areas of Political Theory and Ideologies, Indian Government and
Politics, Comparative Politics and International Relations, the Centre seeks to promote
research on the following themes.
RESEARCH THEMES
Social Justice
State, Development and Public Policy
Civil Society and State
Political Ideas in Modern India
Political Institutions
Theories of Change and Transformation
Legitimacy, Protest and Change
Federalism and Decentralization
Diversity and Difference
Religion and Politics
Equality and Non-discrimination
Justice, Community and Culture
Secularism, the nation-state and minority politics
Social and Political Movements
Politics of Caste, Class, Communalism and Regionalism
Multiculturalism and Identity Politics
Dalit Movements and Politics
Gender and Politics.
Environmental Politics
Electoral politics

20
Political participation: political parties and pressure groups
Comparative study of regional and state politics in India
Neo-Liberalism and Globalization
Issues of National Security Foreign Policy of India
In addition the centre is evolving new courses related to: Readings in Philosophy, Feminism
and Social Sciences, Envisioning the Urban, Rethinking Political Theory; Land, Commons
and Development, Law, State and Legitimacy and Election processes.
Important dates
IInd Semester: Approval of research proposal and allotment of supervisor: March 31st
III Semester: Presentation of chapter in Progress to Faculty committees: November 15th
9. Direct Ph.D. Programme
The centre admits a limited number of candidates directly to Ph.D. on the basis of viva-voce
both in Monsoon and Winter Semesters.
Ph.D. admission is not automatic but is decided case by case depending on the strength,
merit, research capacity and research orientation of the candidate applying for Ph.D.
admission. The Centre for Political Studies offers direct admission to Ph.D. programme in its
core areas. The students are expected to submit a research proposal of about 2000 words and
appear for an interview before the faculty. Once admitted scholars are expected to complete
the residence requirements of JNU and they are also expected to attend seminars, conferences
and lectures organised by the Centre throughout the year.
All Ph.D scholars are advised to submit papers in the annual research scholars conference
organised by the centre.
Those who wish to apply for a research degree are expected to have a strong, detailed and
well developed proposal for a thesis that can be supervised in CPS. In addition to fulfilment
of the entry requirements, they will need to approach the subject with rigor and appropriate
knowledge of the field. The candidate will be allotted a supervisor as soon as a research
proposal is approved by the faculty. Subsequently the student must make two presentations
while being enrolled in the Ph.D programme and must maintain contact with the faculty who
is Ph. D Programme In-charge.
Eligibility requirements: Only those candidates shall be considered for direct admission to the
Ph. D. Programme who have:
(a)obtained an M.Phil. degree in Social Sciences of a recognized University/Research
Institution with minimum Final Grade Point Average (FGPA) of 6.00 in 10 point
scale/comparable standard where the grading is based on system other than 10 point scale.
(b)The candidates who have obtained M.Phil. degree from a University/Institution where
dissertation is not graded or grading is not on 10-point scale, are required to forward a copy
of their M.Phil. dissertation along with the Application Form for the purpose of assessment of
their credentials;
OR

21
at least 2 years research experience in reputed institutions with research publication(s)
comparable to M.Phil. standards. In addition, they should have obtained a Masters degree
with FGPA of 6.00 in the 10 point scale/comparable standard or equivalent percentage.
Please see "Instructions for completing the Application Form" which are available on JNU
website along with this Application Form.
Note that the applications of the candidates whose M.Phil//Pre-Ph.D/ results are not available
will not be considered under any circumstances. Hence, the applications of only those
candidates can be considered whose results are indicated/available in the application form.
Application Forms along with eligibility requirements and Instructions for completing the
Application Form can be downloaded from the website of the University (www.jnu.ac.in) and
submitted to the Section Officer (Admissions), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi –
110067, duly filled in all respects enclosing therewith the required documents and a Demand
Draft of the required amount drawn in favour of "Jawaharlal Nehru University" payable at
New Delhi as detailed in the Instructions for completing the Application Form.

Important Dates
Submission of Phd research proposal by March 31st/October 15th
Approval of Phd research proposal IV semester by 15th April

22
10 .B.A. COURSES
The Centre doesn't offer any degree program at the undergraduate level. It only offers two
Optional Courses, one each for Monsoon and Winter Semester, for the B.A students (only for
JNU students from the School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies). These courses
are:
Monsoon Semester PO – 201 Government and Politics in India
Winter Semester PO – 202 Political Ideas and Ideologies

11. M.A COMPULSORY COURSES

I. Indian Politics:
1. Indian Politics I: Political Thought in Modern India
2. Indian Politics II: Political Institutions
3. Indian Politics III: Political Process
4. Indian Politics IV: Development Politics and Public Policy

II. Political Philosophy:

5.Political Philosophy: Key Concepts I

6. Political Philosophy: Key Concepts II
7. Readings in Political Thought

III. Comparative and International Politics:

8.Comparative Politics
9.International Politics

IV. Research Methods:

10. Methods in Social Sciences

SCHEME OF TEACHING PER SEMESTER

M.A. 1 st Semester:

1. Indian Politics I: Political Ideas in Modern India

2. Political Philosophy: Key Concepts I
3. International Politics
4. Indian Politics II: Political Institutions

M.A. 2 nd Semester:
1. Political Philosophy: Key Concepts II
2. Comparative Politics

M.A. 3 rd Semester:

23
1. Readings in Political Thought
2.Indian Politics III: Political Process

M.A. 4 th Semester:
1. Indian Politics IV: Development Politics and Public Policy
2. Methods in Social Sciences

Scheme of Evaluation:
1. Compulsory Courses;
One Mid-term exam 1 credit; Tutorial submission & presentation of 1 credit and End term
Exam of 2 credits.

2. Optional Courses (As indicated in the respective Courses). This scheme might be
slightly altered to suit availability of Faculty.

24
12. OUTLINES OF COURSES
M.A. Compulsory Courses
PO410N: Indian Politics I: Political Thought in Modern India
Background Note: There are different ways of imagining India. These different imaginations
are available to us through political ideas and concepts that emerged in modern India against
the backdrop of colonialism. These ideas and frameworks involved among other things, a
reassessment of traditional inheritances as well as an encounter with and specific modes of
appropriation of modernity. Thinkers belonging to diverse intellectual persuasions opened up
refreshingly new ways of envisaging the self, public life and the possibilities of crafting a
new world, and these endeavours offer a window to understand the complex tapestry of
political life in India. This paper approaches this body of thought by identifying certain key
issues and concerns without shelving the contestations they are embroiled in. The perspective
framework proposed here is dovetailed to a nonlinear reading of ideas, particularly those
belonging to the same kindred class.
1. The Context
(i) Colonialism
(ii) Modernity
(iii)Imagination of Nation

2. Political Ideas

(a) Invocation of Tradition: (With special reference to Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay, Tilak,

Gandhi, M.S. Golwalkar)
(i) Assessment of Inheritance
(ii) Designation of Past
iii) Religion, Caste and Culture

(b) Engagement with Modernity: (With special reference to Ranade, Tilak, Tagore, Nehru,
Ambedkar, Pandita Ramabai, M.N Roy and Iqbal)

(i) Social Reforms

(ii) Reconfiguration of space: sacred/polluted, private/public
(iii) Conceptions of Self

3. Imagination of the Democratic Ideal

(i) Concerns of Equality
(ii) Dignity and Swaraj
(iii)Representation and Diversity
(iv) Caste, Community and Nation

25
4. Methodological Debates on Studying India
Derivative, ‘Deshi’ and Beyond

Required Readings
SECTION 1
Alam. J., India: Living with Modernity, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1999.
Mehta.V.R. and Thomas Pantham, eds., Political Ideas in Modern India, Sage, Delhi 2006.
Bhattacharya Sabyasachi, History of Ideas and Social Sciences, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2007.
Chandra Bipan, Nationalism and Colonialism in Modern India, Orient Longman, Delhi, 1979.
Frankel Francine, Zoya Hasan, Rajeev Bhargava and Balveer Arora, eds., Transforming India: Social and
Political Dynamics of Democracy, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2000.
Greenfield Liah., Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1992.
Panikkar K.M., In Defence of Liberalism, Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1962.
Pantham Thomas and Kenneth Deutsch, Social and Political Thought in India, Sage, New Delhi, 1984.

SECTION 2
Gandhi M.K., Hind Swaraj or Home Rule, Navjivan Press, Ahmadabad, 1946.
Golwalkar M.S., We or Our Nationhood Defined, Jagaran Publication, Bangalore.
_____________, Bunch of Thoughts, Jagaran Prakashan, Bangalore, 1966.
Kaviraj Sudipta, ‘The Structure of Nationalist Discourse’ in T.V. Satyamurthy, ed., State and Nation in the
context of Social Change, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1994.
Nehru Jawaharlal, Discovery of India, Asian Publishing House, Bombay, 1972.
Parekh Bhikhu, Gandhi's Political Philosophy: A Critical Examination, Ajanta Publication, Delhi, 1986.
Tagore Rabindranath, Nationalism, Macmillan, London, 1950.
Lokymanya Tilak, Centenary Publication, PPH, Delhi.
Iqbal Mohammad, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Gulshan Publication, Srinagar, 2003.
Ambedkar B.R., Writing and Speeches, Vols. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, Education Department, Government of
Maharashtra, Mumbai.
Balkrishnan Gopal, ed., Mapping the Nation, Verso, New York, 1996.
Bapat Ram, ‘Pandita Ramabai: Faith and Reason in the shadow of the East and West’, in Dalmia Vasudha and H
Von Stietencron, eds., Representing Hinduism, Sage, Delhi, 1995.
Bhattacharya Sabyasachi, History of Ideas and Social Sciences, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2007.
Gupta Kalyan Sen, The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore, Ashgate Publishing Company, Burlington VT,
2005.
Hall John. A., The State of the Nation: Ernest Gellner and the Theory of Nationalism, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 1998.
Inamdar N.R., ‘Poltical Ideas of Lokmanya Tilak’ in Thomas Pantham and Kenneth L. Deutsch, eds., Political
Thought in Modern India, Sage, New Delhi, 1984.
Israt Waheed, Hundred Years of Iqbal Studies, Pakistan Academy of Letters, Islamabad, 2003.

26
Iyer Raghavan, Collected Works of Gandhi, Three Vols, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Kaviraj Sudipta, ‘The Reversal of Orientalism: Bhudev Mukhopadhyay and the Project of an Indigenist Social
Theory’, in Vasudha Dalmia and H. Von Stietencron eds, Representing
Hinduism, Sage, Delhi, 1995.
Lederle Matthew, Philosophical Trends in Modern Maharashtra, Popular Prakashan Bombay, 1976.
Mehta V.R. and Thomas Pantham, eds., Political Ideas in Modern India, Sage, Delhi, 2006.
Nandy Ashis, Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism, Oxford University Press, Delhi,
1983.
Nehru Jawaharlal, Selected Writings , Orient Longman, Delhi, Vol.2, 1975.
Parekh Bhikhu and Thomas Pantham, eds., Political Discourse: Exploration in Indian and Western Political
Thought, Sage, Delhi, 1987.
Raju Raghuram, Debating Gandhi, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2006.
Rao B. Shiva, The Framing of the Constitution, Vol.I.
Rodrigues Valerian, ed., Selected Writings of BR Ambedkar, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2002.
Roy M.N., India in Transition, 1922.
Rumëzi Bekhudâ, The Mysteries of Selflessness, Arthur J. Arberry (trans.), John Murray, London, 1953.
Sen Krishna and Tapati Gupta, eds., Tagore and Modernity, Smiriti publication, 2007.
Shah A.B., ed, The Letters and Correspondence of Pandita Ramabai, Maharashtra State Board of Letters and
Culture, Mumbai, 1977.
Shakir Moin, From Khilafat to Partition: Muslim Thought in India, Aurangabad, 1977.
Vora Rajendra, ‘Liberalism in Maharashtra, Ranade and Jotirao Phule’, in T. Pantham and Kenneth Deutsch,
eds, Political Thought in Modern India, Sage, New Delhi, 1986.

SECTION 3
Aloysius G., Nationalism without a Nation in India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997.
Appadorai A., Documents on Political Thought in Modern India, Vol. I&II, Bombay, Oxford University Press,
1973 and 1976.
Frankel Francine, Zoya Hasan, Rajeev Bhargava , Balveer Arora, eds., Transforming India: Social and Political
Dynamics of Democracy, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2000.
Ganguli B.N., Concept of Equality: The Nineteenth Century Indian Debate, IIAS, Shimla, 1975.
Khilnani Sunil, The Idea of India, Penguin, Delhi, 1997.
Kohli Atul, The Success of India’s Democracy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001.

SECTION 4
Chakrabarti Dipesh, ‘Open space, Public space: Garbage, Modernity and India’, South Asia 14, no. 1 (1991):
15–31.
Chaterjee Partha, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse, Oxford University Press,
Delhi, 1986.
Nandy Ashis, Traditions, Tyranny and Utopia, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1987.

27
Breckenridge Carol A. and Peter Van Der Veer, eds., Orientalism and Post colonial Predicament, Oxford
University Press, Delhi, 1993.
Chakrabarti Dipesh, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference, Princeton
University Press, Princeton, 2000.
Devy G.N. and Fred Dallymayr, eds., Between Tradition and Modernity: India's Search for Identity: A Twentieth
Century Anthology, Sage, Delhi, 1996.
Dirks Nicholas, Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India, Permanent Black, Delhi, 2002.
Lal Vinay, The History of History: Politics and Scholarship in Modern India, Oxford University Press, Delhi,
2003.
Parekh Bhikhu, Colonialism, Tradition and Reform, Sage, Delhi, 1998.

PO411N: Indian Politics II: Political Institutions

Parliamentary and representative institutions traverse a distinctive course in India. By and
large, these institutions have held their own and guided the course of India’s complex polity.
However, they have also been transformed in significant respects when confronted with the
demands of Indian democracy and the challenges of development. The relations between
some of these institutions, such as the Legislatures and Courts, and Union Government and
State Governments have been highly tortuous at times but such tensions have often led to
redefine the scope of these institutions without necessarily leading to their breakdown.
Several new institutions and modes of accountability have arisen to take charge of demands
that have been mounted from time to time. This course introduces the student to the leading
institutions of Indian polity and the change that has taken place overtime.
1. Making of Political Institutions
(i) Constitutionalism in the Postcolonial Context
(ii)Constituent Assembly Debates
(iii) Constitutional Law and Change

Required Readings:
Constituent Assembly Debates (Selections).

Austin Granville, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1966.
Austin Granville, Working a Democratic Constitution: A History of the Indian Experience, Oxford University
Press, Delhi, 1999.

Basu D.D., Introduction to the Constitution of India, Prentice Hall, New Delhi, 2008.

Bhargava Rajeev, ed., Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2008.

Rao Shiva B., The Framing of India’s Constitution, A Study and Select Documents, Tripathi, Bombay, 1968.

2. Judicial Power and Rule of Law

(i) Judicial Independence, Judicial Review
(ii) Judicial Activism, Public Interest Litigation
(iii) Civil Liberties, Preventive Detention and Extraordinary Laws (MISA, TADA, POTA,
NSA etc.).

Required Readings:

28
Baxi Upendra, The Supreme Court in Indian Politics, Eastern Book Company, New Delhi, 1980.
Hasan Zoya et al., eds., India’s Living Constitution: Ideas, Practices, Controversies, Permanent Black, New
Delhi, 2002.
Kashyap Subash, ed., Constitutional Reforms: Problems, Prospects and Perspectives, Radha Publications, New
Delhi, 2004.
Kirpal B.N. et al., eds., Supreme but not Infallible: Essays in Honour of the Supreme Court of India, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi, 2000.
Sathe S.P., Judicial Activism in India: Transgressing Borders and Enforcing Limits, Oxford University Press,
New Delhi, 2002.
Singh Ujjwal Kumar, State, Democracy and AntiTerror Laws, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2007.

3. Executive and Political Leadership

(i)President: Modes of exercise of powers
(ii) Prime Minister and the Cabinet: Collective Responsibility and Accountability to the
Parliament. The PMO
(iii)Governors and Chief Ministers: Changing Role and Institutional Relationship.

Required Readings:

Manor James, ed., Nehru to the Nineties: The Changing Office of Prime Minister in India, Viking Press, New
Delhi, 1994.

Mehra Ajay K. and V. A. Pai Panandiker, The Indian Cabinet: A Study in Governance, Konark Publishers, New
Delhi, 1996.

MorrisJones W.H., Parliament in India, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1957.

Rudolph Lloyd and Susanne, The Realm of Institutions: State Formation and Institutional Change, Vol II,
Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2008.

4. Legislatures and Representation

(i) Composition, Powers, Reservations
(ii) Antidefection Provisions, and Parliamentary Committees
(iii) Election Commission and Electoral Reforms

Required Readings:

Bhagat A.K., Elections and Electoral Reforms, Vikas Publications, New Delhi, 1996.

Lyngdoh J. M., Chronicle of an Impossible Election: The Election Commission and the 2002 Jammu and
Kashmir Assembly, Penguin , New Delhi, 2004.

5. Federal Institutions
(i) Strong Centre Framework and Commissions on Centrestate Relations
(ii) Central Interventions and State Rights
(iii) Autonomy and Devolution: Federal Reforms and multilevel Federalism

Required Readings:

Arora Balveer and Douglas Verney, eds., Multiple Identities in a Single State: Indian Federalism in Comparative
Perspective, Konark Publishers, New Delhi, 1995.

Brass Paul R., The Politics of India since Independence, Cambridge University Press, London, 1991.

29
Kapur Devesh and Pratap B Mehta., eds., Public Institutions in India: Performance and Design, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi, 2007.

Mukherji Nirmal and Balveer Arora, eds., Federalism in India: Origins and Development, Vikas Publishing
House, New Delhi, 1992.

Saez Lawrence, Federalism without a Centre: The Impact of Political and Economic Reforms on India’s Federal
System, Sage, New Delhi, 2002.

6. New Institutions and Governance

(i) Transparency and Accountability: CVC, NHRC, CIC.
(ii) Inclusion and Accommodation: NCSC, NCST, NCM, NCLRM.

Required Readings:

Frankel Francine et al., eds., Transforming India: Social and Political Dynamics of Democracy, Oxford
University Press, Delhi, 2000.

Galanter Marc, Law and Society in Modern India, edited with an introduction by Rajeev Dhavan, Oxford
University Press, Delhi, 1989.

Hardgrave Robert L., India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation, Harcourt, Jovanovich, New York,
1980.

Keith A.B., Constitutional History of India, Methuen and Co, London, 1936.

Kohli Atul, ed., The Success of India’s Democracy, Cambridge University Press, London, 2001.

MorrisJones W.H., The Government and Politics in India, B.I. Publications, New Delhi, 1971.

Noorani A.G., Constitutional Questions in India: The President, Parliament and the States, Oxford University
Press, Delhi, 2000.

Pylee M.V., India’s Constitution, Asia Publishing House, New Delhi, 1962.

Rao K.V. and K.M. Munshi, Parliamentary Democracy of India, The World Press Private Ltd, Calcutta, 1965.

Weiner Myron, The Indian Paradox: Essays in Indian Politics, edited by Ashutosh Varshney Ashutosh, Sage
Publications, New Delhi, 1989.

PO412N: Indian Politics III: Political Process

This course focuses on the significant political processes affecting Indian political system.
These political processes shape political structures and institutions, and are in turn, shaped by
them. While some of these processes have widened and deepened the scope and appeal of
democracy they have not necessarily been sensitive to the claims of others. While the impact
of some of these processes has remained deeply antagonistic to India’s secular ethos many of
them have provided voice to India’s bewildering diversity. India’s political space is often
inundated with the assertive claims of caste, class, gender, religion and region. Some of these
claims have been just, fair and inclusive while others have simply pandered to the sustenance
of dominance and subordination of one kind or another. This course introduces the student to
some of the most significant political processes that shape Indian polity.

1. State in Independent India

30
a. The Nehruvian Consensus
b. Emergency and Deinstitutionalisation
c. State under Globalisation and Liberalisation

Required Readings:

Brass Paul, The Politics of India since Independence, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994,
Introduction.

Jenkins Rob, Democratic politics and Economic Reform in India, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
1999.

Kaviraj Sudipta, “A Critique of the Passive Revolution”, Economic and political Weekly, Vol. 23, No. 45/47,
Special Number, Nov. 1988.

Rudolph Lloyd and Susanne, In Pursuit of Lakshmi: Political Economy of the State in India, University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, 1987.

Satyamurthy T.V., ed., State and Nation in the Context of Social Change, Vol. l, Oxford University Press, Delhi,
l994.

2. Political Parties and Electoral Politics

a. Ideology and Social Bases of Political Parties (National & Regional)
b. Shift from ‘Congress System’ to Coalition Politics
c. Party Politics and Nonparty Political Mobilisation

Required Readings:
Adeney Katherine and Saez Lawrence, eds., Coalition Politics and Hindu Nationalism, Routledge, London,
2005.

Brass Paul R. and Marcus F. Franda, (eds), Radical Politics in South Asia, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1973.

Hasan Zoya ed., Parties and Party Politics in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002.

Kothari Rajni, State against Democracy: In Search of Humane Governance, Ajanta, Delhi, 1988.

Weiner Myron, Party Politics in India: The Development of a MultiParty System, Princeton University Press,
New Jersey, 1957.

3. Class, Caste, Tribe and Gender

a. The changing Nature of Class Dominance in India
b. Middle Class: Old and New
c. Politics and Mobilisation of OBCs, Dalits, Caste Hindus and Adivasis
d. The Gender Question: Issues of Equality and Representation

Required Readings:
Agarwal Bina, ed., Structures of Patriarchy: State, Community and Household in Modernizing Asia, Kali for
Women, New Delhi, 1988.

Bardhan Pranab, The Political Economy of Development in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1998.

Fernandes Leela, India’s New Middle Class: Democratic Politics in an Era of Economic Reform, University of
Minnesota Press, 2006.

31
Jaffrelot Christophe, The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics, 1925 to the 1990s, Penguin Books,
New Delhi, 1996.

Menon Nivedita ed., Gender and Politics in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2001.

Misra B.B., The Indian Middle Class – Their Growth in Modern Times, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1978.

Mohanty Manoranjan ed., Caste, Class and Gender, Sage, Delhi, 2000.

Pai Sudha, Dalit Assertion and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution: The Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar
Pradesh, Sage, New Delhi, 2002.

Shah Ghanshyam ed., Dalit Identity and Politics, Sage, New Delhi, 2001.

4. Religion, Language, Region

a. Religious Communities and Secular Politics
b. Linguistic Mobilisation and Demands for Recognition/Autonomy
c. Region and Nation: ‘Sons of the Soil’, Smaller States and Secession

Required Readings:
Baruah S., India against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2003.

Bhargava Rajeev, ed., Secularism and Its Critics, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1998.

Brass Paul, Language, Religion and Politics in North India, Cambridge University Press, London, 1974.

Frankel Francine and M.S.A.Rao, eds., Dominance and State Power in India: Decline of a Social Order, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi, 1989.

Hansen Thomas and Jaffrelot Christophe, eds., The BJP and the Compulsions of Politics in India, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi, 1998.

Kanungo Pralay, RSS’s tryst with Politics: From Hedgewar to Sudarshan, Manohar, Delhi, 2002

Prakash Amit, Jharkhand: Politics of Development and Identity, Orient Longman, Hyderabad, 2001.

Sathyamurthy T.V. ed., Region, Religion, Caste, Gender and Culture in India, Oxford University Press, Oxford,
1998.

Weiner Myron, Sons of the Soil: Migration and Ethnic Conflict in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi,
1987.

5. Civil Society
a. Media and Politics
b. Social Movements

Required Readings:
Farmer Victoria, “Depicting the Nation: Media Politics in Independent India” in Francine Frankel, et al, eds.,
Transforming India: Social and Political Dynamics of Democracy,

Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2000.

Jayaraman, ed., On Civil Society, Sage, Delhi, 2005.

Kothari Smitu, “Social Movements and the Redefinition of Democracy” in Philip Oldenburg, ed., India
Briefing, Westview Press, Boulder, 1993.

Mohanty Manoranjan, Partha Nath Mukherji and Törnquist Olle, eds., People’s Rights: Social Movements and
the State in the Third World, Sage, New Delhi, 1997.

32
Prasad Madhava, “The State in/of Cinema” in Partha Chatterjee, ed., Wages of Freedom: Fifty Years of the
Indian NationState, Oxford University Press, New Delhi 1998.

Shah Ghanshyam, ed., State and Social Movements, Sage, Delhi, 1999.

Recommended Readings:
Chandra Bipan et al, eds., India after Independence, South Asia Books, 2nd edition, 2000.

Chandra Bipan, In the Name of Democracy: JP Movement and the Emergency, Penguin, New Delhi, 2003.

Chatterjee Partha, ed., State and Politics in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1997.

Chatterjee Partha, ed., Wages of Freedom: Fifty Years of the Indian NationState, Oxford

University Press, New Delhi 1998.

Galanter Marc, Competing Equalities: Law and the Backward Classes, University of California Press, Berkeley,
1984.

Hasan Zoya, ed., Politics and State in India, Sage, New Delhi, 2001.

Kaviraj Sudipta, ed., Politics in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1997.

Khilnani S., The Idea of India, Penguin, London, 1997.

Kothari Rajni, Politics in India, Orient Longman, Hyderabad, 2003.

PO413N: Indian Politics IV: Development and Public Policy

This course is concerned with the dynamics of developmental politics and public policies of
the Indian state since independence. The central focus in this course is on the relationship
between economy and polity as manifested in land reforms, planning process, political
economy of green revolution, decentralization, liberalization and globalization etc. The
course will look into the complex and important relationship between state and market along
with issues of urbanization, corporatization, neoliberal bureaucratization and privatization of
the Indian State. An indepth study of a few policies related to poverty alleviation,
environment, food security, displacement and rehabilitation, gender inequality, publicprivate
partnership (PPP) and telecom and power reforms can be taken as case studies to illustrate
developmental changes in the political economy and democratization of the Indian State more
explicitly in contemporary times. The course will critically explore how public policies of the
last six decades have impacted the public, in what kind of ways and targeting which kind of
public.
1. Introduction
(i) The Discourse on Development: From Development as Economic Growth to Sustainable
Development.
(ii) Indian State and Its Developmental Trajectory: Social Indicators of development in a
comparative perspective; macroeconomic indicators and their social implications and patterns
of inequality.

Required Readings:

Bagchi Amiya, ed., Democracy and Development, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1995.

33
Dreze Jean and Amartya Sen, India: Development and Participation, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002.

Frankel Francine, India’s Political Economy, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2005.

Haq Mahbubul, Reflections on Human Development, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1999.

Weiner Myron, 'Political Economy of Industrial Growth in India' in World Politics, July 1986.

2. India’s Developmental Strategy: The Era of Planned Development

(i) Planning Institutions: The Planning Commission and the National Development Council
(ii) Industrial and Agricultural Policies
(iii) Land Reforms
(iv) Poverty: Measurement and Alleviation Programmes.

Required Readings:

Bagchi Amiya ed., Economy, Society and Polity: Essays in the Political Economy of Indian Planning, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi, 1980.

Bandyopadhyay D., 'Land Reforms in India', Economic and Political Weekly, June 2128, 1986.

Bardhan Pranab, The Political Economy of Development in India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1984.

Byres Terence J., eds., The State and Development Planning in India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1994.

Chakravarty S., Development Planning: The Indian Experience, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1987.

Harris John, 'Comparing Political Regimes across Indian States', in Economic and Political Weekly, Nov 27,
1999.

Kohli Atul, The State and Poverty in India: The Politics of Reform, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
1987.

3. The Liberalization Policy and Challenges to Development

(i) State vs. Market: The NeoLiberal Debate.
(ii) Liberalization Policies: Industry and Agriculture.
(iii) Regional Disparities in an era of Globalization.
(iv) Regulatory Institutions.
(v) Public Private Partnership.

Required Readings:

Bardhan Pranab, 'Disjunctures in the Indian Reform Process: Some Reflections' in Basu Kaushik, ed., India`s
Emerging Economy, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 2004.

Basu Kaushik, ed., India in the Era of Economic Reforms, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2003.

Harris John, Depoliticising Development, Leftword, Delhi, 2004.

Jenkins Rob, Democratic Politics and Economic Reforms in India, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
1999.

Sachs Jeffrey et al., eds., India in the Era of Economic Reforms, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1999.

4. Democracy, Governance and Public Policy

34
(i) Forest Policy
(ii) Displacement and Rehabilitation
(iii) Special Economic Zones
(iv) Decentralization and Panchayati Raj

Reading:
Agarwal Bina, A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1994.

Bardhan Pranab, 'Decentralization of Governance and Development', The Journal of Economic Perspectives,
16:4, Autumn 2002.

Economic and Political Weekly, Special No on Development, Displacement and Rehabilitation, June 15, 1998.

Jayal Niraja Gopal, Amit Prakash, Pradeep K Sharma., eds., Local Governance in India: Decentralization and
Beyond, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2006.

Kohli Atul, Democracy and Discontent: India’s Growing Crisis of Governability.

Mooij J., 'Smart Governance? Politics in Policy Processs in Andhra Pradesh', ODI Working Paper Series, 2003.

Swaminathan Padmini, 'Development Experience in India: Gendered Perspective on Industrial Growth,

Employment and Education' in Social Scientist, Vol 22, No 34, MarchApril 1994, PP 6092.

Weiner Myron, Sons of the Soil: Migration and Ethnic Conflict in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi,
1988.

Recommended Readings:
Basu Kaushik ed., India’s Emerging Economy, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2004.

Bhattacharya Dwaipayan, “Politics of Middleness: The Changing Character of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) in Rural West Bengal (19771990)” in Ben Rogaly, Barbara HarrissWhite, and Bose Sugata, eds.,
Sonar Bangla? Agricultural Growth and the Agrarian Change in West Bengal and Bangladesh, Sage, New Delhi,
1999.

Chandoke Neera, ‘On the Social Organization of Urban Space: Subversions and Appropriations’, Social
Scientist, Vol 21, No 5/6, MayJune 1993, pp. 6373.

Chatterjee Partha, The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World,
Permanent Black, New Delhi, 2004.

Fernandes Leela, India’s New Middle Class: Democratic Politics in an Era of Economic Reform, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi, 2008.

Heller Patrick, 'Moving the State: The Politics of Democratic Decentralization in Kerala, South Africa and Porto
Alegre', Politics and Society, 29:1, 2001.

Jayal Niraja Gopal, Democracy and the State: Welfare, Secularism and Development in Contemporary India,
Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2001.

Jayal Nirja Gopal and Sudha Pai, eds., Democratic Governance in India, Sage, New Delhi, 2001.

Kalpana K., 'Shifting Trajectories of MicroCredit' in Economic and Political Weekly, Dec 17, 2005.

Kishwar Madhu Purnima, Deepening Democracy: Challenges of Governance and Globalization in India, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi, 2005.

Nieten Kristoffel, Views on Development, Three Essays Collective, New Delhi, 2004.

Patel I.G., Glimpses of Indian Economic Policy: An Insider's View, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002.

35
Patnaik Prabhat and Utsa Patnaik, “The State, Poverty and Development in India” in Jayal Niraja and Sudha Pai,
eds., Democratic Governance in India: Challenges of Poverty, Development and Identity, Sage, New Delhi,
2001.

Samaddar Ranabir, ed. Refugees and the State: Practices of Asylum and Care in India, 19472000, Sage, New
Delhi, 2003.

Sen Anupam, The State, Industrialization and Class Formation in India, Routledge, London, 1986.

Sinha Aseema, Regional Roots of Developmental Politics in India: A Divided Leviathan, Indiana University
Press, Bloomington, 2005.

Thomas TM Isaac, RW Franke, Local Democracy and Development: People’s Campaign for Decentralized
Planning in Kerala, Left Word, New Delhi, 2000.

Varshney Ashutosh, Democracy, Development and the Countryside: UrbanRural Struggles in India, Cambridge
University Press, New York, 1995.

PO414N: Political Philosophy: Key Concepts I

There is a body of concepts central to the discipline of Political Science, and these concepts
have been widely used to explore and evaluate public life and institutions. This paper, the
first of a set of two, examines some of these foundational political concepts, which have been
presented here as a set of pairs with a view to a) exploring the relationship between the two
concepts, and b) highlighting aspects of a concept that tend otherwise to be ignored. Placing
concepts like state and civil society, and, power and authority, together allows us to draw
attention to the distinction between the elements of the pair and raises questions that make for
a better understanding of each concept. The linking of civil disobedience with citizenship, for
instance, allows us to connect citizenship with issues of political obligation and rule of law. It
also enables us to draw upon a range of different experiences, particularly from India, and to
see how they speak to and impact upon our ways of thinking about essential political
concepts.
StateCivil
Society
PowerAuthority
HegemonyLegitimation
CitizenshipCivil
Disobedience
TrustCare

State – Civil Society

Calhoun Craig, “Civil Society and Public Sphere”, in Public Culture, Vol 5, No2, 1995.

Chandoke Neera, State and Civil Society, Sage, Delhi, 1995.

Elliot C.M., ed., Civil Society and Democracy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001.

Foley Michael and Bob Edwards, “The Paradox of Civil Society”, Journal of Democracy, Vol17, No3, 1996.

Held David et, al, ed., The Idea of the Modern State, Open Univ Press, Bristol, 1993.

Phillips Anne, “Does Feminism Need a Conception of Civil Society” in Simone Chambers and Will Kymlicka,
eds., Alternative Conceptions of Civil Society, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2002.

Hardt Michael, 'The Withering of Civil Society', Social Text, 45, Winter, No4, 1995.

36
Kaviraj Sudipta and Sunil Khilnani, eds., Civil Society: History and Possibilities, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 2004.

Keane J., Civil Society and the State: New European Perspectives, Verso, 1988.

Mamdani Mahmood, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Colonialism, Princeton
University Press, Princeton, 1996.

Meadwell Hudson, “PostModernism No friend of Civil Society”.

Nielson Kai, “Reconsidering Civil Society for Now: Some Somewhat Gramscian Turnings” in Michael Walzer
ed., Toward a Global Civil Society, Bergham Books, Oxford, 1995.

Sadeq Emir, “Beyond Civil Society”, New Left Review, October 17, 2002.

Walzer Michael, “Equality and Civil Society” in Simone Chambers and Will Kymlicka, eds., Alternative
Conceptions of Civil Society, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2002.

Wood E.M., 'The Uses and Abuses of Civil Society' in Ralph Miliband ed., Socialist Register, 1990.

PowerAuthority

Gordon Colin et.al, eds., The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, University of Chicago Press,
Chicago, 1991.

Sarah Joseph, Political Theory and Power, BRILL, Delhi, 1988.

Lukes Stephen, Power: A Radical Critique, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2005.

Nelson C. and L. Grossberg eds., Marxism and Interpretation of Culture, Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Mullings, L. 1984.

Newmann Saul, Power and Politics in PostStructuralist Thought: New Theories of the Political, Routledge,
London, 2005.

Dahl Robert, Who Governs? Yale University Press, USA, 1961.

Foucault M., Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan, New York, Vintage, 1979.

Mitchell T., 'Everyday Metaphors of Power', Theory and Society, Vol 19, No5, 1990.

Nash Kate, Globalisation, Politics and Power, Blackwell, New York, 2000.

Rabinow Paul ed., The Foucault Reader, Pantheon, 1984.

Raz Joseph, The Morality of Freedom, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986, chapters 3&4.

Hegemony/ Legitimation
Gramsci Antonio, Selection from the Prison Notebooks, London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1979. pp. 123205, 365-
6, 375-7, 106-110, 55-9.

Held David, "Legitimation Problems and Crisis Tendencies" in David Held, Political Theory and the Modern
State, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1989.

Lorrain J., Marxism and Ideology, Macmillan, London, 1985.

Althusser L., “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus” in Lenin and Philosophy and other Essays, trans. Ben
Brewster, London, New Left Books, 1971.

Anderson Perry, ‘The Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci’, New Left Review 100, 197677, pp. 578.

Bobbio Norberto, ‘Gramsci and the conception of civil society’ in Chantal Mouffe, ed., Gramsci and Marxist
Theory, Routledge, London, 1979.

37
Butler J., E. Laclau, and S. Zizek, Contingency, Hegemony, Universality, Verso, London, 2000.

Femia J., Gramsci’s Political Thought: Hegemony, Consciousness and Revolutionary Process, Clarendon Press,
Oxford, 1981.

Hall Stuart, “The Problem of Ideology: Marxism without Guarantees” in David Morley et al., eds., Critical
Dialogues in Cultural Studies, Routledge, London, 1996.

Laclau E. and C. Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, Verso, London, 1985.

Sassoon Ann Showstack, "Passive Revolution and the Politics of Reform" in A.S. Sassoon, ed., Approaches to
Gramsci, Writers and Readers, London, 1982, pp. 127148.

Texier Jacques, "Gramsci, Theoretician of the Superstructures" in Chantal Mouffe ed., Gramsci and Marxist
Theory , London, Routledge, 1979, pp. 4879.

Citizenship/Civil Disobedience
Balibar Etienne, “Propositions on Citizenship”, Ethics, 98 (4) 1988, pp. 723730.

Dawn Oliver and Heater Derek, The Foundations of Citizenship, Harvester Wheatsheaf, New York, 1994
(Chapter 6: ‘Civic Virtue’ and ‘Active Citizenship’, pp.115132; chapter 10: Current Perspectives, pp.195215).

Gandhi M.K., ‘Duty of Disobeying Laws’, Indian Opinion, 7 September 1907.

________, ‘For Passive Resisters’, Indian Opinion, 21 October 1907.

Haksar Vinit, Civil Disobedience, Threats and Offers – Gandhi and Rawls, Oxford University Press, Delhi,
1986, pp.443.

King Martin Luther, Jr., ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail in Hugo Adam Bedau, Civil Disobedience in Focus,
Routledge, London, 1991, 6884.

Kymlicka Will, Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Citizenship, Oxford University
Press, Oxford, 2001 (Part A: The Evolution of Minority Rights Debate, pp.1567).

Marshall T.H., Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1950,
pp.175 (Particularty, Section 4 in the first Essay – Citizenship and Social Class – ‘Social Rights in the Twentieth
Century’, pp.46-75).

Rawls John, ‘Definition and Justification of Civil Disobedience’ in Hugo Adam Bedau, Civil Disobedience in
Focus, Routledge, 1991, pp.103-121.

Pateman Carole, , The Sexual Contract, The Polity Press, Cambridge, 1988.

Falks Keith, Citizenship, Routledge, London, 2000.

Heater Derek, What is Citizenship?, Polity, Cambridge, 1999.

Mahajan G., The Multicultural Path, Sage, Delhi, 2002.

Thoreau Henry David, On Civil Disobedience (Resistance to Civil Government), 1849, in Hugo Adam Bedau,
Civil Disobedience in Focus, Routledge, 1991, pp.28-48.

Trust/Care
Coleman J.H., ‘Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital’, American Journal of Sociology, 94, 1988,
pp.95119.

Fukuyama Francis, 'Social Capital, Civil Society and Development', Third World Quarterly, 22 (1), 2001,
pp.720.

Putnam R.D., ‘Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital’, Journal of Democracy, 6, pp.6578.

38
Sevenhuijsen Selma, 'The Place of Care: The Relevance of the Feminist Ethic of Care for Social Policy' in
Feminist Theory, 4(2), pp.179197.

Leira and Saraceno, “Care: Actors, relationships and contexts” in B. Hobson et.al., Contested Concepts in
Gender and Social Politics, Cheltenham, Edward Ellar Publishing House, 2002, pp.55-83.

Kovalainen Anne, “Social Capital, Trust and Dependency” in Sokratis M. Koniordos, ed., Networks, Trust and
Social Capital: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations from Europe, Ashgate, London, 2005.

Putnam R.D., Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Renewal of American Community, New York, Simon &
Schuster, 2000.

Weir Allison, “The Global Universal Caregiver: Imagining Women’s Liberation in the New Millennium”,
Constellations, 12(3), 2005, pp.309330.

PO415N: Political Philosophy: Key Concepts II

Even when political thinkers argue over the design of political institutions, they often agree
on the benchmarks used to evaluate these institutions. If in earlier times, virtue was the
touchstone for the rightly organized political community, in more recent times, alternative
political institutions are judged on their ability to deliver justice and equality, or liberty and
rights. There is thus a body of concepts central to our discipline, and these concepts have
been widely used to explore, evaluate and justify public life and institutions. This course will
examine some of these foundational normative political concepts, their place and meaning in
different political traditions. Familiarity with debates around these concepts will enable
students to examine the claim of modern democracies to be better forms of government.
Students will also be able to understand how, in a changing historical context, the
benchmarks of order and virtue were replaced by the criteria of rights and liberty in the
assessment of a political system.
1. Justice
Basic Readings:
Minnow Martha, “Justice Engendered”, Harvard Law Review, 101 (1987), 10-95.

Nozick Robert, “Distributive Justice”, in Anarchy, State and Utopia, Oxford, Blackwell, 1974, 149-231.

Rawls John, A Theory of Justice, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1971, pp. 3-53 (Justice as Fairness), and pp.
258-332 (Distributive Shares).

Sandel M.J., Justice: A Reader, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007.

2.Rights
Basic Readings:
Feinberg J., “The Nature and Value of Rights”, in J. Feinberg, Rights, Justice and the Bounds of Liberty,
Princeton University Press, 1980.

Hart H.L.A., “Are there any natural rights?” in Jeremy Waldron, Theories of Rights, Oxford University Press,
1984.

Hart H.L.A., “Between Utility and Rights”, in A. Ryan, ed., The Idea of Freedom, Clarendon Press, Oxford,
1987.

Raz J., The Morality of Freedom, Clarendon, Oxford, 1986.

39
Shklar J., ‘The Liberalism of Fear’ in N. Rosenblum, Liberalism and the Moral Life, Harvard University Press,
1989.

3.Liberty
Basic Readings:
Berlin Isaiah, Four Essays on Liberty, Oxford University Press, 2002.

Coole D., “Constructing and Deconstructing Liberty: A Feminist and Poststructuralist Analysis”, Political
Studies, Vol. XLI, No. 1, 1993.

Skinner Q., Liberty before Liberalism, Cambridge, 1998.

Taylor Charles, “What is Wrong with Negative Liberty?” in Alan Ryan, ed., The Idea of Freedom, Oxford,
Oxford University Press, 1979.

4. Equality
Basic Readings:
Dworkin Ronald, “Four Essays on Equality”, including ‘What is Equality? Part I: Equality of Welfare’,
Philosophy and Public Affairs, summer 10/3, 1981 ‘What is Equality? Part II: Equality of Resources’,
Philosophy and Public Affairs, falls, 10/4, 1981.

Parekh Bhikhu, “Equality in a Multicultural Society”, in Rethinking Multiculturalism, New York, Palgrave,
2000, pp 239-263.

Phillips Anne, Which Equalities Matter, Polity, 1999.

Sen Amartya, “Equality of What?” in S.M.McMurrin, ed., The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Cambridge
University Press, 1980, pp 195-220.

Walzer Michael, “Complex Equality”, in Spheres of Justice: A Defence of Pluralism and Equality, Martin
Robertson, 1983, pp 3-30.

Williams Bernard, “The Idea of Equality”, in P.Laslett and W.G.Runciman, eds., Philosophy, Politics and
Society, Blackwell, 1979, pp 110-131.

5.Democracy
Basic Readings:
Cohen Joshua, “Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy” in Alan Hamlin and Philp Pettit eds., The Good
Polity, Blackwell, Oxford, 1989, pp. 17-34.

Gutmann Amy, Why Deliberative Democracy, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2004.

Habermas J., Between Facts and Norms, MIT Press, 1996.

Held David, Models of Democracy, 3 rd ed., Polity, London, 2006.

Keenan A., Introduction, Democracy in Question, 2003.

6.Virtue
Basic Readings:
Baier. A., ‘What do Women want in a Moral Theory?’ in S. Darwall, ed., Virtue Ethics, 2003.

Galston W., ‘Introduction’ in J.W. Chapman & W. Galston, ed. Virtue, Nomos 34, 1992, pp. 114.

Macintyre. A., After Virtue, Notre Dame Press, 3 rd ed., 2007.

40
Nussbaum Martha, The Fragility of Goodness, (Selections), Cambridge University Press, 2 nd ed., 2001.

M. Nussbaum, ‘Aristotelian Social Democracy’ in R. Douglass et. al., eds., Liberalism and the Good, pp. 203-
52.

Supplementary Readings:

Adams R.M., A Theory of Virtue, Oxford University Press, New York, 2006.

Annas J., The Morality of Happiness, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993.

Boucher D. & P. Kelly, The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls, Routledge, London, 1994.

Darwall S., ed., Virtue Ethics, Blackwell, Oxford, 2003.

Dworkin R., Taking Rights Seriously, Duckworth, London, 1977.

Haksar V., Rights, Communities and Disobedience: Liberalism and Gandhi, Oxford University Press, Delhi,
2001.

Kymlicka W., Contemporary Political Philosophy, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2002.

Macleod C., Liberalism, Justice and Markets: A Critique of Liberal Equality, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998.

Pettit P., “The Domination Complaint” in S. Macedo & M. Williams, Domination and Exclusion, NYU, 2005.

Rhode D.L., Gender and Rights, Ashgate, 2005.

Sandel M. J., Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, 1998.

Sandel M.J., Liberalism and its Critics, Blackwell, Oxford, 1984.

PO416N: Readings in Political Thought

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the original writings of great political
thinkers whose work has significantly shaped our thinking about the nature of the political,
the idea of state, just society and good government, and conceptions of the self. The Course
identifies three political theorists for detailed study and analysis, and through a careful
reading of their writings it will attempt to – a) develop the skill to read and interpret political
ideas through textual reading; 2) critically engage with ideas that have shaped our
contemporary understanding of liberal democracy; 3) appreciate the enduring significance of
political thinkers and see how ideas get recontextualized in new and different contexts. John
Stuart Mill remains the single most important theorist whose conception of the individual,
freedom of speech and expression, the rights of women, law and punishment has shaped the
thinking of contemporary liberal democracies. In the writings of Marx we have, from a
completely different tradition, the most systematic critique of this understanding of the
individual, state and capitalist society. Aristotle, in contrast to both these theorists, is writing
in a premodern context. His ideas reflect notions of human self, nature and potentiality that
were challenged by modernity. Yet, contemporary political philosophers, from Hannah
Arendt, Jurgen Habermas to Martha Nussbaum and Ronald Beiner, return to these ideas to
offer critiques of modernity and liberalism.
Aristotle
A theory of moral action
ii) Politics and practical wisdom

41
iii) Political participation and the good life
iv) Nature, Teleology and the Self

Required Readings:

Nichomachean Ethics, Books II & III The Politics

John Stuart Mill

i) Individualism
ii) Liberty, and the harm principle
iii) Representative Government
iv) Utilitarianism and State Policy

Required Readings:
On Liberty

Utilitarianism

Considerations on Representative Government

The Subjection of Women

Karl Marx
i) Theory of Alienation
ii) Historical Materialism
iii)Analysis of Capitalism
iv)Social Classes and Political Power

Required Readings:

Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (Selections)

‘Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlooks’, The German Ideology

‘Theses on Feuerbach’, The German Ideology

Capital, Vol. I, Section on Commodities, 1, 2, 3

Critique of the Gotha Programme

Grundrisse, ‘Production, Consumption, Distribution, Exchange (Circulation)’ The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis
Bonaparte.

Recommonded Readings:

Ackrill J.L., Aristotle the Philosopher, Oxford University Press, New York, 1981.

Avineri S., The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx, Cambridge Studies in the History and Theory of
Politics, 1968.

Callinicos A., ed., Marxist Theory, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989.

Cohen G.A., Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defence, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1978.

Kraut R. & S. Skultety, eds., Aristotle’s Politics – Critical Essays, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Md, 2005.

Lukes S., Marxism and Morality, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985.

42
Mulgan R.G., Aristotle’s Political Theory, Oxford, 1977.

N. Urbinati, ed., J.S. Mill’s Political Thought: A Bicentennial Reassessment, CUP, Cambridge, 2007.

Nussbaum M.C., The Therapy of Desire: Theory and practice in Hellenistic Ethics, Princeton University Press,
Princeton, NJ, 1996, ch. 2.

Ollman B., Alienation – Marx’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society, 2 nd ed. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1976.

Parekh B., “Liberalism and Colonialism – A Critique of Locke and Mill” in B. Parekh and J.N. Pieterse, The
Decolonization of Imagination, Zed Books, London, p. 81-98.

Plekhanov G., Fundamental Problems of Marxism, (tr. 1929), Foreign Publishers, Moscow.

Poulantzas N., Social Classes and Political Power, New Left Books, London, 1973.

Rorty A.O., Essays on Aristotle’s Ethics, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1980.

Skorupski J. ed., The Cambridge Companion to Mill, CUP, Cambridge, 1997.

Thompson D., J.S. Mill and Representative Government, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1996.

Verma Vidhu., Justice, Equality and Community: An Essay in Marxist Political Theory, Sage, New Delhi, 2000.

PO417N: Comparative Politics

The study of politics is enriched by a comparative study of the institutional structures and
political processes of different political systems. The use of a comparative framework of
analysis however raises the question of what should be compared. Although comparative
politics is today an important subfield in the study of politics, there is little agreement on the
categories that should be the basis of comparison. This paper introduces students to the some
of the important perspectives on this issue and takes four categories – state, development,
nationalism and democratization – to explore the comparative experiences of different
countries and to make sense of their different political trajectories.
1) Comparative Politics: Different Perspectives
a) Structural
b) Institutional
c) Cultural
d) Political Economy

2) State in a Comparative Framework

a) Liberal and welfare state
b) Authoritarian state
c) State in socialist societies
d) Postcolonial state

3) Comparative Development Experience

a) Issues of modernization, integration into the world system

b) Underdevelopment and Dependency
c) Development and Democracy

4) Nationalism
43
a) Different articulations of nationalism: Europe and postcolonial societies
b) Postnationalism

5) Process of Democratization
a) Role of democratic assertions, constitution and political authority
b) Electoral systems, parties and representation

Required Readings
Alavi Hamza, “The State in PostColonial Societies: Pakistan and Bangladesh”, New Left Review, No. 74,
(July/August) 1972.

Chalmers Johnson, ed., Ideology and Politics in Contemporary China, Seattle, University of Washington Press,
1973.

Chattopadhyay Paresh, “Political Economy: What's in a Name?”, Monthly Review, April, 1974.

Held David, ‘The Development of the Modern State’, Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben, eds. Formations of
Modernity, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1982.

Leftwitch Adrian, States of Development, Polity, Cambridge, 2000.

Lijphart Arendt, “Comparative Politics and Comparative Method”, American Political Science Review, 65(3),
1971, pp.682693.

Migdal Joel, Kohli Atul, and Shue Vivienne, eds., State, Power and Social Forces:

Domination and Transformation in the Third World, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Peters Guy B., Institutional Theory in Political Science: The 'new Institutionalism', London/ New York,
Continuum International Publishing, Oxford University Press, 2005.

Sartori Giovanni, ‘Compare, Why and How’ in Mattei Dogan and Ali Kazancigil eds., Comparing Nations,
Concepts, Strategies, Substance, Blackwell, Oxford, 1994.

Skocpol T., ‘Bringing the State Back In: Strategies of Analysis in Current Research’ in Peter Evans, B. Dietrich
Rueschmeyer and Theda Skocpol ed., Bringing the State Back In, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
1985.

Skocpol Theda, States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979.

Wallerstein Immanuel, The Modern World System, Vol. I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European
World Economy in the Sixteenth Century, New York/London, Academic Press, 1974.

Alavi Hamza, “State and Class under Peripheral Capitalism” in Hamza Alavi and Teodor Shanin eds.,
Introduction to the Sociology of ‘Developing Societies’, Macmillan, London and Basingstoke, 1982.

Amin Samir, Accumulation on a World Scale: A Critique of the Theory of Underdevelopment, vol.II, Monthly
Review Press, New York, 1974.

Anderson Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Verso,
London, 1991.

Arendt Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Harcourt, Brace and World, New York, 1951.

Baran Paul, The Political Economy of Growth, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1957.

44
Bracher Karl Dietrich, The German Dictatorship: Origins, Structure and Consequences of National Socialism,
Hammondsworth, Penguin, 1973 (Penguin History Paperbacks 1991).

Calhoun Craig, Nationalism, Open University Press, Buckingham, 1997.

Cardoso Fernando Henrique and Faletto Enzo, Dependency and Development in Latin America, translated by
Marjory Mattinoly Urquidy, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1979.

Chatterjee Partha, Nation and its Fragments, Oxford, New Delhi, 1994.

Chilcote Ronald, Theories of Comparative Politics: The Search for a Paradigm Reconsidered, Westview Press,
Boulder, 1994.

Dogan Mattei and Pelassy Dominique, How to Compare Nations: Strategies in Comparative Politics, Vision
Books, New Delhi, 1988.

Escobar Arturo, Encountering Development, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1994.

Esteva Gustavo, ‘Development’ in Wolfgang Sachs ed., The Development Dictionary, Zed Books, London,
1992.

Frank A., ‘The Development of Underdevelopment’ in J. Cockcroft, A. Frank and D. Johnson eds., Dependence
and underdevelopment, Anchor, New York, 1972.

Greenfield Liah, ‘Western European Nationalism’, Encyclopedia of Nationalism, Volume 1, Academic Press,
London, 2001.

Greenfield Liah, “Etymology, Definitions, Types”, Encyclopedia of Nationalism, Volume 1, Academic Press,
London, 2001.

Huntington Samuel, Political Order in Changing Societies, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1968.

Laitin David, “Comparative Politics: The State of the Subdiscipline” in Ira Katznelson and Helen Milner eds.,
Political Science: The State of the Discipline, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2002, pp.630-659.

Larrain Jorge, Theories of Development, Polity, Cambridge, 1989.

Leys Colin, ‘The Rise and Fall of Development Theory’ in Colin Leys, Total Capitalism: Market Politics,
Market State, Three Essays Collective, Delhi, 2007.

Mair Peter, “Comparative Politics: An Overview”, in R.E.Goodin and H.Klingemann eds., The New Handbook
of Political Science, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.

March James G. and Olsen Johan P., “The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life”, The
American Political Science Review, 78(3), September 1984, pp. 734-749.

Mohanty Manoranjan, “Comparative Political Theory and Third World Sensitivity”, Teaching Politics, No.1&2,
1975.

Moore Barrmgton, Jr., 'Social Origins of Democracy and Dictatorship: Lord Peasant in the Making of the
Modern World', Beacon Press, Boston, 1966.

North Douglas, Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1990.

Peter Limqueco, and McFarlane Bruce, NeoMarxist Theories of Development, Croom Helm and St. Martin
Press, London, 1983.

Rahmena Majid, ed., The Post Development Reader, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, 1997.

Rostow W.W., The Stages of Economic Growth: A NonCommunist Manifesto, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1960.

45
Rothstein Bo, “Political Institutions: An Overview” in R. E. Goodin and H. D. Klingemann, eds., The New
Handbook of Political Science, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997.

Said Edward, Orientalism, Routledge, London, 1979.

Santos T dos, ‘The Crisis of Development Theory and the Problems of Dependence in Latin America’ in Henry
Bernstein ed., Underdevelopment and Development: The Third World Today, Hammondsworth, Penguin, 1973.

Wallerstein Immanuel, “The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System: Concepts for Comparative
Analysis” in Hamza Alavi and Theodor Shanin eds., Introduction to the Sociology of ‘Developing Societies’,
Macmillan, London and Basingstoke, 1982.

WooCummins Meredith, The Developmental State, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2001.

PO418N: International Politics

This course highlights the transformation of nationstate system under the impact of
globalisation, international regulatory mechanisms and social movements. The inequality and
conflicts inbuilt into this system and the responses to the same are important components of
this study. Power is still a major arbitrator of relations between states in the World. Therefore,
while not denying the significance of the realistic approach to the study of International
politics this course suggests the necessity of bringing in the normative and critical approaches
to the fore both to understand the world closing upon itself and at the same time breaking
loose to give place to a myriad of distinct identities. Some of the concerns central to this
course are explored by situating South Asia in the ongoing global politics today.
1. Approaches and Methods
i. Realism and Neorealism
ii.Liberalism and Neoliberal Institutionalism
iii. Critical Approaches :Constructivist, Feminist, NeoMarxist
iv. Normative Approaches: Global Justice, Cosmopolitanism

Required Readings
Enloe Cynthia, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics, University of
California Press, Berkely, 2004.
John Rawls, The Law of Peoples with The Idea of Public Reason Revisited , Harvard University Press,
Cambridge: Mass., 1999

Maria L. and Jan Stefan Fritz eds., Value Pluralism, Normative Theory and International Relations, Macmillan
Press, Basingstoke, UK, 1999.

Waltz Kenneth, Theory of International Politics, Random House, New York, 1979.

2.Nation State in a Globalizing World

Required Readings
Halliday Fred, “Global Governance: Prospects and Problems” in D. Held and A. McGrew eds., The Global
Transformations Reader, Polity Press, 2000.

Lauterpacht Eli, “Sovereignty – Myth or Reality”, International Affairs, 73, No. 1 (Jan, 1997), pp. 137150.

Scholte Jan Arte, “Globalization and the State”, in Andrew Linklater, ed., International Relations: Critical
Concepts in Political Science, Routledge, New York, 2000.

46
Strange Susan, The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 1996.

3. The Unequal World: Economy, Political Power and Cultural Dominance

i) Cold War and Its Aftermath
ii) New Imperialism Debate
iii) Unipolarity and Multipolarity
iv) Forms of Dependency and Assertions

Required Readings

Harvey David, The New Imperialism, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003.

Roy Sumit, “Globalisation, Structural Change and Poverty: Some Conceptual and policy Issues”, Economic and
Political Weekly, 32, nos. 33-34 (Aug. 1623, 1997) 2117-2135.

Walker R.B.J., One World, Many Worlds: Struggles for a Just World Peace, Lynne Rienner, Colorado, 1998.

4. War and Peace

i) Old and New Wars
ii) Conflicts and Conflict Resolution
iii) Global Terrorism

Required Readings

Ackermann Alice, “The Idea and Practice of Conflict Prevention”, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 46, No. 3,
2003, pp. 339-347.

Cohen Frank S, “Proportional Versus Majoritarian Ethnic Conflict Management in Democracies”, Comparative
Political Studies, Vol. 30, 1997, pp. 607-630.

Dmoke W.K., War and the Changing Global System, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1988.

Raldor M., New and old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1999.

Saighal Vinod, Dealing With Global Terrorism Way of Forward, 2003.

5.International / Regional Organizations

i) United Nations in a Globalizing World
ii) European Community
iii) The ASEAN

Required Readings
Diehi Paul F, The Politics of Global Convergence: International Organisation in an Interdependent World,
Boulder, Lynne Rienner, 1997.

Martin Lisa L. and Beth A. Simmons, “Theories and Empirical Studies of International Institutions”,
International Organization, Vol. 52, 1998, pp. 729-757.

Newhouse John, “Europe’s Rising Regionalism, Foreign Affairs, 76, No. 1 (JanFeb, 1997), 76-84.

Pevehouse J.C., “With a Little Help from My Friends? Regional Organizations and the Consolidation of
Democracy”, American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 46, No. 3, 2002, pp. 611-626.

47
6.International Regimes (on Trade, Environment, Nonproliferation and Human Rights)
“Encounters on the Frontiers of International Human Rights Law: Redefining the Terms of Indigenous Peoples’
Survival in the World”, Duke Law Journal, 1990, Hein Online.

Baehr Peter R., “Controversies in the Current International Human rights Debate”, Human Rights Review, Vol.
2, No. 1, October 2000, pp. 732.

Dunn J., ed., Political Studies, (Special Issue on Human Rights).

Hempel L.C., Environmental Governance: The Global Challenge, Island Press, Washington D.C, 1996.

Krasner Stephen D., ed., International Regimes, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y, 1983. Require Required

7. South Asia and World Politics

i) Foreign Policies of South Asian States
ii) Major Powers and South Asia
iii) Regional Cooperation in South Asia

Required Readings

Basrur M. Rajesh ed., Security in the New Millennium: Views from South Asia, India Research Press, New
Delhi, 2001.

Hewitt Vernon, The New International Politics of South Asia, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1997.

Phadnis Urmila, S.D. Muni, Kalim Bahadur, Domestic Conflicts in South Asia, South Asia, New Delhi, 1986.

Supplementary Readings

Bajpai Kanti P. and Harish C. Shukul, ed., Interpreting World Politics, Sage, New Delhi, 1995.

Baldwin D., ed., Neorealism and Neoliberalism: The Contemporary Debate, Columbia University Press, New
York, 1990.

Baylis John and Steve Smith, The Globalisation of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations,
Oxford University Press, New York, 2001.

Bull Hedley, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics, Macmillan, London, 1977.

Easterly William, “Can Institutions Resolve Ethnic Conflict?” Economic Development and Cultural Change,
Vol. 49, July 2001, pp. 687 – 706.

Goor Luc Van De, Rupesinghe Kumar and Sciarone Paul, eds., Between Development and Destruction: An
Enquiry into the Causes of Conflict in Postcolonial States, Macmillan, London, 1996.

Greenhood C., “Is there a Right of Humanitarian Intervention”, The World Today, Vol. 49, 1993.

Guicherd Catherine, “International Law and the War in Kosovo”, Survival, Vol. 41: 2, Summer 1999, pp. 19-34.

Gurr Ted Robert, “Peoples against States: Ethnopolitical Conflict and the Changing World System: 1994
Presidential Address”, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 3, September 1994, pp. 347-377.

Habermas J, The Inclusion of the Other: Studies in Political Theory, MIT Press, 1998.

Harshe Rajen, Twentieth Century Imperialism: Shifting Contours and Changing Conceptions, Sage, New Delhi,
1997.

Held David, Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance, Polity
Press, Cambridge, 1995.

48
Hironaka Fran D J, and E. Schofer, “The NationState and the Natural Environment over the Twentieth Century”,
American Sociological Review, Vol. 65, No. 1, 2000, pp. 96-116.

Ignatieff M., Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry, Princeton University Press, 2001.

Michael Hoel, “International Environment Conventions: The Case of Uniform Reductions of Emissions”,
Environmental and Resource Economics, Vol. 2:2, March 1992, pp. 141-159.

Muni S D, Understanding South Asia, South Asian Pub., New Delhi, 1994.

Niarchos C N, “Women, War and rape: Challenges facing the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia”,
Human Rights Quarterly, 1995, pp. 649-690.

Ohmae Kenichi, The Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Interlinked Economy, Harper and Collins,
New York, 1991.

Pogge Thomas, “World Poverty and Human Rights”, Ethics and International Affairs, Vol. 19, Issue 1, August
2006, pp. 1-7.

Preis AnnBelinda S., “Human Rights as Cultural Practice: An Anthropological Critique”, Human Rights
Quarterly, 18, 1996, pp. 286-315.

Ramakrishnan A.K., “Neoliberalism, Globalisation and Resistance: The Case of India”, in Elvind Hovden and
Edward Keene, eds., Globalisation of Liberalism?, Macmillan, London.

Rosenau, J.N., Turbulence in World politics, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1990.

UNDP, Human Development Reports.

PO419N: Methods in Social Sciences

The course is intended to prepare students to undertake empirical research in social sciences.
It begins by exploring the notion of social science and making a distinction between
empiricism and empirical research that is mindful of the role of the subject and values in
social inquiry. A central concern of the paper is to introduce students to quantitative and
qualitative methods of research. As part of this training students are required to go on a field
trip and conduct a survey based research. While students will be exposed to a variety of
different methods and taught to use available data sets, the purpose of the field work is to
enable them to plan and execute research, interact with respondents, interpret the data and
present their findings.
1. The Idea of Social Science
a)Approaching the difference between natural and social science
b)Conceptions of Science: From verification to falsification
c) Objectivity and value neutrality

2. Empirical Research in Social Sciences

a)Identification of research problem, formulation of hypothesis, use of concepts,

operationalization of variables
b)Quantitative and qualitative methods
c) Research Design

3. Quantitative Research Method

49
a) Measurement: Issues of Reliability, Validity and levels of measurement
b) Data collection: methods of data collectionobservation, questionnaires and interviews
c) Sampling techniques: probability and nonprobability techniques
d) Data processing: establishing categories and coding data
e) Data interpretation: Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics
f) Preparation of research report

4. Qualitative Research

a) Depth Interviews
b) Ethnography
c) Content analysis

5. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods

Required Readings
Brown S., J. Fauvel and R. Finnegan eds., Conceptions of Inquiry, Routledge, 1981.

Hoffding O., ed., Essential Readings in Logical Positivism, Basil Blackwell, 1981.

Keohane King, & Verba, Designing Social Inquiry, Princeton University Press, 2001.

Kolakowski,L. Logical Positivism: From Hume to the Vienna Circle, Pelican books, 1972.

Popper Karl, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Hutchinson, 1980.

Simon J.L., Basic Rresearch Methods in Social Science, Random House, New York, 1969.

Taylor Charles, “Interpretation and the Sciences of Man”, Review of Metaphysics, 25/1, 1971.

Weber Max, Methodology of the Social Sciences, Free Press, 1968.

Weinberg Darin ed, Qualitative Research Method, Blackwell, 2000.

Bohrnstedt & Knoke, Statistics for Social Data Analysis, F.E.Peacock Publishers, 1988.

Lakatos and Musgrave ed., Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1970.

Wonnacott & Wonnacott, Introductory Statistics, John Wiley & Sons, 1985.

Baronov, Conceptual Foundations of Social Research Methods, Paradigm Publications, 2004.

Bauer Martin W. and G. Gaskell, Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound, Sage, London, 2000.

Beart David Patrick, Philosophy of Social Sciences, Polity, 2005.

Brodbeck May ed., Readings in the Philosophy of Science, Macmillan, 1968.

Bryman A., Social Research Method, Oxford University Press, 2001.

Hindess Barry, Philosophy and Methodology in the Social Sciences, Humanities Press, 1977.

Kuhn T., Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1962.

Kumar Ranjit, Research Methodology: A step by Step Guide for Beginners, Pearson Education, 2005.

Marsh Cathie, The Critics of Survey, from The Survey Method: The Contribution of Survey to Sociological
Explanation, Allen and Unwin, London,1982.

50
Mukherjee P. N., Methodology in Social Research, Sage, 2000.

Nidditch P.H. ed., Philosophy of Science, Oxford University Press, 1968.

Phillips D. C., Philosophy, Science and Social Inquiry: Contemporary Methodological Controversies in Social
Science and Related Applied Fields of Research, Pergamon Press, 2004.

Rabinow P. & W.H. Sullivan, Interpretive Social Science, Univ. of California Press, 1988.

Ryan Alan ed., The Philosophy of Social Explanation, Oxford University Press, 1973.

Sapsford R., Survey Research, Sage, Delhi, 1999.

Seale Clive, Social Research Method: A Reader, Routledge, 2008.

Selltiz, Jahoda, Deutsche & Coote eds., Research Methods in Social Relations, Methuen, London, 1965.

Srivastava VK ed., Methodology and Fieldwork, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

Triggs Roger, Understanding Social Science, Blackwell, 2001.

Young Paulin V., Scientific Social Survey and Research, 2nd ed. PrenticeHall Inc., New York, 1949.

indicates essential reading

51
M.A. Optional Course
PO 507 N: Democratic Theory
Absolutism and the Rationalist Political Theory
Constitutional GovernmentJohn
Locke and the Origins of Liberalism
American RevolutionJefferson,
the Federalists.
French Revolutionary TraditionDebate
between Burke and Paine
Rise of the Romantic Critique of Representative DemocracyRousseau.
Democracy and Citizenship
Mill and the contradictions of Liberal Democracy
Social Democracy
Liberal Theories of Democracy
Sociological Influence on Political Theory
Behavioural Theory
Liberals and Communitarians
Liberals and Gender Perspective
Democracy and Green Politics
PO 511: Philosophical Issues in Marxism
1.Dialectics: Marx's method. Contentious legacies of Hegel and Feuerbach; Dialectics as
epistemology and process; notion of contradiction/real opposition; logic: formal and
dialectical; Marx's understanding of totality, internal relations and specific understanding of
contradiction.
2. Materialism and Marx's understanding of history: Materialism: mechanical and dialectical;
materialism and realism; pluralism and determinism; functional explanation of historical
materialism; issues of primacy and human agency: historicism and freedom.
3. Concept of Alienation: Distinction between objectification and alienation; critique of
capitalism; issues of selfrealisation and autonomy; socialism: moral and normative
considerations; human nature: fixed or contingent? Frankfurt school's contribution to the
understanding of alienation.
4. Class and Exploitation: Labour theory of value; a general theory of exploitation; class as a
relational phenomenon; class and its making; classcentric explanations and methodological
individualism.

52
5.State and Domination: Instrumentalist conception and relative autonomy; aspects of
domination; hegemony and resistance; state and civil society.
Marxism or PostMarxism?Postmodernism and Marxism: dissenting visions. Utopia and
Marxism.
P0 512: Interpretation in Social Theory
The idea of Interpretive Social Science:
1. Hermeneutics as a way of recovering meanings and interpreting the text.
2. Hermeneutic Understanding
3. From Hermeneutic Understanding to Hermeneutic Philosophy: Gadamer's conception of
historicity and 'fusion at the horizon'. The Politics of Hermeneutic Philosophy: critique of
modernity, conception of diversity, community and preservation of cultures.
4. Habermas' critique of Hermeneutic Philosophy and his idea of Depth Hermeneutics
5. Critical Hermeneutics: Ricoeur on text and its meaning
6. Postmodernism, Deconstruction and Hermeneutics
PO517: State Politics in India
Credit 4
Assessment: 1 Seminar Paper, 1 Term Paper and End Semester Exam.
Course Outline
1. A Theory of State Politics in India.
2. Reorganization of States in Independent India and recent demands for smaller States.
3. Language, Region and Politics
4. Agrarian Politics in the States: Green Revolution, Farmers’ Movements, Suicides by
Farmers.
5. Regionalization of Politics: Regional Parties, Electoral Politics and Ethnicity Movements.
6.Politics of Economic Reform in the States. (In each of the topics after a general discussion,
specific States will be selected for Case studies).
Select Readings
Asha Sarangi (ed) Language and Politics in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009).

Bhalla G.S. 1994 (ed.) Economic Liberalisation and Indian Agriculture Institute for Studies in Industrial
Development, New Delhi: 61107.

Biplab Dasgupta The New Agrarian Technology and India Geneva UN, 1977.

Brass Paul R Language Religion and Politics in North India CUP 1974.

Christophe Jaffrelot India’s Silent Revolution the Rise of the Low Castes in North Indian Politics Permanent
Black New Delhi 2003.

53
Francine Frankel & M.S.A Rao (eds.) Dominance and State Power in India OUP, New Delhi 2 Vols. 1989, 1990

Geeta, V.& Rajdurai 1993 "Dalits and NonBrahmin Consciousness in Colonial Tamil Nadu" Economic and
Political Weekly XXVIII, no 39, September 25: 209198

H.C.Hart (ed.) India a Political System Reappraised 1976 (see article on Indira Gandhi by Stanley Kochanek).

Iqbal Narain (ed.) State Politics in India Meerut, Meenakshi Prakashan, 1965.

Jeffrey Sachs, Ashutosh Varshney, and Nirupam Bajpai, (eds.): India in the Era of Economic Reforms, New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Joan V. Bondurant, Nationalism versus Provincialism, Berkeley, 1959.

John R. Wood (ed.) State Politics in Contemporary India: Crisis or Continuity, London, Westview Press, 1984.

John Robinson “Regionalising India: Uttarakhand and the politics of creating states” South Asia: Journal of
South Asian Studies, Volume 24, Issue 2 December 2001 , pages 189-212

Jos Mooij (ed) The Politics of Economic Reforms in India, New Delhi: Sage, 2005

K. Banerjee, Regional Political parties in India, Delhi, B. R. Publishing House, 1984

Kohli, Atul. 1991. Democracy and Discontent: India’s Growing Crisis of Governability OUP, New Delhi.

Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph 1981 " Transformation of the Congress Party: Why 1980s was not a Restoration”
Economic and Political Weekly May 2: 811820..

Myron Weiner (ed.) State Politics in India, Princeton University, 1968.

Myron Weiner and John Osgood Field (eds.), Electoral Politics in the Indian States, Vols. I– IV, New Delhi,
Manohar, 1974, 75.

Paul Wallace (ed.) Region and Nation in India OUP 1985.

Ramashray Roy & Paul Wallace (eds.) Diversity and Dominance in Indian Politics 2 Vols, 1990, 1992.

Rob Jenkins Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999.

Sudha Pai “Agrarian Mobilization and Farmers’ Movements in India” in Oxford Companion to Indian Politics
(eds.) Pratap Bhanu Mehta & Niraja Gopal Jayal. OUP, 2009.

Sudha Pai 1993 Uttar Pradesh Agrarian Change Electoral Politics Shipra Publications, New Delhi.

Sudha Pai State Politics New Dimensions: Party System, Liberalization and Politics of Identity. Shipra
Publications, New Delhi. 1999.

Sudha Pai, 2002, Dalit Assertion and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution: The BSP in Uttar Pradesh, Sage
Publications, New Delhi.

Vijay Joshi and I.M.D Little India’s Economic Reforms: 19912001, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Journals to be consulted
Economic and Political Weekly: individual articles and all special issues on State Assembly
Elections from 1989 onwards
Seminar selected issues.Reports and Special Issues:
Special Issue: Political Parties and Elections in the Indian States 19902003 Journal of Indian
School of Political Economy Vol XV, Nos 1&2 JanJune 2003.

54
Special issue: Seminar no. 157, March 2007 “Battleground UP”. Special issue: Scheduled
Castes Changing SocioEconomic and Political Profile of Scheduled Castes in Uttar Pradesh
JulyDecember 2000. Journal of the Indian School of Political Economy (Pune)
State Politics in India in the 1990s Political Mobilization and Political Competition Jointly
organized by Developing Countries Research Centre, University of Delhi and London School
of Economics Dec 2004 New Delhi (Papers available)
P0 519: Radical Movements in India
1 Theoretical issues concerning radical movements—A conceptual analysis, radical right and
radical left. Marxism and radicalism, critique of capitalism. Gandhian. critique of capitalism
and alternative to capitalism.
2. Radical Movements in India: Communist Movement, Socialist movement, post Cold War
movements, Environmental movement, Women's movement, Workers movement. Cultural
expressions of Radical Movements.
PO 522: Indian Foreign Policy
1.Basic approaches to the study of Foreign Policy Historical,Ideological & Analytical.
Elements in the making of a Foreign Policy Geography; Natural Resources; Technology;
Industrial capacity; Defence structure; Human elementsquantitativeand qualitative; and
Diplomacy.
Foreign Policy making process: Governmental and nongovernmental agencies.
2. Foundations of Indian Foreign Policy: heritage of the national movement; succession to the
colonial past; Nonalignmentits parameters; historical compulsions and policy.
Landmarks in Indian Foreign Policy: Kashmir Question and its internalization (1984).
Impact of the Cold War Alliances (1954-55).
SinoIndian Border War (1962),
IndoPakistan War and the Tashkent Summit (1965-66).
IndoSoviet Treaty of Friendship (1972); IndoPak War and the emergence of Bangladesh
(1971).
3. India Land its neighbours: Pakistan. Afghanistan. Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh.
SinoIndian Relations.
IndoSoviet relations and India's relations with Socialist countries. IndoUS relations and
India's relations with major West European countries: France, Germany and United Kingdom.
India and the newly liberated developing countries of the World. India and the United
Nations.

PO 530: Politics of Third World Societies

55
1. Theoretical Background
Approaches to the study of Third World Societies
(a)From Modernisation Theory to Public Policy: Continuity and Change in Political
Development Theoy
(b)The Sociology of UnderDevelopment: Dependency, State, Social Classes etc.
(c) Soviet Writings on the Third World.
2. Comparative Analysis of Some Problems & Issues in Third World States:
I. The External Dimension
(a) NeoColonialism
(b) Dependency and UnderDevelopment: Forms, Features and Impact.
II. Internal Characteristics
(a) Types of Regimes Asia, Africa and Latin America (1950s1980s).
(i) Single Party Regimes
(ii) Military Regimes
(iii) Authoritarian Regimes
(iv) Revolutionary Regimes.
(b)Ideologies and their Impact on Social and Political Change.
(c)Industrialization and SocioEconomic Change in the Third World.
PO 531: STATE IN INDIA
Course Description:
The course will focus on social, political, economic and cultural dynamics of the institution
of State in modern India. It examines themes central to the understanding of the nature and
form of relationship between state and society in postindependence India. We will explore
thematic pluralities related to the categories of religion, caste, region, gender, language and
class etc, and their uses in the state formation process in contemporary India. Themes such as
the rise of middle class, globalization, economic reforms, decentralization, forms of cultural
nationalism as well as important social movements, lowcaste mobilization and women’s
rights will form the crucial aspects of the course. By understanding the complex dynamics
between the democratic institutional structures and political processes, we will be able to
comprehend and develop the framework of analysis for the category of State as a conceptual
and empirical reality. The attempt is to take stock of various discourses and debates over the
Indian State. This will enable us to see the methodological and conceptual pluralism in our
understanding of the institution of the State in India.

Course Requirements:

56
Students are required to engage with the readings suggested, and should participate actively
in the discussion in the classes and tutorials. A midsemester evaluation will consist of a
review essay and an inclass presentation on one of the readings of the course. An end
semester examination will be held as per the schedule.
Course Details:
Part One:
Theories of the State: Western and NonWestern
State Formation and Its Processes
Conceptual and Methodological approaches to study the Indian State
Historical Genealogies of the Indian State
State Formation in India
Readings:
Gabriel Almond, The Return of the State in APSR, Vol 82, No 3, September 1988. Joel S.Migdal, State in
Society: Studying How States and Societies Transform and Constitute One Another (1991: CUP)-Selections

Foucault M., Governmentality

Peter Evans and Theda Skocpol, Bringing the State Back in (1985: CUP), Selections Charles Tilly, The
Formation of NationStates in Western Europe (Selections).

Martin Doornboos and Sudipta Kaviraj (ed), Dynamics of State Formation: India and Europe Compared
(Selections).

Part Two:
Institutional Framework of the Indian State
Developmental Planning, Industrialization, Agrarian Reforms.
Political Economy of the Reforms and the Politics of Liberalization
Social Equity and Political Rights: Plans and Policies
Democratic decentralization.
Readings:
Pranab Bardhan, The Political Economy of Development in India

Amiya Bagchi, Political Economy of Underdevelopment

Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph, In Pursuit of Lakshmi: The Political Economy of the Indian State Francine
Frankel, India’s Political Economy, 1947-77, and the revised edition of year 2004.

Terence Byres (ed), The State and Development Planning in India

Sathayamurthy T.V. (ed), State and Nation in the Context of Change (selections),

Francine Frankel and M.S.A.Rao (Ed), Dominance and State Power, Vol 1 and 2.

Rob Jenkins, Economic Reforms and Democracy (Selections).

Deepak Nayyar, Economic Liberalization in India

57
Part Three:
Identity Politics: Religion, Caste, Gender, Language and Region.
Law, Minorities and Women’s Rights
Governance Agenda, Media Politics.
Social Movements in Contemporary India: Shifting Concerns
New Political Institutions and Democratization of Indian Polity
Readings:
David Ludden (ed), Making India Hindu: Religion, Community and the Politics of Democracy in India
(selections).

Atul Kohli, Democracy and Discontent: India’s Growing Crisis of Governability.

Chritophe Jaffrelot, India’s Silent Revolution: The Rise of Low Castes in North Indian Politics.

Ghanshyam Shah (ed), Dalit Identity and Politics.

Oliver Mendelsohn and Upendra Baxi (ed), The Rights of the Subordinated People

Gail Omvedt, Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India.

Bina Agarwal, A Field of Her Own: Gender and Property Rights in India

Bina Agarwal (ed), Structures of Patriarchy.

Frankel et al, Transforming India: Social and Political Dynamics of Democracy

T.V.Sathyamurthy (ed0, Region, Religion, Caste, Gender and Culture in Contemporary

India.

Karin Kapadia (ed), The Violence of Development.

Asha Sarangi (ed). Language and Politics in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009).

Part Four:
State in India: A Comprehensive View
A State within states: Modes of Comparison and Contrast
Concluding Remarks
Readings:
Lloyd Rudolph (ed), Experiencing the State (Selections).

John Harris , Reinventing India

Chris Fuller and Veronique Benei (ed0, Everyday State and Society in Modern India.

Partha Chatterjee (ed), State and Politics in India.

Vivian She, The Reach of the State

PO 532: National Security and Terrorism in India

Part-1

58
1. National Securityinternal dimensions: values, structures and processes.
2. Internal Security organisations
3.Internal Security decisionmaking structures
4. Framework of Analysis.
5. State: Approaches. Class and Distribution.
6. Ethnicity, Social Movements and Insurgency.
Part-II
7. Terrorism Definitional problems and classification.
8 Characteristics: historical and contemporary.
9. Causes: external and internal; cultural and political
10. Terrorism and democracies.
Part-III
11. Terrorists and Organisations profiles (ULFA, NSCN, Babbar Khalsa, LTTE)
12. Terrorism and Media: Print and AudioVisual.
Part-IV
13. Response to Terrorism: Governmental, Political Parties.
14. Patterns of response in democracies
PO 533: Democracy and Multiculturalism
Credits 4
Mode of assessment: 2 Midterm
Assignments: 2
End Term examination: 2
Credits 4
Mode of Evaluation: 2 Midterm presentations + End Semester Exam

1.The concept of Multiculturalism

2.The issue of cultural discrimination in liberal democratic polities
3.Promoting NonDiscrimination by protecting Cultural Diversity
4. The notion of Differentiated Citizenship and special rights for minorities
5.Liberal theories of minority rights
6.Are special rights compatible with individual rights?
7. Internal minorities and multiculturalism
8.Politics of Difference and the issue of equality: feminism and multiculturalism

59
9.Communitarianism, postmodernism and multiculturalism
10.Frameworks of multicultural democracy
11.Minority rights and issues of discrimination in India
Required Readings:
Boston Review, Special number on Feminism and Multiculturalism, 1997, No. 22.

Carens, J. 2000, Culture, Citizenship and Community.

Gray, J. 1988. "The Politics of Cultural Diversity", The Salisbury Review, September.

Gutman, A. (ed) 1994. Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition.

Gutman,A. 1993. "Challenges to Multiculturalism and Political Ethics", Philosophy and Public Affairs, 22/3.

Haksar, Vinit. “Collective Rights and the Value of Groups”, Inquiry, 1998, vol. 41

Kymlicka, W (ed) 1995. The Rights of Minority Cultures.

Kymlicka,W. 1995. Multicultural Citizenship.

Lijphardt, Arendt. 1977. Democracy in Plural Societies.

Mahajan, G. (ed.)1998. Democracy, Difference and Social Justice.

Mahajan, G. 2002. The Multicultural Path.

Minow, Martha 1990, Making all the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion and American Law.

Parekh, Bhikhu 2000. Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory.

Raz, Joseph 1994. “Multiculturalism: A liberal Perspective”, Dissent, Winter.

Seminar, Special number on Multiculturalism, December 1999, no.484.

Shachar, A. 2002. Multicultural Jurisdictions.

Tamir,Y. 1994. Liberal Nationalism.

Tully, J. 1995. Strange Multiplicity:Constitutionalism in a Age of Diversity.

Young, I.M. 1990. Justice and the Politics of Difference.

PO534: Feminism and Political Theory

Credits 4
Mode of assessment: 2 Midterm assignments: 2
End Term examination

One of the most significant forms of the resurgence of political theory in the 1970s has been
the writings of feminism. When women are seen as the subjects of history, when the
‘individual’ or the ‘subject’ is consciously seen as female, this transforms many of the central
concepts of political theory, from ‘citizenship’ to ‘justice’ to ‘democracy’. There has hardly
been any central idea of political theory that feminism has left untouched. This course
attempts to look at how many of the concerns of political theory change when women are
brought centre stage.

60
Doing Political Theory Again
By their second year, post graduate students of political science are already familiar with
classical works of western political thought like the Leviathan or The Social Contract. This
course begins by asking students to examine how a classical thinker’s position on women
allows him to construct his theory of the state, or of natural rights, in a particular manner. We
begin then, with a rereading of political thought and political theory.
Coole D.H., Women in Political Theory, 1988.

Fraser N., ‘What is critical about Critical Theory: the case of Habermas and Gender’, Feminism as Critique,
1987.

Gatens M., ‘The Dangers of a Woman Centered Philosophy’, The Polity Reader in Gender Studies, 1994.

Hackett E. & S. Haslanger, Theorizing Feminisms, 2006.

Hartmann H., ‘The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a more progressive union’, Women
and Revolution.

Nussbaum M.C., ‘The future of feminist liberalism’, 2000.

Okin S.M., Justice, Gender and the Family, 1990.

Okin S.M., Women in Western Political Thought, 1979.

Pateman C., ‘The theoretical subversiveness of feminism’, Feminist Challenges.

Squires J., Gender in Political Theory, 1999.

Zerilli L., ‘Feminist Theory and the Canon of Political Thought’, The Oxford Handbook of

Political Theory, 2006.

Feminist Critiques of Negative and Positive Liberty

Next, we focus on some central concepts of political theory, starting with freedom and rights.
Some feminists have found sterile the usual dichotomous way of conceptualizing freedom as
either positive or negative freedom (some trying hard to uncouple the relation between
contract and freedom), and have tried to come up with an alternative conception of freedom
which cuts across these old distinctions.
Coole D., ‘Constructing and Deconstructing Liberty’.

Friedman M., Autonomy, Gender, Politics, 2003.

Hirschmann N.J., The Subject of Liberty: Toward a feminist theory of freedom, 2003.

Pateman C., The Sexual Contract.

Rights and the PublicPrivate Distinction

The reconceptualization of freedom in this manner has obviously affected our understanding
of rights. When we take women to be the subject of rights, it is all the more difficult to
understand all rights on the model of property rights, and it is easier to see rights as relational.
Benn S.I. & G.F. Gaus, Public and Private in Social Life, 1983.

Brown W., ‘Suffering the Paradoxes of Rights’, Left Legalism/Left Critique, 2002.

61
Hirschmann N.J., ‘Difference as an Occasion for Rights: A Feminist Rethinking of Rights, Liberalism and
Difference’.

Kapur R., Feminist Terrains in Legal Domains, 1996.

Nedelsky J., ‘Law, Boundaries and the Bounded Self’, Representations, 1990.

Pateman C., ‘Feminist Critiques of the Public/Private Dichotomy’.

Engendering Democracy
For women, democracy, even in the minimal sense of the vote, came much later than it did
for propertied men. This gave feminists a critical perspective towards the modern democratic
state; what is also interesting is feminism’s positioning itself against other, republican and
communitarian critiques of liberal democracy.
Menon N., Recovering Subversion, 2004.

Mouffe C., ‘Feminism, Citizenship and Radical Democratic Politics’.

Pateman C., ‘Democracy, freedom and special rights’.

Pateman Carole, ‘Selfownership

and property in the person: Democratization and a tale of

two concepts’, Journal of Philosophy, 2002.

Phillips A., ‘Feminism and Democracy’.

Phillips A., ‘Must feminists give up on liberal democracy’.

Roy A., Gendered Citizenship, 2005.

Young I.M., Inclusion and Democracy.

Justice/ Care
It has long been said that principles of justice need to be specific to different spheres of life.
For some feminists, the principle of care is not only the distributive category to be used in
certain areas of the life world, it is to supplement and make up the lacunae in principles of
justice in general.
Daly M. and K. Rake, Gender and the Welfare State, 2003.

Gilligan C., Mapping the Moral Domain, 1988.

Leira A. & C. Saracens, ‘Care: actors, relationships and contexts’, Contested Concepts in Gender and Social
Politics, 2002.

MenonSen K., ‘Never Done, Never Done Away With – Women’s Unpaid Work and Globalization’, 2004.

Sevenhuijsen S., ‘The place of care’, Feminist Theory, 2003.

Tronto J.C., Moral Boundaries – A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care.

Weir A., ‘The Global Universal Caregiver: Imagining Women’s Liberation in the New Millennium’,
Constellations, 2005 .

Difference or Domination
Being able to see, from the perspective of women, the gaps and problems in these theories of
freedom, rights, democracy and justice, and attempting to come up with alternative

62
theoretical constructions has generated its own debate – the debate on whether it is difference
or domination that structures women’s place in society.
John M.E., ‘Sexuality in Modern India’.

Mackinnon C.A., Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law, 1987.

Mackinnon C.A., Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, 1989.

Rhode D.L., Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Difference, 1990.

Rubin G., ‘Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality’, 1984.

Feminism and Science

Doing theory, the question of science is never far behind. Women’s exclusion, or rather their
inclusion in a particular manner, has been justified on scientific grounds. The question of
what is women’s relationship to science becomes analogous to the question of what is
women’s relationship to theory.
Harding S., The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader, 2004.

Hesse Biber S.N. & M. Yaiser, Feminist Perspectives on Social Research, 2004.

Keller E.F., ‘Feminism and Science’.

Okruhlik K., ‘Feminist Accounts of Science’.

Wylie A., ‘Feminism in Philosophy of Science’, The Cambridge Companion to Feminism in Philosophy, 2000.

Evaluating Feminist Interventions in Political Theory

Foregrounding women may have changed political theory significantly, but it has also led to
unease with using the category of ‘women’. This unease is reflected most in post modernist
and post colonial writings, themselves an attempt to transform our understanding of politics.
We end the course by looking at some of the evaluations of feminist interventions in political
theory in this literature.
Butler J., Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.

Collins P., Black Feminist Thought.

Hirsch M. & E.F. Keller, Conflicts in Feminism.

Mohanty C.T., Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism.

Nicholson L., Feminism/Postmodernism.

PO535: Equality and Distributive Justice

Credits 4

63
Mode of assessment: Midterm
assignments: 2
End Term examination: 2

The idea that all human beings are entitled to equal respect and conern has shaped political
movements, public policy, and philosophical debate. Indeed, the currency of equality has
been such that philosophies across the spectrum all claim to be egalitarian, be it in their
insistence on individuals’ equal rights to liberty and property or the importance of the
redistribution of wealth to further equal wellbeing.

Although equality has served as leading concept since the French revolution it has become
one of the most controversial of social ideals in recent times. There is controversy regarding
the precise notion of equality, the material requirements and measure of equality and its place
in a larger theory of justice. The main challenges to equality have been from the
neoconservatives and a discourse inspired by the politics of difference. This course will
address some of the issues and challenges arising in contemporary societies relating to the
ideal of equality.
1. Defining Equality:
Defining equality; Formal and Substantive notions of equality; moral and juridical equality;
Political, social and economic equality; relation of equality with other moral ideals.
Basic questions in normative egalitarian theory that arise are: What is equality? What do
people who care about equality really care about? By virtue of what characteristics are we
one another’s equals? What is the problem with unequal treatment of individuals?
I. Berlin. 195556. Equality. Proceedings of the Aristotlean Society. No. 56. p. 301326. Reprinted in Berlin.
1978. Concepts and Categories. Philosophical essays. Hogarth. London.

Bernard Williams. 1962. The Idea of Equality. In Philosophy, Politics and Society. Ed.

Peter Laslett and Runciman. Ed.

J. Roland Pennock and John. W. Chapaman.1967. ed. Equality. Nomos Volume 9. Atherton

Press. NY. Pp. 327.

Richard Norman, 1987. Free and Equal. OUP. Oxford.

B. R. Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches ‘Annihilation of Caste’, vol. 1, 1936, (1979) Education Department,
Maharastra: Bombay.

2.Class inequality, exploitation and injustice: Expanding the notion of juridical equality
and distributive justice; Link between political, social and economic equality; critique of
private property; Distribution of goods based on principle of needs.
Karl Marx, On The Jewish Question

Critique of the Gotha Program

The German Ideology

G.A. Cohen. 1995. Self ownership, Freedom and equality. CUP: Cambridge.

Frank Parkin. 1971. Class Inequality and Political Order. New York. Praegar.

64
 Kate Sopers. 1981. On Human Needs. Sussesx, Harvester Press.

3.Equality and distribution of material goods; Reconciling liberty with equality;

Utilitarian and Kantian theories of equality and their critique, the Rawlsian paradigm.
This section examines conceptions of equality that are concerned with the distributive
criteria. It examiner some of the principles with which a fair distribution of goods can take
place in political community: equality in people’s capabilities (Sen,) Distribution of
resources (Dwarkin); opportunity for welfare (Arenson); access to advantage (Cohen);
power, material goods and cultural and educational opportunities (Norman 1987).
John Rawals, 1971.A Theory of justice. (sections 14; 1113)

Amartya Sen, 1992. Inequality Reexamined. 1229.

Chapters 2 and 3. pp. 4155.

Ronald Dworkin. 1981a. What is Equality? Equality of Resources. PPA. Volume 10. 185246. 1981b.

What is Equality? Part 2 . Equality of Welfare. PPA. Volume 10.283345.

Amartya Sen. Equality of What? In Sterling McMurrin. Ed the Tanner Lectures on Human

Values. 1. Salt Lake University. University of Utah Press. CUP. 197-220.

Also in A. Sen. 1982. Choice, Welfare and Measurement. CUP. Cambridge.

G.A. Cohen. 1989. on the Curency of Equalitarian Justice, Ethics. Volume 99. no. 4. July 906-44.

Michael Walzer. 1983. Spheres of justice. A Defence of Pluralism and Equality. Basil Blackwell. Oxford. (pp
3-28; 61-63; 303-323).

……..1973. In Defence of Equality. Dissent. Volume 20. no. 3. Fall. 399-408.

4.Against Equality: Voluntary exchange and market transactions; Entitlement theory and the
selfownership thesis and its critique of redistribution; Critique of patterned or endstate
principles of justice.
The section will critically exmine Nozick’s view that equality does not have a foundational
role in the grounding of claims to justice and his argument that unequal capitalist property
rights are a natural corollary to the equal liberty principle
Robert Nozick. 1974. Anarchy, State and utopia. Basic Books, New York.

Milton Frideman. 1962. Capitalism and freedom. Chicago University Press.

5.Equality and Differences: Changes in the discourse on equality; Domination and

oppression; Criticism of the distributive paradigm and universal citizenship.
Modern liberal democracies typically value the formal equality of citizens, and make equal
respect of persons a central political value. But there is much debate and obscurity about how
the idea of equality is best understood, and a large literature has now grown debating
universality of citizenship and the unequal distribution of benefits and burdens that flow from
this.
Susan Moller Okin. 1987. Justice and Gender., PPA Volume 16. no 1 Winter. 42-47.

Catherine Makinnon 1987. Feminism Unmodified. Discourses of Life and Law. Cambridge.

MA: Harvard University Press.

65
Iris Marion Young. 1990. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton University Press.

…….. 1989. Polity and Group Difference: A critique of the Ideal of Universal Citizenship. Ethics. 99

Nancy Franser, 1995. From Redistribution to Recognition. Dilemmas of Justice in Post Socialist Age. New Left
Review. 212.

Anne Phillips 1987. The Politics of Presence. OUP. Oxford.

…….. 1993. Democracy and Difference. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

…….. 1991. Engendering Democracy. Polity. Basil Blackwell

Susan Okin. 1999. Is Multicultural bad for women? Princeton University Press. Will kymlicka. 1995a,
Multicultural citizenship. A liberal theory of Minority Rights. OUP: Oxford. 26-33; 108-30.

…….. 1995b. The Rights of Minority Cultures. OUP: Oxford.

6.Equality, Democracy and Social Justice: Changes in relationship between economic

redistribution, democracy and justice; caste and the changing discourse on equality’; impact
of affirmative action policies in India; Globalization and its impact on social institutions
promoting egalitarian policies.
This section summarizes the changing discourse of equality and the way in which equality
ahs influenced political thinking and the formation of social policy at different periods of
time. What are the underlying objectives and justifications of antidiscrimination laws? How
effective are the law and relevant administrative measures as a means of assisting groups who
are discriminated against in society? What kind of political structures should an egalitarian
aspire to?
A.H.. Goldmam.1979. Justice and reverse Discrimination. Princeton.

Cohen, Nagel and Scanlon. Eds. 1977. Equality and Preferential Treatment. Princeton.

Ralf Dahrendorf. On the Origins of Inequality among men in Dahrendorf. Essays in the

Theory of Society. Stanford University of Press. Stanford. 151-178.

A.Beteille. Society and Politics in India. OUP: Oxford. Chapters 8 and 9.

……… 1983. The Idea of Natural Inequality and other Essays (OUP:DDelhi, 1983).

Ganguli, B. N. 1975. Concept of Equality. The Nineteenth Century Indian Debate IIAS: Simla.

Marc Galanter, 1991. Competing Equalities: low and the Backward Classes in India. OUP, Delhi.

Gurpreet Mahajan, ed. Democracy, Difference and Justice. OUP.

General Reading

Andre Beteille, ‘ Homo Hierarchicus, Homo Equalis, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 13, no. 4. pp. 529-548;

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. Ed. Jonathan Barnes. Princeton University Press.

Ian Shapiro and Lea Brilmayer. Nomos: Global Justice. NUY, New York.

Imitiaz Ahmad, Partha S. Ghosh and Helmut Reifuld. Pluralism and Equality. Values in Indian society and
Politics. Sage, New Delhi.

J.J. Rousseau. A Discourse on Inequality.

Louis Pojaman and R. Westmoreland. 1996. Eds. Equality. OUP. oxford.

66
M. Brennan, 1982 Class, Politics and Race in Modern Malaysia Journal of Contemporary Asia. 12.

Martha Nussbaum and A. Sen. Eds. The Quality of Life. OUP. Oxford.

Martha Nussbaum. 1992. Human Functioning and Social Justice. Political Theory. Volume 20.202-246.

Pantham, T and K. L. Deutsch, (ed.) Political Thought in Modern India (Sage:New Delhi, 1989).

R. Goodin and P. Pettit. Ed. A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy. Oxford, Blackwell.

Richard Arneson, eds. 1997. Equality. Selected Readings. OUP, Oxford.

Ronald Dworkin. 2000. Sovereign Virtue. The Theory and Practice of Equality. Cambridge, Harvard University
Press.

Will Kymilicka. 1990 Contemporary Political Philosophy. Clarendon. Oxford.

PO 536: Politics of Indian Diaspora

Credits 4
Mode of assessment: 2 Midterm
assignments: 2
End Term examination: 2

Globalisation has intensified the process of transnational migrations of people and created a
diverse diaspora in many locations. Thus, the world has entered into a ‘diasporic age’ and
consequently, diaspora has emerged as a site of serious investigation and research. Indian
migration had started centuries before colonial intervention. But it was British colonialism
that forced the Indians to migrate to its colonies as indentured labour to serve its economic
interest. Postcolonial India has seen voluntary exodus of professionals and workers seeking
better economic pasture. There are about 20 million Indian diaspora spanning across the
globe. However, most of the teaching and research on Indian diaspora has remained confined
primarily to their social, cultural, and economic dimensions, thereby grossly overlooking the
political. This course on Indian diaspora, on the contrary, keeps politics in focus.
The objectives of this course are:
To understand the nature of diasporic identities in general and making of the Indian diaspora
in particular;
to discern the diverse/heterogeneous nature of the Indian diaspora in terms of class, caste,
gender, generation, and religion;
to comprehend the politics of assimilation, exclusion and integration in some of the host
nations and understand how the Indian diaspora has been responding to and interacting with
these dynamics;
to analyse the nature and impact of Indian diaspora’s increasing involvement in the homeland
politics and critically examine the contours of Indian diasporic identity.

Section – I
Making of the Indian Diaspora

67
Conceptualising Diaspora: Nation, Culture and Globalisation; Making of the Indian Diaspora:
Nature of Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Migration.
Readings:

Appadurai, Arjun, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1997).

Carter, Marina, Voices from Indenture: Experiences of Indian Migrants in the British Empire (London: Leicester
University Press, 1996).

Cohen, R., Global Diaspora: An Introduction (London: UCL Press, 1997).

Hall, Stuart, ‘Cultural Identity and Diaspora’ in Jonathan Rutherford (ed.), Identity, Community, Culture,
Difference (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1990).

Motwani, Jagat et al. (eds.), Global Indian Diaspora: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (New York: Global
Organization of People of Indian Origin, 1993).

Report of the High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora (New Delhi: Indian Council of World Affairs,
2001).

Section II
Diverse Diasporic Identities
In diaspora: Class, Caste, Gender, Generation, Religion, Region and Language.
Readings:
Coward, Harold, John R. Hinnells and R. B. Williams (eds.), The South Asian Religious Diaspora in Britain,
Canada, and the United States (Albany: SUNY Press, 2000).

Hawley, John Stratton and Gurinder Singh Mann, Studying the Sikhs: Issues for North America (Albany,NY:
State University of New York Press, 1993).

Khalidi, Omar (ed.), Indian Muslims in North America (Watertown, MA: South Asia Press, 1991).

Kumar Amitava, Passport Photos (California: The University of California Press, 2000.

Maria, Sunaina Marr, Desis in the House: Indian American Youth Culture in New York City (Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 2002).

Rayaprol, Aparna, Negotiating Identities: Women in the Indian Diaspora (Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1997).

Steven Vertovec, The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns (London, New York: Routledge, 2000).

Section – III
Diaspora and the Host Nation
Political dynamics of Race, Ethnicity and Culture; Politics of Assimilation, Integration and
Exclusion; Political participation/powersharing in the Caibbean, Mauritius, Fiji, USA, UK,
Canada.
Readings:
Ali, Ahmed, Plantation to Politics: Studies on Fiji Indians (Suva: Fiji Times and Herald Ltd., 1980).

Ballard, Roger, Desh Pardesh: The South Asian Presence in Britain (London: C. Hurst, 1994).

68
Chandrasekhar, S. (ed.), From India to America: A Brief History of Immigration: Problems of Discrimination,
Admission and Assimilation (LA Jolla, CA: Population Review Publications, 1982).

Gregory, Robert G., Quest for Equality: Asian Politics in East Africa, 19001967 (Hyderabad: Orient Longman,
1991).

Shukla, Sandhya, India Abroad: Diasporic Cultures of Postwar America and England (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2003).

Van der veer, Peter (ed.), Nation and Migration: The Politics of Space in the South Asian Diaspora
(Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1995).

Section – IV
Diaspora and the Homeland
Diaspora as Pressure Group: Political and Economic Agenda and Government’s Response;
Ideological and Organisational Relationship with Political Parties/Identitarian
Groups/Transnational organizations: Emerging Political Tensions; Indian diasporic Identity
and its critique; Emergence of a South Asian Diaspora.
Readings:
Kurien, Prema, ‘Constructing “Indianness” in the United States and India: The Role of Hindu and Muslim
Immigrants’, www.usc.edu./dept/LAS/sc2/kurien.html

Prasad Vijay, The Karma of Brown Folk (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2000).

Rajagopal, Arvind, Politics after Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Indian Public (New
York: Cambridge University press, 2001).

Shankar, Lavina Dhingra and Rajini Srikanth (eds.), A Part, Yet Apart: South Asians in America (Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 1998).

Singh Bahadur, I. J. (ed.), The Other India: The Overseas Indians and their Relationship with India: Proceedings
of a Seminar (New Delhi: Arnold Heinemann, 1979).

The Foreign Exchange of Hate: IDRF and the American Funding of Hindutva (Mumbai: Sabrang, 2002).

PO 537: Politics of Social Justice in India

Credits 4
Mode of assessment: Midterm
assignments: 2; End Term examination: 2

The course under consideration is based on the claim that it is different from other courses in
as much as it seeks to redefine that idea of social justice in two major senses. It moves from
the mere distributive, corrective and protective aspects of justice to nondistributive but
normative aspects like humiliation and its opposite selfrespect and recognition. Secondly, this
course redefines the concept of social justice in the particular context of India. Thus, the
rationale of the proposed course is based on the hermeneutic principle that there could be
multiple ways of understanding social justice. Within Indian context, the course seeks to
develop itself around three frameworks of social justiceGandhian. Marxist and Dalit Bahujan.
The course also focuses on the resonance of these frameworks with the various social

69
movements both before independence and after independence. The course is therefore aimed
at discussing the critical relationship between ideas and practices. It is on this plane, this
course also seeks to assess the impact of this framework of justice on the actual social justice
oriented policies and practices of public institutions in India. Since these frameworks are
sufficiently reflective, an element of critique is internal to them. Hence, the course avoids
valorizing these frameworks.

This course, thus, has threefold focus. First, it seeks to outline and discuss three frameworks
of social justice in India. Secondly, it also focuses on various movements that reflect the idea
of social justice is justice is visualized in these frameworks. And finally, this course will
discuss institutional practices of social justice. This threefold agenda is unitized in the
following manner.
I: Three Frameworks of Social Justice
a) Gandhian:
1) Its historical Trajectory.
2) Its Social Context
3) Its spiritual aspects
4) Its Moral Dimension
5) Resolution of injustice
6) Critical Assessment.
b) Marxist:
1) Its Historical trajectory
2) Its Social Context
3) Exploitation as background condition
4) The principal, "from each according to his ability; to each according to its needs"
5) Distributive principle of justice
6) Procedural forms of justice
7) Resolution of injustice through structural condition.
8) Critical assessment.
c) Dalit –Bahujan:
1) Historical trajectory
2) Social context
3) Social Discrimination as the background conditions
4) Humiliation

70
5) Selfrespect
6) Principle of Comparative worth
7) Recognition
8) Critical assessment.
II. Movements for Social Justice.
1) SelfRespect movement
2) Dalit movement for water
3) One village one drinking water source movement.
4) Satyshodhak Movement
5) Working class movement
6)Sulabh International and safai kamgar Movement.
III. Policies and Practices: Critical Evaluation
1) Various policies adopted by social justice ministry
2) Directorate of social Welfare
3) SC Commissioner
4) ST Commissioner
5)National Commission of Human Rights.
Explanation:
a) Gandhian
Historical trajectory would warrant the discussion on Bhakti Tradition in India as the source
of Gandhain idea of social justice logically. This would make it necessary to discuss spiritual
and moral aspects of Gandhi’s concept of Social Justice. Social context for Gandhi remains
social hierarchy within the caste system in India. Gandhian framework suggests the
resolution of justice question in what has been termed as “shudraization” of different spheres.
Finally, in view of all this it would be essential to discuss the nature of Gandhian concept of
social justice kind of naming the idea of justice through critical assessments.
b) Marxist
This section will deal with the idea of social justice as discernible in the thinking and practice
of Marxists in India. This specific idea needs to be discussed keeping in mind the following
points. Discussion on the very location of social justice becomes necessary specially in the
context of the predominantly caste based agrarian nature of Indian society. This section
would also include the Marxist principle of redistribution of resources each according to
his/her ability and to each according to his needs. In this section, procedural forms of justice
will be discussed. In other words a focus on Marxist resolution of al forms of injustices
through the structural transformation of society would be necessary. Exploitation as the

71
background condition will have to be discussed in this section. Finally, some discussion will
have to be held on the nature of social justice with this particular perspective.
c) DalitBahujan
In this particular section, social justice as developed by Phule, Periayar and Ambedkar will be
the main focus. The genealogy of this particular notion of justice will be discussed.
Humiliation as an opposite of selfrespect will have to be discussed as the background
principle of this DalitBahujan notion of justice. Along with the concept of self respect
corresponding concept of comparative worth will have to be discussed in this section. For
foregrounding the principle of respect and recognition, it will be necessary to bring in social
discrimination in Bahiskrut Bharat (quarantined India) as the background principle of this
particular concept.
II. Movements for Social Justice;
The course structure includes specific movements because these movements seem to be the
most appropriate examples to assess resonance of the idea of social justice. For example,
movement as led by EVR Periyar in the south and Satyashodhak movement as led by Phule
in the West are movement that are motivated by the idea of self respect. Similarly, the
Chavdar Tank water movement of Ambedkar would help us in understanding the principle of
comparative worth. The focus on working class movement would focus on the distributive
principle justice of resources. Gandhian antiunsociability movements would focus on the
social worth.
III. Practice of social justice:
This section would include the discussion on various institutions that regulate the idea of
social justice at the practical level. These would include particularly, Directorates of Social
Welfare, Planning Commission, National Commission on Human Rights and SC/ST
Commission.
Reading List
Gandhian framework of social Justice

D.G. Tendulkar, Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol.6&7 the – Gandhi Peace foundation. Raghavan Iyer,
Moral and Political thought of Mahatma Gandhi. Three volumes. OUPBlackwell, 1987. Bhiku Parekh, Political
Philosophy of Gandhi, Delhi: Ajanta, 1984.

...........Tradition, Colonialism and Reform, Delhi: Sage, 1999.

Upendra Baxi and Bhiku Parekh, eds, Crisis and change in Contemporary India. New Delhi, 1995.

Partha Chaterjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse? Delhi, OUP, 1984.

Marxist Notion of Social Justice

B.T.R. Randive, Caste, Class and Property Relations, EPW, special Number 1979.

D.D. Kosambi, History and Society, Problems of Interpretation, ed. A.J Sayad. Bombay University, Bombay,
1985.

Dipankar Gupta, BaseSuper Structure Debate in the Context of Marathwada University Riots, EPW, Special No.
1979.

Dutta Gupta, Shobhanlal, Justice and the Political Order in India. Calcutta; KP Bagachi & Company, 1979.

72
EMS Namoodripad, India’s Struggle for independence.

Javeed Alam, India, Living with Modernity, Delhi, OUP

Marx’s Notes on Indian History,

R.P. Doutt, India Today, Calcutta: Manisha, 1947.

Vidhu Verma, Marxist Notion of Justice New Delhi, Sage.

DalitBahujan Notion of Social Justice;

G. Aloysius, Nationalism without a Nation, Delhi, OUP, 1992.

G.P. Despande, Selected Writings of Mahtma Jotirao Phule, Leftword: New Delhi. 2001.

Gail Omvedt, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution, Delhi; Sage, 1996.

M.S. Gore, Social Context of an Ideology; Ambedkar’s Political and Social Thought, Delhi: Sage, 1993

Pandian MSS, Beyond Colonial crumbs. Cambridge School, Identity Politics. And Dravidan Movement, EPW,
Feb, 25, 1995.

Rodrigues, Valerian, The Essential Writings of B.R. Ambedkar, Delhi; OUP. 2003.

Rosalind O' Hanlon, Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Phule and the Social Protest in Western India.
Cambridge, 1985.

V.Geetha, & S. V Rjadurai, Towards a nonBrahimin Millennium, Calcutta: Samya, 1998.

Writings and Speeches of Ambedkar, Educaiton Dept. government of Maharashtar. Vol. l3.

Movement for Social Justice

Amertya Sen, Development as Freedom, Delhi: OUP, 1999.

Andre Beteille, Society and Politics in India, Essays in Comparative Perspective. OUP. 1992.

Atul Kohli, ed, Success of India’s Democracy, Cambridge, London, 2001.

Baba Adhav, One village One Water Source, Granthali, Mumbai, 1970.

..............Caste and Democracy, London, 1933.

Chaterjee, Partha, ed, State and Politics in India, Delhi: OUP, 1998.

Chris Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from 18 th Century to the Modern Age, Cambridge, 2002.

Christophe Jaffrelot , India’s Silent Revolution, the Rise of the Low Castes in North Indian Politics, Delhi:
Permanent Black, 2003.

Frankel , Bhargava, Hasan, Arora, eds, Transforming India, Social and Political Dynamics of Democracy, Delhi:
OUP, 2000.

Gail omvedt, Cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society, the NonBrahmin Movement in Western India, Scientific
Socialist Education Trust. Mumbai, 1976.

Gurpreet Mahajan, Democracy, Difference and Social Justice, Delhi: OUP, 1999

Hasan Zoya, ed, Politics and State in India, Delhi: Sage, 2000.

K.M.Pannikar, In Defence of Democracy, Bombay; Asia Publishing House, 1962.

M.S.A. Rao, ed, Social Movement and Social Transformation in India. Delhi: Manohar, 1980. (Vol. I & II)

Marc Galanter, Affirmative Action in India, EPW, Special No. 1979.

73
Patro, A.P., 'The Justice Movement in India', The Asiatic Review. No. 93. 1932.

Rajni Kothari, ' Rise of the Dalits and the Renewed Debate on Caste'. EPW, June, 25, 1994. Rights

and Identities, Aspects of Liberal Democracy in India, Delhi, OUP, 1998.

Shekahr Bandhopadhyay, Namsudra Movement in West Bengal, 18781911.

T.K. Oomman, Protest and Change, Studies in Social Movements, Delhi: Sage. 1990.

Policy and Practice: Critical evaluation,

Galanter, Marc, Competing Equalities: Law and the Backward Classes in India. OUP, 1992

Joshi, Barbara, Democracy in Search of Equality, Delhi: National Publication. 1976.

Mandal Commission Report, Two Vols. 1980.

Pai Sudha, Dalit Assertion and the unfinished Democratic Revolution, Delhi: Sage 2002.

Planning Commission SC/ST Special Components Plans.

SC&ST Commission Reports.

Sen Amertya & Jean Drez, India: Economic Development and Social Opportunities. Delhi: OUP, 1995.

Background Readings.

David Millar, Principles of Social Justice, Harvard University Press, 1999.

Iris Marion Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference, NewJersey,

Princeton

University Press, 1990.

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, OUP, 1971.

Micheal Walzer, Spheres of Justice.

Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously, Duckworth, 1977.

PO 539: Issues in Political Philosophy in Modern India

Credits: 4
Sessional Requirements: 2 mid term assignments (50%), and an end semester examination
(50%)

Introduction and Objectives:

In modern India we find not merely a vibrant engagement with political issues and concerns
but also extensive writings – biographical, reflective, exhortative rhetorical, comparative and
scholarlyon the same. At the same time, there is an attempt underway to propose categories
and concepts which can make sense of the political domain markedly different from the way
this domain was articulated in dominant versions of Western Political Philosophy. This latter
attempt has striven to enrich existing concepts, formulate alternative relations across concepts
and occasionally propose new concepts and norms. Sometimes we find in this attempt a
scathing critique of the prevailing notions and the conceptual field they spawn. Such an
endeavour is caught in a field of contestations but quite often the nature of such contestations

74
are significantly different as compared to mainstream political philosophy in the West and
sometimes we find a broad agreement on an issue which is singularly different from the
available body of concepts ( e.g. the notion of swaraj). This course seeks to elucidate the
main issues that came to be the central concerns of political philosophy in contemporary
India and how they together formulated a possibly other domain of political philosophizing.
While there are many such concepts and norms three of them are the concern of this course:
Modernity, Nationalism and Secularism. All three of them, whatever their genealogies may
have been, are bound in a web of relations in contemporary Indian thought. Besides, other
norms, concerns and processes of public life – liberty, equality, rights, respect, citizenship,
community, culture, democracy, participation and law – are integrally bound with them.
Therefore this course focuses only on three major issues of political philosophical concern
and the relationship across them. Other concepts are considered only relationally.
This paper will not trace the processes through which these issues unfolded themselves or the
way they came to shape articulations of power. It will not go into their socio-political
anchoring or the impact they have had on public institutions and the legal order. However, it
will make extensive use of the existing studies, reflections and discourses to locate the
conceptual differences that reflective thought tried to highlight with regard to public life in
India and the consequences they have to a genre of thought known as political philosophy.
The focus is on what came to be meant by these issues in modern Indian thought and what
conceptual apparatuses were deployed to make sense of them. The way these issues have
been handled in the prevailing versions of political philosophy and the implications they have
for public life are considered to the extent they have their bearing on the elucidation of these
issues.
Modernity:
Introduction: Category and critical reflections on this theme in India generally revolve around
the following questions: What does it mean to be modern and how does one demarcate it
from the premodern? Should persons and communities embrace modernity? If not why? If so
to what extent? Are there several versions of modernity or an overriding one? How is
modernity related to other great political values such as liberty, equality, autonomy, culture
and community? Can modernity help produce societies inter-generationally?
a. The conception of the modern and its adversaries: The characteristics of the modern; its
universality; the relation between the traditional/premodern and the modern; requirements
essential for the pursuit of modernity; modes of access to modernity; modernity and
capitalism; modernity and liberties; modernity and culture; modernity, self and identity.
b. Modernity and colonialism: Distinctive features of colonial modernity; its modes of
dominance and legitimation; responses to colonial modernity.
c.Defence of and opposition to the modern: Arguments favouring modernity; arguments
indisposed to or opposing modernity and its avatars; modernity manifest in the very
opposition to modernity.
d. Relationship to Western modernity: Modernity as single, multiple and alternative.
Western modernity (modernities?) and its civilizational and religious moorings; The
appropriateness of Western modernity (modernities?) to India and other societies.

75
Nationalism:
Introduction: Philosophical reflection on this issue revolves around the following questions:
What do we understand when societies describe themselves as nations or nationalities? What
is the link between nation, beliefsystems, culture and identity? Is nationalism desirable? How
can communities that are deeply diverse coexist and reproduce themselves as nations in the
longer run? What is the relation between anticolonial struggles and the constitution of
national identity? Can multinationalism and a single polity ensure political stability?
a.Conception of Nationhood: Characteristics of a nation; Nationalism as ascriptive,
imaginary, derivative and indigenous; equal rights as the basis of nationalism; relation
between identity, community, castes and class to nationality; relation between culture and
nationalism; nationalism as intolerant and parochial; relation between nationalism and
swaraj; relation between nationalism and universalism ; relationship between anticolonial
movement and nationalism?
b.Nationalism and Pluralism: Scope of dissent and protest under nationalism; nationalism
and cultural diversity; rights of minority nationalities; nationalism, federalism and pluralism
c.Nationalism and Religion: Religion as the basis of nationalism; conceptions of Hindutva
and NizameMustafa and their inappropriateness as the basis of nationalism; relation
between Church, Ummah and Qaum to Hindutva on one hand and nationalism on the other.
d.Nationalism and majoritarianism: Relationship between nationalism and
majoritarianism; rights of minorities that are not minority nationalities; Equal rights and
cultural difference
Secularism:
Introduction: A large number of questions that secular thought in India has posed involve its
relationship to religion: Is it better for political societies to be consolidated by marginalizing
religious identities, remaining neutral or by ensuring a positive role to them? How to resolve
conflicts between religious identities? But there have been other questions too: Is there a
single, universally applicable model of secularism or are there plural versions of the same? If
there are plural versions what are the characteristic features of a secular polity?
a. Conception of secularism: Diversity and common charter of rights, law and obligations;
Different conceptions of secularism; secularism as a derivative value; secularism as single
or multiple.
b. Secularism, Religion and the Public Domain: Relationship between secularism and
religion; religion and secular authority; secularism as an end in itself; secularism versus
communalism; dialogue between religions or secularism.
c. Secularism and State: Secularism as the basis of state and civil society; Problems of
implementation; ideological apparatuses and pursuit of secularism.
d.Secularism, Culture and Community: Relationship of secularism to cultures
andcommunities; protection to Cultural Communities; uniform laws and uniform personal
laws.
Relationship between modernity, nationalism and secularism

76
Readings:
Alam, Javeed, India: Living with Modernity, Delhi, OUP, 1999

Gandhi M.K., Hindu Swaraj and other Writings, Anthony J.Parel, ed., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
1997

Chakrabarthy Dipesh, Habitations of Modernity, Essays in the Wake of Subaltern Studies, Delhi, Permanent
Black, 2002

________ Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 2000

Eisenstadt S.N., “Multiple Modernities”, Daedalus, 129, No.1 (2000), 1-29

Gaonkar, Dilip Parameshwar, “On Alternative Modernities” in Public Culture, 11 (1): pp 1-18, 1999

Geetha V. and S.V.Rajadurai, Towards a NonBrahmin Millennium, Calcutta, Samya, 1999

Giddens Anthony, The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge, Polity, 1999

Habermas Jurgen, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1994

Kaviraj Sudpta, The Unhappy Consciousness: Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and the Formation of Nationalist
Discourse in India, Delhi, OUP, 1995

“Religion, Politics and Modernity” In Upendra Baxi and Bhikhu Parekh, eds., Crisis and Change in
Contemporary India, New Delhi, Sage, 1995

Malik Hafeez, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and Muslim Modernization in India and Pakistan, New York, Columbia
University Press, 1963

Nandy Ashis, At the Edge of Psychology: Essays in Politics and Culture, Delhi, OUP, 1980

................ed., Traditions, Tyranny and Utopias, Delhi, OUP, 1987

Pantham Thomas, “Gandhi, Nehru and Modernity” in Upendra Baxi and Bhikku Parekh, eds., Crisis and change
in Cointemporary India, New Delhi, Sage, 1995

Parekh Bhikhu, Rethinking Multiculturalism, Cultural Diversity and Political Theory New York, Palgrave, 2000

.............Colonilism, Tradition and Reform, Delhi, Sage, 1989

Prakash Gyan, Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of modern India, Princeton, NJ., Princeton
University Press, 1999

Raychauduri, Tapan, Europe Reconsidered: Perceptions of the West in Nineteenth Century Bengal, Delhi, OUP,
1988

Rudolp Lloyd I and Susanne H, The Modernity of Tradition: political Development in India, Chicago,
University of Chicago Press, 1967.

Taylor, Sources of the Self, Cambridge, harvard University press, 1989.

.................“Two theories of Modernity” in Public Culture 11(1): pp. 153-174,1999.“

...................Modern social Imaginaries” in Public Culture 14(1), 91-124, 2002

Viswanathan Gauri, Outside the Fold: Conversion, Modernity and Belief, New Delhi,

OUP, 2001.

Wittrock, Bjorn, “Modernity; One, None or Any? European Origins and modernity as a Global Condition”,
Daedalus, Winter, 2002.

77
On Nationalism:
Aloysius G., Nationalism Without a nation, Delhi, OUP, 1997

Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and spread of Nationalism, London,
Verso, 1983

Ambedkar, B.R., Pakistan or The Partition of India, Bombay, Thacker &Co., 1946 (Third Edition)

Ananthamurthy, U.R. “Towards the Concept of New Nationhood: Languages and Literatures in India, in Peter
Ronald De Souza, Contemporary India Transitions, New Delhi, Sage, 2000

Appadorai A., Documents on Political Thought in Modern India, Vol. 1 & 2, Bombay, OUP, 1973, pp. 475-540

Arooram K.Nambi, Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism 190-544, Madurai, Koodal Publishers, 1980

Bhabha Homi, ed., Nation and Narration, London, Routledge, 1990

Canovan, M. Nationhood and Political Theory, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 1996

Chakrabarty Dipesh, “Modernity and ethnicity in India: A History for the Present”, EPW, 30 Dec., 1995 3373-80

Chatterjee Partha, The Nation and its Fragments, New delhi, Oxford, 1993

,..........Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse, London Zed Books, 1986

,.......... “ Beyond the Nation? Or Within?, EPW, Vol. 32, Jan 411, 1997, pp 30-35

Gellner Ernest, Nations and Nationalism, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1983

,...........Nationalism, London, Phoenix, 1998

Gilbert p. The Philosophy of Nationalism, Bouder, Westerview Press, 1998

Golwalkar, M.S., Not Socialism But Hindu Rashtra, 1964

.......... We or Our nationhood Defined, Nagpur, Bharat Prakashan, 1938

,.......... Bunch of Thoughts, Bangalore, Jagarna Prakashana

Gupta Dipankar, Culture, Space and Nation State, OUP, New Delhi, 2000

Guru Gopal, “understanding Ambedkar’s Construction of national Movement”, EPW, Jan. 24, 1998

Hall, John, “Nationalism; Classified and Explained”, Daedalus, Summer, 1993

*Hasan Mushirul, ed., Islam and Indian Nationalism: Reflections on Abdul Kalam Azad, New delhi, manohar,
1992

Hobsbawm, Eric J., Nation and Nationalism since 1780, Cambridge, CUP, 1992

*Iqbal, Muhammad. 1942. The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Delhi, New Taj Office, 1944.

Kanungo Pralay, RSS’s Tryst with Politics: From Hedgewar to Sudarshan, Manohar, Delhi, 2002

Kapur Rajiv, Sikh Separatism: The Politics of faith, London, Allen and Unwin, 1986

Kaviraj Sudipta, “On the Structure of nationalist Discourse” in T.V.Satyamurthy, ed., State and Nation in the
Context of Social Change, Delhi, OUP, 1994

Khilnani sunil, The Idea of India, London, Penguin, 1997

Sheth D.L. and Gurpreet Mahajan, ed., Minority Identities and the Nation State, New Delhi, Oxford, 1999

Mckim R. and Mcmahan, J., eds., The Morality of Nationalism, Oxford, oxford university Press, 1994

Nandy Ashis, The Illegitimacy of Nationalism, Delhi, OUP, 1994

78
Pandian, “Nation in E.V. Ramaswamy’s Political Discourse”, EPW, 16 October, 1993

Parekh Bhikhu,“Discourses on national Idnetity”, Political Studies 42(1994) 492-504

...........Nehru and the National Philosophy of India, Economic and Political Weekly, 5-12 Jan., 26, 1:35-48

Said, Edward, Orientalism, London, Vintage, 1978

Sarkar Tanika, ed., Hindu Wife and Hindu Nation: Community, Religion and Cultural Nationalism, Delhi,
Permanent Black, 2000

Sarvepalli Gopal, Nehru and Secularism, Occasional papers, No. 42 (mimeo), New Delhi, Nehru Memorial
Library

Savarkar V.D., Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? New Delhi, Bhartiya Shitya Sadan, 1989

Sheth D.L., “The NationState and Minority Rights”, in D.L.Sheth and Gurpreet, ed., Minority Identities and the
NationState, New Delhi, OUP, 1999

Smith A. National identity, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1991

Tagore Rabindranath, Nationalism, London, Macmillan, 1937

Talbot, Ian, India and Pakistan, Inventing the Nation, London, Arnold, 2000

Thapar Romila, “Interpretations of Indian History: Colonial, Nationalist, PostColonial” in Peter Ronald de
Souza, ed., op.cit.

Van der Veer, Peter, “Hindu Nationalism and the Discourse of modernity: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad” In
Martin E.Marty and R.Scott Appleby, eds., Accounting for Fundamentalisms: The Dynamic Character of
Movments Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994

On Secularism
Al Attas, Syed Muhammad Naquib, Islam, Secularism and the Philosophy of the Future, London, Mansell,
1985.

Attar Singh, Secularism and the Sikh Faith, Amritsar, GuruNanak University, 1973. Ahamd Mumtaz, “Islamic
Fundamentalism in South Asia: The JamaatiIslami and the TabhlighiJamaat” in Martin E. Marty and R.Scott
Appleby, ed. Fundamentalisms Observed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Azad, Abdul Kalam, India Wins Freedom, Bombay, orient Longman, 1959.

.....................The Tarjuman alQuran., Ed. &Trans., Syed Abdul Latif, Bombay, Asia Publishing House, 1962.

Baxi, Upendra, “Secularism: Real or Pseudo”, In M.M. Sankhder, ed., Secularism in India, New Delhi, Deep
and Deep, 1992.

Beteille, Andre, “Secularism and the Intellectuals”, Economic and Political Weekly 29, 10:55966.

Bhargava Rajeev ed., Secularism and its Critics, New Delhi, Oxford, 1998.

..........Should we abandon the MajorityMinority Framework” in D.L.Sheth and Gurpreet Mahajan, eds., op.cit.

.......... India’s Secular Constitution” in Zoya Hasan et al, ed., India’s living Constitution, New Delhi, Permanent
Black, 2002.

.......... Liberal, Secular Democracy and Explanations of Hindu Nationalism”, Commonwealth and Comparative
Politics, Vol. 40, Nov. 2002, No. 3, Special issue on Decentering the Indian Nation, eds., Andrew Wyatt and
John Zavos, Frank Crass Journal, London, 72-95.

Bharucha Rustom, In the Name of the Secular: Contemporary Cultural Activism in India, New Delhi, OUP,
1998.

Bhattacharjee A.M. Muslim law and the Constitution, Calcutta and Delhi, Eastern Law House, 1994.

79
...................Hindu law and the Constitution, Calcutta and Delhi, Eastern Law House, 1994.

Bilgrami Akeel, “Secular Liberalism and the Moral Psychology of Identity”, In Rajeev Bhargava, A.K.Bagchi
and R.Sudarshan, ed.Multiculturalism, Liberalism and Democracy, New Delhi, OUP, 1999, pp. 164211.

.................Secularism, nationalism and Modernity, in Rajeev Bhargava, ed., Secularism and Its critics, New
delhi, OUP, 1998.

Chatterjee Partha, Secularism and Toleration, Economic and Political Weekly 29, 28: 1768- 77.

Coomaraswamy, Ananda, Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of Government, New
Delhi,: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1978(Reprint).

Constituent Assembly Debates, Vo. 7 and Vol. 8, New Delhi, Lok Sabha Secretariat, 194849.

Jha Shefali, “Secularism in the Constituent Assembly debates 19461950” EPW, July 2002, pp. 3175-3180.

Keddie, N.R., “Secularism and Its Discontents”, Daedalus, Summer, 2003.

Keshavan Mukul, The Secular Commonsense, New Delhi, Penguin, 2001.

Kim Sebastian C.H., In Search of Identity: Debates on Religious Conversions in India, New Delhi, OUP, 2003.

Kymlicka, W., Liberalism, Community and Culture, Oxford, Clarendon, 1989.,

...............................Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Citizenship, Oxford, OUP,

2001. Kumkum Sangari, “Politics of Diversity: Religious Communities and Multiple Patriarchies”, EPW,
Vol.30, No.51 pp 3287-310.

Luthera, V.P. The Concept of the Secular State and India. Calcutta, Oxford University press, 1964.

Madan T.N., “Secularism in Its place” The Journal of Asian Studies, 46,4: 747-59.

..........Whither Secularism in India?” Modern Asian Studies, 27,3: 667-97.

.....................Modern Myths, Locked Minds, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1998.

Mahahjan Gurpreet, Identities and Rights: Aspects of Liberal Democracy in India, New

Delhi, Oxford, 1998.

.......... The Multicultural Path: Issues of Diversity and Discrimination in a Democracy, Sage, Delhi, 2002.

Martin David, A General Theory of Secularization, Oxford Basil Blackwell, 1978.

Menon Nivedita, “Women and Citizenship” in Partha Chatterjee, ed., Wages of Freedom, New Delhi, OUP,
1998, pp. 241-266.

Mitra, Subrata K. and Alexander Fischer, “ Sacred laws and the secular state: An Analytical Narrative of the
Contraversy over Personal Laws in India” in India Review, Vol. 1, No.3, July 2002, pp. 99- 130.

MushirulHaq, Islam in Secular India, Simla, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1972. Nandy Ashish, An
Antisecularist Manifesto, Seminar 314(October): 1-12.

“The Politics of Secularism and the recovery of Religious Tolerance”, Alternatives 13, 2: 17794. *Sarkar Sumit,
An Exploration of the Ramakrishna Vivekananda Tradition, Shimla, IndianInstitute of Advanced Study, 1993.

.......... “Indian nationalism and the Politics of Hindutva”, in Ludden D., ed., Contesting the Nation: Religion,
Community and the Politics of Democracy in India, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.

Smith Donald Eugene, India as a Secular State, Bombay, Oxford University Press, 1963.

Nehru, Jawaharlal, The Discovery of India, Bombay, Asia publishing, 1961.

Pandey Gyanendra, The Construction of communalism in Colonial North India, Delhi,

80
Oxford University Press, 1990.

Pantham Thomas, “Indian Secularism and its Critics: Some reflections” The Review of

politics, Summer 1997, Vo.59, No.3.

Rawls J., Political Liberalism, New York, Columbia University Press,1993.

Rodrigues, Valerian, Making a Tradition Critical: Ambedkar’s Reading of Buddhism, in

Peter Robb, ed., Dalit and Labour movements in India, New Delhi, OUP, 1994.

Sen Amartya, ‘The Threats to Secular India’, The New York Review of Books, 8 April 1993.

Sharma, Arvind, ed., Hinduism and Secularism: After Ayodhya, New York, Palgrave,

2001.

.......... Secularism and Its Discontents” in Kaushik Basu and sanjay Subramanyan, ed., Unravelling the Nation:
Sectarian Conflict and India’s Secular Identity, New Delhi, Penguin, 1996.

Taylor Charles, “Modes of Secularism” in Rajiv Bhargava, ed., Secularism and its Critics, Delhi, OUP, 1998.

Walzer M., Spheres of Justice: A Defence of Pluralism and Equality, New York, Basic Books, 1983.

Ahmed Aijaz, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literature, London, Verso, 1992.

Appadurai Arjun, Modernity at Large: Cutural Dimensions of Golobalization, Menneapolis: University of

Minnestova Press, 1996.

Chakrabarthi Prafulla K., The marginal men, Calcutta, Lumiere, 1990.

Chakrabarthy Dipesh, Rethinking Working Class History: Bengal, 1890-1940, Princeton, N.J., Princeton
University Press, 1989.

Gaonkar Dilip Parameshwar, “On Alternative Modernities”, Public Culture 11, No. 1, 1999.

Menon, Ritu and Kamla Bhasin, Borders and Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition, New Delhi, Kali for
Women, New Brunwick, N.J. Rutgers University, 1998.

Prakash, Gyan. Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India, Princeton N.J., Princeton
University Press, 1999.

PO540: Classical Political Philosophy

Credits 4
Mode of assessment: 2 Midterm
assignments: 2
End Term examination: 2

The tradition of systematic exploration of Political ideas and beginnings of political

philosophy is often traced to the Greek philosophers. Conceptions of good life and the best
ways of living together as a community were discussed and debated very extensively in
ancient Greece and Rome. The course will engage with some of these issues through the
writings of representative political philosophers of this period. Although the course will read
these political philosophers of classical antiquity it will do so with a view to stressing their
relevance to modern political analysis and action
1) Methodological Issues
Why should we study the classics?

81
How should we read the classical texts?
2) Intellectual traditions in 5 and 4 th B.C Athens
3)Socrates
The Man and the Philosopher
The idea of ‘unexamined life’ and Socratic Method
Law, community and political obligation
4) Plato
Critique of Parmenides, Heraclitus and the Sophists
Nature and the human self
Reason, reflection and the Theory of Knowledge
The ideal State: Why the rule of reason
What is justice?
From the Philosopher king to the Statesman
The notion of dialectics
Understanding of Law and the assessment of democracy
4) Aristotle
Critique of Plato
The centrality of the Political
Practical wisdom and action
Nature and natural order
Good man and a good citizen
Assessment of democracy
Notion of justice
5) Beyond the Greek City State
Cicero and the Stoics
Required Readings
Primary Texts
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Books II, Sections 1-9, III, Sections 1-5, V, 1-11, and VI, Sections 1-3.

Aristotle, The Politics.

Plato, Selections from Apology, Phaedo, Crito, Statesman.

Plato, The Republic.

82
Secondary Readings

Guthrie W.K.C., The Greek Philosophers from Thales to Aristotle, Methuen, London, I950.

Kraut R. & S. Skultety, eds., Aristotle’s Politics – Critical Essays, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Md., 2005.

Mulgan R.G., Aristotle’s Political Theory, Oxford, 1977.

Nussbaum M.C., The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, Princeton University Press,
1994, ch. 2.

Nussbaum Martha, “Duties of Justice and Duties of Material Aid: Cicero’s Problematic Legacy”, The Journal of
Political Philosophy, 8/2, 2000.

Skinner Quentin, Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas, History and Theory, 8, 1969.

Ackrill J.L., Aristotle the Philosopher, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1981.

Barker E., Greek Political Theory: Plato and his predecessors, 2nd ed., Methuen, London, 1925.

Kraut R., ed., The Cambridge Companion to Plato, Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Klosko G., The Development of Plato's Political Theory, Methuen, London, 1986.

Annas J., An Introduction to Plato's Republic, Oxford, 1981.

Rowe,C., Reading the 'Statesman', Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag,1995.

Brisson L., Plato's Laws: From Theory into Practice, Sankt Augustin, 1997, 2003.

Barnes J., The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995.

Finley M.I., Politics in the Ancient World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983.

Keyt D. & F.D. Miller, A Companion to Aristotle’s Politics, Oxford, 1981.

Kraut R., Aristotle – Political Philosophy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002.

Roberts J.L., Athens on Trial – The Antidemocratic Tradition in Western Thought, Princeton University Press,
Princeton,1994.

Rorty A.O., Essays on Aristotle’s Ethics, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1980.

Sabine G., A History of Political Thought, London, 1937, 1951.

Stockton D., The Classical Athenian Democracy, Oxford University Press, 1990.

Thorley J., Athenian Democracy, Routledge, London and New York, 2004.

Tully J., ed., Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and his Critics, Princeton University Press, Princeton,1988.

Wood Neal, Cicero’s Social and Political Thought, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988.

PO541: Early Modern Political Thought

Credits 4
Mode of assessment: 2 Midterm
assignments: 2
End Term examination: 2

Many of our important political ideas, like the idea of consent as the basis of the modern
state, the idea of individual rights, or the conception of political authority as sovereign over

83
all other sources of authority in a society, emerged in the writings of European political
thinkers of the 15th to 18th centuries. Designed to discuss the original formulations of these
ideas in early modern political thought, this course looks at the legacy of these thinkers, in
terms of, for instance, how the concept of participation is often contrasted with the ideas of
authorization and representation as the legitimizing principle of political society.
1) Renaissance Political Thought
Machiavelli
2) The Social Contract Tradition
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke
Jean Jacques Rousseau
3)Contemporary Appropriations and Critiques
Liberal, Republican, Communitarian and Feminist responses to the Social Contract
Primary Texts:
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
John Locke, Two Treatises on Government
Machiavelli, Prince
..........The Discourses
J.J. Rousseou, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
J.J. Rousseou, The Social Contract
Required Readings:
Ashcraft R., Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, Allen & Unwin, London, Boston, 1987.

Berlin I., The Originality of Machiavelli”, in The Proper Study of Mankind, Pimlico, London, 1998.

Boucher D. & P. Kelly (eds.), The Social Contract from Hobbes to Rawls, Routledge, London, 1994.

Hampton J., Hobbes and the Social Contract Tradition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986.
Macpherson C.B., The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1962.
Pateman C., The Sexual Contract, Polity Press, Cambridge and Stanford University Press, 1988.
Shaver R., Hobbes, Ashgate, Aldershot, 1999.
Shklar Judith N., Men and Citizens: A Study of Rousseau’s Social Theory, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1969.
Skinner Q., Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Vol. I, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 1978,
1998.
Strong Tracy B., J.J.Rousseau: The Politics of the Ordinary, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD, 1994.
Tully J., An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in contexts, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
1993.

84
Bell Daniel, Communitarianism and its Critics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1993.

Bock G., Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990.

Burckhardt J., The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, George Allen & Unwin, 1951, 1990.

Colletti L., From Rousseau to Lenin, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1974.

Dunn J. & I. Harris eds., Machiavelli, Vol. II, Routledge, London, 1998.

Dunn J., The Political Thought of John Locke, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1969.

Kavka G., Hobbesian Moral and Political Theory, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1986.

Lange Lynda, “Rousseau and Feminism”, Social Theory and Practice, (12) 1981.

Marshall J., John Locke – Resistance, Religion and Responsibility, Cambridge University Press, New York,
1994.

Miller James, Rousseau: Dreamer of Democracy, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1984.

Pateman C. & C. Mills, Contract and Domination, Polity Press, Malden, MA, 2007.

Pettit P., Republicanism, Oxford University Press, 1996.

Coole D.H., Women in Political Theory, Wheatsheaf Books, Sussex, 1988.

Sabine G.H., A History of Political Theory, 4th ed., Oxford and IBH Publishing Co., New Delhi, 1973.

Riley Patrick, Will and Political Legitimacy, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1982.

Pocock J.G.A., The Machiavellian Moment, Princeton, 1975.

Springborg P., ed., The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes’ Leviathan, Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Skinner Q., Visions of Politics III, Hobbes and Civil Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002.

Tully J., A Discourse on Property: John Locke and his Adversaries, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
1980.

PO542: Political Philosophy of Kant and Hegel

Credits 4
Mode of assessment: 2 Midterm
assignments: 2
End Term examination: 2

The course is conceived as a study in the History of Ideas. It focuses on the political
philosophy of Kant and Hegel, each of whom respond to the romanticist challenge to the
Enlightenment in very different ways. Although their ideas are sometimes placed together
under the category of German Idealism they approach issues of politics, individualstate
relationship, law and rights quite differently. The writings of Kant remain a point of
inspiration to contemporary liberals while Hegel offers a systematic critique of the
philosophical foundations of liberalism, and has been subsequently appropriated by the
conservatives and the Marxists.

The course will try to draw out the nature and implications of these two fairly different
theoretical and philosophical frameworks for the study of politics and political institutions
through a reading of the original writings of these thinkers.

85
1. Age of Enlightenment
2. German responses to the Enlightenment
a) Sturm und Drang
b) Herder’s Historicism
c) Romanticism
3. Immanuel Kant
a) Critique of empiricism
b) Refutation of ethical hedonism
c) Individual and the moral law
d) The idea of autonomy, dignity and freedom
e) Discussion of punishment
f) Nation among other nationsconcerns of peace
g) Later appropriations of Kant: two schools of neoKantians
4. G.W.F. Hegel
a) Critique of liberalism and Kantian morality
b) The idea of ethical life
c) Family, civil society and state
d) Universal reason, freedom and the state
e) Religion, art and philosophy
f) Masterslave dialectic and the question of recognition
g) Beyond historicism
h) Critiques and interpretations of Hegel
Reading List
i. Primary Texts
Immanuel Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

______________, Critique of Practical Reason

______________, Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay

G.W.F Hegel, Philosophy of Right

____________, Lectures on World History

____________, Phenomenology of Mind

ii. Supplementary Readings

86
Cassirer Ernst, Rousseau, Kant and Goethe, Harper and Row, NY, 1963.

Marcuse Herbert, Reason and Revolution, Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory, RKP, London, 1954.

Roy Pascal, The German Sturm Und Drang, Manchester Univ. Press, Manchester 1953.

Smith Steven B., Hegel's Critique of Liberalism: Rights in Context, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1989.

Taylor Charles, Hegel, CUP, Cambridge 1975.

Pelczynski, Hegel’s Political Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, London 1971.

Acton H.B., Kant’s Moral Philosophy, St. Martin's Press, N.Y, 1970.

Avineri S., Hegel’s Theory of the Modern State, Cambridge University Press, NY 1968.

Findlay J.N., Hegel: A Reexamination, Oxford University Press, NY, 1958.

Gay Peter, The Age of Enlightenment, Time Inc. 1966.

Goethe J.W, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1989.

Goldmann Lucien, Immanuel Kant, NLB, 1971.

Hardiman Michael, Hegel’s Social Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, NY, 1991.

Kojève Alexandre, Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit, Cornell
University Press, 1980.

Plant Raymond, Hegel, Indiana University Press, 1973.

Reill Peter Hans, The Rise of German Historicism, University of California Press,

Berkeley, California, 1975.

Werner Friedrich, The History of German Literature, Barnes and Noble, NY, 1965.

Williams R.R., Recognition: Fichte and Hegel on the Other, State Univ. of New York, NY, 1992.

Other M.A. Optional Courses

Course No. Course Title
PO 506 N Texts in Political Philosophy
PO 508 N Contemporary Marxist Theory
PO 509 N Techniques of Social Research
PO 510 Marxist Approaches To Social Revolution
PO 513 Liberal Theory
PO 514 Comparative Federalism
PO 515 Bureaucracy and Development
PO 516 Political Parties in India
PO 520 Local Government and Politics in India
PO 521 Development. Administration and Planning in India

87
PO 523 Election And Political Process in India
PO 524 Ideas & Issues in Public Administration
PO 525 Political Economy of Development
PO 526 Comparative Group Relations
PO 527 Theories of Social Stratification
PO 528 Key Concepts in contemporary Liberal Theory
PO 529 Socialist Theory

13.M.Phil. COURSES
M.Phil Courses
Compulsory Courses
PO: 601 Philosophy and Method in Social Science
Credits 4
Scheme of Evaluation: The students will be required to do series of short assignments (45)
linked with section II in addition to one short assignment for section I. This will be followed
by a written submission/examination at the end of the course. Since the course in intended to
prepare students in doing empirical research greater weightage will be given to seminar
assignments.
Students should ensure that all assignments are submitted on time (as per the schedule
specified in class). The classes for this course will be interactive and the assessment will be
continuous. The Course seeks to introduce students to some key issues in the philosophy of
social sciences while preparing them to undertake independent empirical research in social
science.
SectionI
Philosophy of social Sciences
1. Idea of Social Sciences
2.Notion of science and claims of scientificity in Social Science
3.Laws, Causality, Objectivity, Values
SectionII
Empirical Research Methods and Techniques
1. Identifying Research Problem
2. Formulation of Research Questions
3. Research Design
4. Operationalizing Concepts

88
5. Quantitative Method:
i) Sampling Techniques
ii) Data CollectionQuestionnaire & Interviews
iii) Interpreting Data
iv) Basic Statistics: Central Tendency, Sampling Error, Standard Error, Testing Hypothesis
6. Qualitative Method:
i) Content Analysis
ii) Ethnography: Observational Method, Participant Observer
Reading List
Achinstein, Peter, The nature of Explanation
Bleicher, Josef, Contemporary Hermeneutic
Brodbeck, May, (ed.), Readings in the Philosophy o Science
Brown, S., J. Fauvel and R.Finnegan (eds.), Conceptions of Inquiry
Davidson, Donald, “Symposium: Action, Reasons and Causes”, Journal of Philosophy Vol.LK, No. 23, 1963.
.......... “Symposium: Causal Relations”, Journal of Philosophy, vol. LXIV, no. 21, 1967 Hook, Sydney (ed.),
Philosophy and History (essays by W.H.Dray, Carl Hempel,Bruce)
Gardiner, Patrick (ed.), Theories of History
Hindess, Barry, Philosophy and Methodology in the Social Sciences
Jorgensen Joergen, The Development of Logical Empiricism
Kuhn, T., Structure of Scientific explanation
Lakatos and Musgrave (ed.), Criticism and growth of knowledge
Nidditch (ed.), Philosophy of Science
Popper, Karl the logic of Scientific Discovery
Rabinow, P & W.H. Sullivan, Interpretive Social Science
Ricoeur, Paul, Hemeneutics and the Human Sciences
Rorty, R., (three articles in) London review of Books, 1986, April 17, May 8, July 24
Ryan Alan (ed.), The Philosophy of Social explanation
Sosa, E. (ed.), Causation and Conditionals
Stegmuller, WalterMain Currents in contemporary German, British and American Thought
Weber, Max, Methodology of the Social Sciences
Taylor, Charles, “Interpretation and the Sciences of Man”, Review of Metaphysics,25/1, 1971
Triggs, Roger., Understanding Social Science
King, Keonhane & Verba, Designing Social Inquiry
Selltiz, Jahoda, Deutsche & Coote (ed.), Research Methods in Social Relations
Simon J.L., Basic Research Methods

89
Bateson N., Data construction in Social Survery
Wonnacott & Wonnacott, Basic Statistics

PO 602: Approaches, Concepts and Methods of Political Analysis

Credits 4
Scheme of Evaluation: midterm
assignments and endterm
submission

Any engagement with social and political reality involves the use of concepts. Concepts
mediate our understanding and representation of that reality but at the same time concepts get
rearticulated in the process of this interaction with the external reality. This interaction with
social reality is however informed by a theoretical paradigm. The meaning of concepts has
therefore to be understood in relation to the theoretical framework in which they are placed.
What the concept denotes often changes, or is nuanced and modified, as we move from one
theoretical framework to another. This course is intended to introduce young researchers to
this dialectical play between concepts, theoretical approaches and political analysis. The
readings on each of the chosen concepts have been structured to reflect the different ways in
which concepts get redefined and restructured across different theoretical frameworks. The
engagement with a concept is thus conceived as an engagement with the larger theoretical
framework and approach to the study of political reality. The students are expected to write
their assignments keeping in mind this orientation.

Concepts
1.Nationalism
2. State
3.Power & Authority
4.Democracy
5.Cosmopolitanism
6.Citizenship
Reading List

Nationalism
Alasdair MacIntyre, ‘Is Patriotism a Virtue,’ in Derek Matravers and John Pike (eds). Debates in Contemporary
Philosophy: An Anthology, Routledge, 2003.

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism, Verso, 1983.

Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth and Reality, 1990.

Gopal Balakrishnan (ed.), Mapping the Nation, Verso, 1996.

Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories, OUP, 1993.

90
Peter Spencer and Howard Wollman (eds.) Nations and Nationalism: A Reader, Edinburgh University Press,
2005.

Roger Scruton, ‘In Defence of the Nation,’ in Derek Matravers and John Pike (eds.)

Debates in Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Anthology, Routledge, 2003.

Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. 1996.

Stuart Hall (ed.) The State of the Nation: Ernest Gellner and the Theory of Nationalism, Cambridge University
Press, 1998.

Yael Tamir, Liberal Nationalism, 1993.

State
Hamza Alavi, ‘The State in Post colonial societies’, New Left Review, 74, July/August 1972.

Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Progress Publishers, 1977.

Mahmood Mamdani Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Colonialism, 1996.

Nicos Poulantzas ‘The Problem of the Capitalist State’, in Robin Blackburn (ed.) Ideology in Social Science.

Nicos Poulantzas State, Power, Socialism, London, 1980.

Nicos Poulantzas, Political Power and Social Classes, London, 1973.

Peter B. Evans and Theda Skocpol, Bringing the State Back In (Cambridge, MA:Cambridge University Press,
1985).

Ralph Miliband, ‘The Capitalist State – Reply to Poulantzas’, in Robin Blackburn (ed.) Ideology in Social
Science, London , 1972.

Ralph Miliband, The State in Capitalist Society, London, 1969.

V.I. Lenin, State and Revolution.

Power and authority

(Foucault and Habermas on Power)

Bent Flyvbjerg, ‘Habermas and Foucault: Thinkers for Civil Society?’ British Journal of Sociology, vol. 49,
no.2, June 1998, pp. 208233.

Joseph Raz, The Morality of Freedom. Chapters 3 and 4.

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish

Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge

P. Bachrach and M. Baratz. The Two Faces of Power. 1962

Steven Lukes, Power: A Radical View. Macmillan, London

Cosmopolitanism
Bruce Ackerman, “Rooted Competition”, Ethics, 1994, 104/3.

Charles Beitz, “Cosmopolitan Ideals and National Sentiment”, The Journal of Philosophy,

1983, 8/10.

Daniel Archibugi, “Cosmopolitan Democracy”, 2000, NLR, 4.

91
Martha Nussbaum, “Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism”, Boston review, 1994, 195.

Pratap Mehta, “Cosmopolitanism and the Circle of Reason”, Political Theory,2000, 28/5 .

Steven Vertovec and R. Cohen, (eds.), Conceiving Cosmopolitanism: Theory, Context and Practice.

Democracy
Amy Gutman and D. Thompson, Deliberative Democracy.

April Carter & Geoffrey Stokes, Democractic Theory Today: Challenges for the 21 st century.

Benjamin Barber, Strong Democracy.

David Held, Models of Democracy.

Habermas, Between Facts and Norms.

John Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond.

Paul Hirst, Associative Democracy.

Robert Dahl, Democracy and its Critics.

Stephen Macedo (ed.) Deliberative Politics: Essays on Democracy and Disagreement.

Citizenship
Bryan S. Turner, Citizenship: Critical Concepts.

Kymilcka and Norman, Citizenship in Diverse Societies.

Mckinnon and Monk, Demands of Citizenship.

Ronald Beiner, Theorizing Citizenship.

Optional Courses:
PO 604: FEDERAL POLITY IN INDIA
Credits 4
Course Teacher: Balveer Arora
Scheme of Evaluation:

A.50% for two sessional submissions

(a)Text Review
(b) Seminar presentation
B. 50% for a research paper, comprising content analysis of primary source documents on a
specific topic, within a broad overarching theme, to be submitted at the end of the semester.

Course Outline
I. Origins and Development (1949 –1989)
1.Devolution, Integration and the Federal Bargain: Origins of the Federal System. Colonial
Legacies. Contextual Perspectives 1935—1949.

92
 2.Refoundation of the Indian State, Restructuring of the Indian Union: Federal Democracy
and the Reorganisation of States. The Official Language Debate and the organisation of
Diversity and Unity (1949-1966)
3.Landmarks and Issues in the Development of Centre State Relations (1967 1975 1984).
Tensions under singleparty dominance and legacies of unresolved issues. The Eighties as a
transitional decade.
4. Pluralism, Identities and National Integration: Minority Rights in a Federal Democracy.
The Assertion of State Identities and the Sarkaria Remedies. The proliferation of State
Parties.

II. Institutions and Processes (1989 — 2009)

1. Federalisation of the Party System: PolityWide and StateBased Parties. Government
Opposition relations in a dual polity. Intergovernmental Interaction under Federal Coalitions.
2. Executive Federalism: Policy making in Federal Coalitions. Administrative Integration and
Reform.
3. InterState Disputes and CentreState Tensions: InterState Council and Intergovernmental
ministerial and official coordination forums. Conciliation and Arbitration Mechanisms.
4. Judicial Interpretations of the Federal Constitution: Judicial pronouncements on
Federalism and Judicial Interventions in federal processes.
III. Federating Differently: Experiments and Innovations
1.Recognising Differences: Special Status and Asymmetrical Federalism. Assessing the
experiments in Kashmir, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, and other Northeastern States.
2.Accommodating Identities: SubState Autonomy demands. Gorkhaland and Bodoland
Autonomous Districts and Regions: Possibilities and Limits. Creation of New States.
Processes of Identity Assertion and Recognition.
3. Empowering Panchayats: Multilevel Federalism and Panchayats as the Third Tier of the
Federal System. Problems, Issues, Obstacles.
IV.Continuity and Change in Federal Reform, from Sarkaria to Punnchi Commissions.
1.Internal Security: Central Intervention and States’ Autonomy: Harmony and Friction in
CentreState Relations. Terrorism, Insurgency and Communal peace.
2. Coordination and Cooperation in the Social Sector: Education, Health, Food Security and
Employment: Central initiatives and states’ delivery. The federal dimension of inclusive
growth.
3. States’ Interests, Rights & and Responsibilities: Protecting States’ interests in federal
coalitions. Linkages between foreign and domestic policies.
4.Economic Liberalisation and Globalisation: New tension areas in a growing economy. Land
Acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation issues. Agriculture, food security and treaty
making powers. Federal dimensions of the inclusive growth strategy. Uneven growth,
regional disparities and Fiscal Federalism.

93
SELECTED READINGS:
Adeney, Katherine. (2007), Federalism and Ethnic Conflict Resolution in India and Pakistan.
Arora, Balveer & Douglas V. Verney Eds. (1995). Multiple Identities in a Single
State: Indian Federalism in Comparative Perspective.
Arora, Balveer & Beryl Radin Eds. (2000). Changing Role of AllIndia Services.
Arora, Balveer (2006). ‘From Reluctant to Robust Federalism’ in Mary E John et al. eds., Contested
Transformations: Changing Economies and Identities in Contemporary India.

2003). “Federalisation of India’s Party System” in Ajay Mehra et al Eds.

Political Parties and Party Systems.

2002). “Political Parties and the Party System: The Emergence of New Coalitions” in Zoya Hasan, ed., Parties
and Party Politics in India.

2000). “Negotiating Differences” in Francine Frankel et al Eds. Transforming

India

1999).’Regional Aspirations and National Cohesion’ in S.K.Chaube, S. Kaushik eds. Indian Democracy at the
Turn of the Century.

1992). “India’s Federal System and the Demands of Pluralism”, Balveer Arora, J.Chaudhuri, B.Ghoshal, India’s
Beleaguered Federalism.

Austin, Granville. (2000). Working a Democratic Constitution

Bagchi Amaresh. (2000). ‘Rethinking Federalism’, EPW, 19 August
Brass, Paul. (1991). Ethnicity and Nationalism.
Burgess, Michael (2006). Comparative Federalism.
Chakrabarty, Bidyut ed. (1990). CentreState Relations in India.
Copland, Ian and John Rickard eds. (1999) Federalism: India and Australia.
DeSouza, Peter and Sridharan,E eds. , (2006), India’s Political Parties
Dua B.D. et al Eds. (2007). Indian Judiciary and Politics, (2003) Indian Federalism in the New Millennium.
Frankel, Francine et al Eds. (2000). Transforming India.
Hasan, Zoya ed (2002). Parties and Party Politics in India.
Jha,S.N. & P.C.Mathur eds.(1999). Decentralisation and Local Politics.
Kailash, KK (2004). ‘Coalitions in a Parliamentary Federal System: Parties and Governments in India 1989-99.’
PhD Thesis, CPS/JNU, unpublished.
Kincaid, John, R. Chattopadhyay (2008).Ed. Interaction in Federal Systems.
Khan, Rasheeduddin (1992). Federal India & (1994) Bewildered India. (1997) Rethinking Indian Federalism.
(Ed)
Khanna, DD and Gert Kueck eds (1999). Principles, Power and Politics.
Kueck, Gert et al eds (1998). Federalism and Decentralisation.
Lijphart, Arendt,(1996). The Puzzle of Indian Democracy: A Consociational interpretation’, American Political
Science Review, 90(2):258-68
Majeed, Akhtar Ed. (2004). Federalism in the Union (2005) Federal India
Manor, James (2001). ‘CentreState
Relations’ in Atul Kohli Ed. The Success of India’s Democracy
Mukarji, Nirmal and Balveer Arora Eds. (1992). Federalism in India
Mukherji, Rahul ed. (2007). India’s Economic Transition.
Oommen, T.K. (1997). Citizenship, Nationality and Ethnicity
Rao, M.G. & Nirvikar Singh.(2005). Political Economy of Federalism in India
Saez,L. (2002). Federalism without a Centre.
Samaddar,Ranabir. (2005).Ed. The Politics of Autonomy.
Sarangi, Asha. (2009). ed. Language and Politics in India
Saxena, Rekha. (2006). Situating Federalism
Shastri, Sandeep, K.C.Suri, Y. Yadav eds. (2009). Electoral Politics in Indian States.
Singh, Bhupinder. (2002). Autonomy Movements and Federal India.
Singh M.P. and Anil Mishra eds. (2004). Coalition Politics in India.

94
Sinha, Aseema. (2005).The Regional Roots of Development Politics in India
Sivaramakrishnan K.C. (2000). Power to the People? (2008) Courts and Panchayats
Suri, K.C. (2007). Political Parties in South Asia.
Thakurta, P.G., S.Raghuraman. (2007). Divided We Stand.
Verney, Douglas. (1995). ‘Federalism, Federative Systems, Federations: US, Canada, India’, Publius: The
Journal of Federalism, 25(2).
Watts, Ronald. (2008). Comparing Federal Systems. 3 rd Edn.

PO635: CivilMilitary Relations in Contemporary World

The course will take into account experiences of different political contexts i:e. advanced,
developed and developing. Concrete case studies from each of these will have a focus; case
studies would change from year to year in accordance with relative need, typical cases will be
Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Peru and Ghana.
PartI
1. Approaches: (a) Garrison State thesis
2. Professionalisminterpretations and debate
3. Corporationism
4. Practorianism
5. Models of Analysis (country specific)
PartII
Issues
1. Social origins of the Armed forces (officer corps.)
2. State formation and Structures.
3.Coalition of elites and Decision Making
4.Military conservatism: traditional, modern and contemporary
5. Armed forces, Violence and Political Process: Internal
6. Violence and Interstate relations: External

PO636: Politics and Ecology: Environmentalism and Political Theory

A. The evolution of environmental discourse.
Is there a green political theory?
Shallow and Deep Ecology: anthropocentric and ecocentric perspectives in the hilosophy of
environmentalism.
Arguments from intrinsic value, welfare and rights.
Ecofeminism; Ecosocialism.
Natural Resource Management and the theory of institutions.

95
B.Environment and Development.
Industrialism, economic growth and the environment.
Rethinking development indicators: Gross National Product vs. Gross Natural roduct.
Political Ecology: Striking a balance between environmental economics and radical ecology.
The concept of Sustainable Development, and indicators of Sustainable Development.
Development strategy and patterns of natural resource use: forests, water, mines.
Biodiversity and biotechnology: the social costs of natural resource depletion, poverty and
power.
C. Environmental Protest and Community Action.
Caste-studies of environmental protest movements: Silent Valley, Chipko, Narmada.
Case-studies of people's initiatives for sustainable natural resource management: Ralegan
Siddhi, Sukhomajri, Pani Panchayats.

PO637: Dalit Movements in Contemporary India

Credits 4
Course Teacher: Prof Sudha Pai
Scheme of Evaluation: 1 Seminar paper and 1 Term Paper.

Objectives: This Course underlines the significance of the emergence of dalit consciousness
and its implications for contemporary democratic politics. It seeks to understand the politics
of the oppressed sections of society as expressed through a search for identity and through
movements which seek improvement in their socioeconomic status, a share in political power
and ultimately destruction of the unequal caste order.

The nature of these movements, their objectives and construction of dalit identity is sought to
be understood through existing frameworks in the first part. Part two analyses the debates on
reform and representation of the dalits and the factors underlying various anticaste
movements in the colonial period which have significance for the postindependence period.
The final part takes up a few movements, and examines their emergence, ideology strategies
of mobilisation. The similarities/differences among these movements and their implications
for politics in various regions will be highlighted.
I. Framework for the Study of Dalit Movements
a)Social Movements – Liberal and Marxist frameworks.
b) “New” Social Movements in the West and in India.
c) Approaches to the study of dalit movements, overview of literature.

96
d) Changing socioeconomicposition of dalits, identity and ideology.
II. Depressed Castes and anticaste movements in the colonial period
a) The socioeconomic conditions of the depressed castes.
b) The Depressed classes and the colonial government.
c) Gandhi and Ambedkar on social reform and representation for the depressed castes.
d) Anticaste movements in the colonial period.

III. Dalit Movements in Post Independence India

Emergence, ideology and strategies of mobilization of major dalit movements:
a) The Republican party of India – UP and Maharashtra
b) The Dalit Panthers
c) The Bahujan Samaj party
d) The Dalit movement in Tamil Nadu
e) The Dalit Sangharsh Samiti in Karnataka
ISSUES AND PROBLEMS CONCERNING DALITS
a) Reservations
b) Castebased Atrocities
Selected Readings:
Aruralan “The Relevance of Periyar” Radical Review no 2, May, 1990,

Atul C. Pradhan The Emergence of the Depressed Classes Bookland International Bhubaneshwar. 1986.

B.R. AMBEDKAR COLLECTED WORKS, GOVT OF MAHARASHTRA.

E. Irschick Tamil Revivalism in the 1930s

Eleanor Zelliot From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement Manohar, New Delhi, 1992.

Gail Omvedt Dalits and the Democratic Revolution Dr Ambedkar and the Dalit Movement

Ghanshyam Shah Social Movements in India A Review of Literature Sage, New Delhi, 2000.

H.Kotani (ed) Caste System Untouchability and the Depressed Manohar, New Delhi, 1997.(See essays on TN)

J.R. Kamble Rise and Awakening of Depressed Classes in India, National publishers, 1979 Jayashree Gokhale
“The Dalit Panthers and the Radicalisation of Untouchables” Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative
Politics 28(1) March 1979.

Journal of Political Economy XII, nos 3&4, special issue on Schedule Castes in India JulyDecember: 405-422.

K.L. Sharma Caste, Class and Social Movement, Rawat publications, Jaipur, 1986.

K.R. Hanumanthan Untouchability: A Historical Study Upto 1500 with Special reference to TN Koodal
publishers, Madurai

97
Kancha Illiah “Productive Labour, Consciousness and History: A DalitBahujan Alternative” Subaltern Studies,
Vol IX, OUP.

M.S.A. Rao Social Movements in India

Mark Jurgensmeyer Religion as Social Vision: The Movement Against Untouchability in 20 th Century Punjab
University of California, Berkeley, 1978

Michael Mahar (ed) The Untouchables in Contemporary India University of Arizona press, 1972.

N.R. Bhattacharya Caste Reservation and Electoral Politics 1919-37 Progressive publishers, Calcutta, 1992.

Owen Lynch The Politics of Untouchability Columbia University, 1969.

P.E. Mohan SCs: History of TN 1900-55 New Era Publications, Madras, 1993

P.Pimpley & Satish Sharma (eds) Struggle for Status B.R.Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, 1985.

R.L. Hardgrave The Nadars of Tamilnadu: The Political Culture of a Community in Change Berkeley, 1969.

R.S. Khare The Untouchable as Himself: Ideology Identity and Pragmatism among the Lucknow Chamars CUP,
1984.

Rajni Kothari (ed.) Caste in Indian Politics, Orient Longman, Delhi, 1970.

Robert Deliege The World of the Untouchable Paraiyars of TN OUP, 1997

Robin Jeffrey “The Social Origins of a Caste Association 1874-1905: The Founding of the SNDP Yogam” South
Asia 4(1) 1974.

Rosalind O’Hanlon, Caste Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Phule and Low Caste Protest in the 19 th Century
CUP, 1985.

S.K. Gupta The SCs in Modern Indian Politics: Their Emergence as a Political Power Manoharlal, New Delhi,
1985.

Satish K. Sharma Social Movements and Social Change: A Study of the Arya Samaj and Untouchables in the
PunjabB.R.Publishing Company, Delhi, 1985.

Seminar 1998 (special issue on Dalit) no 471, November.

Sudha Pai & Jagpal Singh, 1997 "Politicisation of Dalits and Most Backward Castes Study of Social Conflict
and Political Preferences in Four Villages of Meerut District" Economic and Political Weekly XXXII, no 23,
June 7: 1358-61.

Sudha Pai, 2000 "New Social and Political Movements of Dalits A Study of Meerut District" Contributions to
Indian Sociology June, no 2, 34: 189-220.

Sudha Pai 2002 Dalit Assertion and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution: the BSP in Uttar Pradesh, Sage,
New Delhi

T.k. Oommen protest and change studies in social movements sage, new delhi, 1990.

Uma Ramaswamy “SelfIdentity Among SCs: A Study of AP” EPW 23 November 1974.

Upendra Bakshi & Oliver Mendelsohn Rights of the Subordinated Peoples OUP, New Delhi,1994.

V.Geeta & S.V.Rajdurai Towards a NonBrahmin Millenium Samya Publications, 1999.

V.T.Rajshekhar Shetty Dalit Movements in Karnataka Christian Literature Society, Madras. 1988.

“The Temple Entry Movement in Travancore 1860-1940” Social Scientist 4(3) March 1976.

PO 638: Culture, Identity and Politics: Critical Perspectives

98
Credits 4
Course Teacher: Asha Sarangi
Scheme of Evaluation: 1 Seminar paper and 1 Term Paper.

Course Description and the Content:

The course intends to provide an understanding about culture and identity as critically
constructed social categories along with the complex political dynamics between the two. The
role of politics in negotiating the boundaries of culture and identity will form a crucial part of
the course. The focus on the cultural location of politics and its social embeddedness will be
an important concern of the course. The main thrust of the course would be to see how the
relationship between culture and politics has unfolded the complex dynamics between the
political formation of culture/s and the cultural formation of the political. This will enable us
to redefine the field of power and its nature and formcultural, social and political etc. The
course is divided into three sections, which are interlinked methodologically and
conceptually.
1. Culture Concept and Method: In this section, we will engage with three concepts of
cultureculture as structure, culture as language and culture as praxis. We deal with eadings
that interrogate the causal relationship between culture and structure, and see how specific
cultures re/produce specific social structures in terms of their political manifestation and
transformation. Secondly, the intimate and reciprocal bond between language and culture
draws attention to newer ways of looking at the questions of power. Thirdly, culture as a form
of praxis indicates its habitus, which as a signifying practice can possibly alter the given
structural order of the polity and economy of the society.
Required Readings:
Antonio Gramsci, “Language, Linguistics and Folklore” in David Forgacs and G. NowellSmith (ed), Antonio
Gramsci: Selections from Cultural Writings (Cambridge University Press, 1985).

Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973).

Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (chapter 3: Resistance and Opposition)

Marshall Shalins, Culture and Practical Reason (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976).

Nicholas B.Dirks, Geoff Eley and Sherry B.Ortner (ed), Culture/Power and History: A Reader in Contemporary
Social Theory (Princeton University Press, 1994).

Nicholas Dirks, Colonialism and Culture (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992).

Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge University Press, 1977).

Raphael Samuel and Gareth Stedman Jones (ed), Culture, Ideology and Politics: Essays for Eric Hobsbawm
(New York: Routledge, 1982).

Raymond Williams, Marxism and Culture (London: Chatto and Windus, 1958).

Simon During (ed), The Cultural Studies Reader (London: Routledge, 1993).

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” in The
Dialectic of Enlightenment (New York: Harper, 1972) pp 12067.

2. Identity: Competing Narratives:

99
In this section, we deal with specific theories of identity, which locate and question dominant
political ideologies and programmesimperial/ colonial and post/colonial. The restructuring of
politicoeconomic order of a society affects the cultural formations of existing identities. It is
important to understand the political processes within which the identity of individuals,
communities, states and nationstates is continuously articulated, contested and consequently
leads to the formation of national political communities. Such an exercise will help us unpack
the cumulative bond between communities and nations, and their multiple constitutive forms
within which the nationhood is constantly reproduced and reconstructed.
Required Readings:
A.Gutmann (ed), Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition (Princeton University Press, 1994).

Asha Sarangi (ed) Language and Politics in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press,b 2009).

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London:
Verso, 1983).

Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self (Cambridge University Press, 1989).

Craig Calhoun (ed). Social Theory and the Politics of Identity (Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1994).

E. Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein (ed), Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities.

Eley and Suny (ed), Becoming National: A Reader (New York:OUP, 1996).

Eric Hobsbawm, Identity Politics and the Left” in NLR (1996).

Lash and ScottModernity and Identity (Basil Blackwell, 1992).

Patricia Yaeger (ed), The Geography of Identity (Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press, 1996).

Rajchman (ed) The Identity in Question (New York: Routledge, 1995).

Richard FoxLions of the Punjab: Culture in the Making (California University Press, 1985).

Richard Jenkins (ed). Social Identity (Routledge, 1996).

Romila Thapar, “ Imagined Religious Communities: Ancient History and the Modern Search for a Hindu
Identity” in Modern Asian Studies, 32, 2, 1989.

3.Politics of Culture and Identity:

The focus in this section will be on unraveling the relationship between culture, identity and
power. How do we understand the role of state in acting upon the identity politics? It is in this
perspective that we deal with the political re/construction of identities, their representation
and political consolidation in public sphere questioning the given political legitimacy of
cultures and identities of both the dominant and the dominated. An understanding about the
political recognition of cultures and identities can help us reconceptualise the newer forms of
resistance that call into question the existing social and political order. Thus the intimate bond
of politics with culture and identity redefines and reallocates the domain of power in its
varied forms.
Required Readings:
Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson (ed), Culture Power Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology (Durham:
Duke University Press, 1997).

100
Ann Stoller, “Rethinking Colonial Categories: European Communities and the Boundaries of Rule” in
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 31 (1) 1989, pp 134-61.

Ashis Nandy, At the Edge of Psychology: Essays in Politics and Culture Bharti Ray and David Taylor (ed),
Politics and Identity in South Asia (OUP, 2002).

Douglas Haynes and Gyan Prakash (ed), Contesting Power: Resistance and Everyday Social Relations in South
Asia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).

Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (London: Vintage Books, 1994).

Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (ed), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge University Press, 1983).

Fanon Franz, National Cultures Gayatri Chakravorthy Spivak, In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics
Hardgrove Anne, Community and Public Culture: The Marwaris of Calcutta, 18971997.

James C.Scott (ed) Weapons of the Weak: Everyday forms of Resistance (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1985).

Kakar Sudhir, Culture and Psyche: Selected Essays Sheyla Benhabib (ed). Democracy and Difference:
Contesting the Boundaries of the Political (Princeton University Press, 1996).

Sumanta Banerjee, The Parlour and the Streets: Elite and Popular Culture in the 19 th Century India.

Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Amita Bavisakr (ed). Contested Grounds: Essays on Nature, Culture and Power

Arthur G.Rubinoff, The construction of a Political Community

Bauman, Culture as Praxis

Charles Larmore, The Morals of Modernity

Dipesh Chakrabarty, Habitations of Modernity

E.Valentine DanielFluid

Signs: Being a Person the Tamil Way (Berkeley, 1984).

Eley and Suny (ed). Becoming National: A reader (New York: OUP, 1996)

G.Balakrishna and Benedict Anderson, Mapping the Nation

Kwame Anthony Appaiah, Is the Post in postmodernism the post in postcolonial?

In critical inquiry, winter 1991.

L.Crothers and Charles Lockart (ed). Culture and Politics: A Reader

Marcus and FisherAnthropology as Cultural Critique

Maryon McDonald, ‘We are not French’: Language, Culture and Identity in Brittany (London:Routledge, 1989).

Maureen Whitebrook, Identity, Narrative and Politics

Neil Smelser and Jeffery Alexander (ed)Diversity and Its Discontents: Cultural Conflict and Common Ground in
Contemporary Society (Princeton University Press, 1999).

Nicholas B.Dirks, Geoff Eley and Sherry B.Ortner (ed). Culture/Power and History: A Reader in Contemporary
Social Theory (Princeton University Press, 1994).

Paul Gilroy, There aren’t No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation

Paul Wills, Learning to Labor: How Working class kids get working class jobs (Columbia University Press,
1977).

101
Peter Robb, Liberalism, Modernity and the Nation

Rajchman (ed). The Identity in Question (Routledge, 1995).

Rustom BharuchaThe Politics of Cultural Practice

Seyla Benhabib, The claims of Culture: Equality and Diversity in the Global Era

Seyla Benhabib, The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents and Citizens

Steven Lukes (ed)The category of the Person (Cambridge, 1985).

Stuart Hall (ed). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (London: Sage Publications,
1997

Stuart Hall and Gay (ed). Cultural Identity (London: Sage, 1996).

Uday Singh Mehta, Liberalism and Empire: India in British Liberal Thought (University of Chicago Press).

Vinay Lal, Empire of Knowledge: Culture and Plurality in Global Economy

Yuval-Davis, Nira (ed). The Situated Politics of Belonging

102
Other M.Phil. Optional Courses
Course No. Course Title
PO 603 Government and Politics in India
PO 605 Party System and Political Processes
PO 606 Bureaucracy: Institutional Functions and Changing Role
PO 607 Leadership: Problems of Recruitment and Social Function
PO 608 Modernization: Theories and Models
PO 609 Policy Process: Decision Making and Performance
PO 610 Theories of Political Development: Evaluation and Critique
PO 612 Political Sociology: Concept. Approaches and Process
PO 613 Imperialism and Problems of Underdevelopment
PO 614 Planning Models and Process
PO 615 Problems of Foreign Trade and AidIndian Economy
PO 616 Socialist Theory: Contemporary Trends
PO 617 Statistical Methods: Data Analysis in Political Science
PO 619 Politics and IdeologyIndian National Movement
PO 620 Protest, Change and Interaction in India
PO 621 Government and Pressure Groups in India
PO 622 Agrarian Movement and Politics in India
PO 623 Trade Union Movement in India
PO 624 National Liberation Movements
PO 625 Political Participation and Change
PO 626 Politics and Mass Communication
PO 627 Foreign Policy of India
PO 628 Politics of Multinational Corporations
PO 629 Agrarian Structure and Politics in India
PO 630 Texts in Political Philosophy
PO 632 State in the Third World
PO 633 Regional Parties and State Politics in India

103
14. RESEARCH
LIST OF AWARDED M.PHIL DEGREE FROM APRIL 2009 TO MARCH 2014

2009-2010

1. Krishna Chechur, Critically Analyzing the Role of Deliberative Democratic Theory in Democratizing
Democracy.
2. Sheeba Aslam, Human Rights and Multiculturalism: A Study of Legal Cases involving Muslim
Women.

3. Mogglan Bharti, Study on Agrarian Relations in Uttar Pradesh and the Approach of Bahujan Samaj
Party to the Land Question.

4. Arindam Dahua, Elite Politics: A Study of Changing Social Composition of Political Elite.

5. Chandran Komath, Authenticity and Fragmentation: An Investigation into Taylorian and Post Structural
Conceptions of Identity.

6. C. Basu, Recognition or Redistribution? Dynamics of the National Question in India.

7. Shashank Chaturvedi, Politics of Knowledge System in India.

8. Sejuti Das Gupta, Indian Agricultural Policy in 1950-70: Decades of Coonflicts and Compromises.

9. Ayesha Rahman, Police Reforms in India with special reference to Police Public Interface and Women
Policing.

10. Mosses Kharbitur, Indian Labour Diaspora in the Post-Colonial Period with special reference to the
Gulf Countries.

11. S. Utham singh, Decentralization in India: A Comparative Analysis of Orissa with West Bengal and
Kerala.

12. Bipul Kumar, Ethnicity, Regionalism and the Jharkhand Movement

13. Vikas Tripathy, Decline of Legislative: n Assessment of the Writing of Indian Parliament.

14. Maitryee Devi, Religious Fundamentalism and Party Politics in Bangladesh: A Comparative Study of
the Communal Mobilization by the Two Major Political Party Alliances in Bangladesh.

15. Mahesh Pannicker, Disability and Social Justice: Prospects of the Capability Approach

16. Poonam Kakoti Borah, The Culture- Nature Dichotomy & 'Feminism': Implication for Citizenship.

17. Kaustubh Kumar Deka, Students as Agents of Identity Formation: Analyzing the Politics of Students
Movements in Assam, 1960-2006

18. Arunima Debe, The State and Indigenous People's Right in India

19. Arvind Shankar Shukla, Social Security System in India for Rural Unemployed and Unorganized
Sector.

20. Kaini Lobo, Ethnosymbolism and Nationalism: A Comparative Study of Naga and Mizo Nationalist
Movement

104
21. Smriti Ranjan Dhell, The Concept of the Political in Chantal Mouffe: The Limits of Post- Marxism

22. Shubhi Roy, Dalit Feminism: Emerging Politics and Discourses

23. Gideon Shadang, Rawlsian Conception of Justice: Understanding its critics

24. Kunal Yadav, Exclusion, Democracy and Justice: A Comparative Study of Amartya Sen and Iris Maron
Young

25. M.R. Mam, Marginalized in a Model of Development: Dalit Critique of the Kerala Development
Experience.

26. Jilly Sarkar, The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005: A Study on Issues in Right to Work
in India

27. Shivangi Muttoo, PDP and Coalition Politics: Re-emergence of Democracy in Jammu and Kashmir
1999-2008

28. Levinn Sakhril, The Debate on Governance in India: Continuity and Change

29. Binish Maryam, Analyzing Discourse on Communal Violence: A Case Study of Bhagalpur Riots: 1989

30. 3Ngoru Nixon, Understanding Modernity: A Critical Exploration of Alternative Modernity

31. Ekta Singh, Reasons of the State and Pursuit of Liberalization

32. Shiv Shankar Das, Neo-Buddhism and Dalit Politics in Uttar Pradesh: Emerging Trends

33. Ashu O Sani, Ethno-Nationalism in Political Theory.

2010-2011

1. Chandrasekhar Hote, Hindutva Representation of Vivekanand

2. Ambreen Agha, Islam and Terrorism Indian Ulemas' Responses: A Case Study of Ulema in the District
of Lucknow

3. Paromita Datta, Political Economy of West Bengal: Industrial Development in Federal Context

4. Rafia Zaman, Islamic Feminism: A Critical Exploration

5. Raghvendra Singh, Composite Culture in India and the Case against Multiculturalism

6. Brijesh Yadav, Relationship Between Parliament and Judiary in India: Analyzing three Moments of
Controversy

7. Ankita Verma, Forest Conservation and Federal Governance: The Quest for Sustainable Development

8. Lakshmi Radhakrishnan, The Idea of Difference in Feminist Theory: Implications for Women's Rights

9. Srijana Sunar, The Political Economy of Sex Trafficking in India

10. Priyanka Das, Alternate Sexuality and the Indian State: A Study of the Hirja Community

11. Vijendra Singh, An Alternative Conception of the Political Universe: Aurobindo's Ideas on
Nationalism, Liberal, Individualism and Cosmopolitanism

12. Surbhi Singh, Rajya Sabha as a Federal Chamber

105
13. Kiran Kumar A., Ideology and Class Struggle- An Analysis of the Writings of Karl Marx and Antonio
Gramsci

14. Paroma Sen, Gender, Honour, and Customary Laws: A Study of Honour Killings in Punjab and
Haryana

15. Paramjyoti Sharma, Labour Reforms and Employment Trends in India: 1991- 2005

16. Talim Akhtar, Islam and Modernity: Iqbal on Self, Community and Theory of Knowledge

17. Rajan Pandey, Indian Agriculture, Politics and the World Bank in the Era of Economic Reform

2011-2012

1. Kshipra Sharma, Gender in the Naxalite Movement in India: A Survey of Debates

2. Shekhar Pratap Singh, Reading Richard Rorty: The Search for Humanist Rediscription of Philosophy
& Politics

3. Caroline Maninee, Indian Look East Policy Impact on the north east Region

4. Madhura Damle, Language and Marxism: Re- Interpreting Linguistic Materialism

5. Vagesh Pawaiya, Modern and Postmodern understanding of Dalit Emancipation: A Theoretical

Exploration

6. Sheiley Hingorani, Ideas of Deliberative Democracy: Re-examining the Emancipatory Potential of

Deliberation

7. Rajmohan Sharma, Backward Caste Movement in UP: Study of Samajwadi Party

8. Vijay Kumar, State Autonomy and Its Regional Dynamics in Jammu & Kashmir

9. Ketaki Jaywant, Dalit Politics and the State: Interrogating 'Dalit' as a Category

10. Maidul Islam, Understanding Political Islam in India: Ideology and Organization of Jammat-e-Islami
Hind

11. Uma Katju, Alliance-Building in Anti-Caste Movements: An Analysis of the Dalit- Bahujan Category
through the views of Jotirao Phule and B.R. Ambedkar

12. Rumi Roy, Foreigner's Question in Assam: A Study of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal)
Act

13. Caitlin Stronell, Human Rights, The Indian State and Religion in the AIDs Debate: Struggles of Sexual
Subaltern

14. Garima Shrivastava, Migration for Marriage in Haryana

15. Kanika Sharma, The Political Trial as Theatre: The Case against Gandhi's Assassins

16. Priyanka, Politics of the Exemplar: The Buddha in the Writing of Coomaraswamy

17. Thangkhanlal Ngaihte, States of Exception and Prerogative Power: A Theoretical Exploration

18. Sumit Howladar, The Question of Caste in Tagore's Literature: A Symptom of Politics in Bengal

106
19. Shivani Kapoor, Reading Untouchability: Hindi Autobiographical Narratives amongst two
'Untouchable' caste in Uttar Pradesh

20. Rumpa Chowdhury, Discourses of SATI in 19th Century India: A Critical Assessment

21. Manas Ranjan, Theory and Practice of Rule of Law: A Case Study of the Batla House Encounter 2008

22. Priyanka Chowdhury, Dynamics of Hindutva: Policies of Bhartiya Janata Party in Rajasthan

23. Amrit Pal Kaur, Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism: A Critique

24. Harpreet Kaur Gill, Sikhism, Caste and Politics: A Case Study of Punjab

25. Zosangpuii, Woman's Political Participation in North-East India: With Reference to the State of
Meghalaya and Mizoram

2012-2013

1. Surath Kr. Malik, Dalit Protest and Maple Entry Movements in Odhisha: A Study of Kendrapara
District
2. Rashi Anand, Politics of Humiliation: A Study of Dalit Female Body in North India

3. Shruti Dubey, Politics of Legality: A Study of Slums in Delhi

4. Jyoti Arora, Business Associations During the Period of Globalization: A Study of CII and NASSCOM

5. Gulson Parveen, Mapping Displacement: Public Policy and the Internally Displaced Person

6. Animesh Shukla, Kant and the Political

7. Anindya Dutts Gupta, A Comparative Study of the National Curriculum Framework of 2000-2005

8. Diana Naorem, 'Political' Motherhood and the Women's Movement: Issues of Resistance and the State

9. Anushree, Homosexuality in India: An Analysis of Literary, Legal and Medical Discourses

10. Neizhanuo Golmei, Governing Delhi: Problems of Multiple Authories and Overlapping Jurisdiction

11. Javed Iqbal Wani, Suicide Bombing and the Modern Nation States

12. Pia Daniel, Contending Values: Liberty and Equality in the Works of Rawls and Dworkin

13. Soumya Gupta, Nussbaum's Capabilities Approach: Functional Account for Humans & Teleological
Account for Non-Human Species

14. Mayuri Sengupta, Decline of the Left Front in West Bengal and the Rise of the Trinamool Congress

15. Samir Sharma Asymmetric Federalism and Differentiated Citizenship: Issues, Debates and Policy

16. S. Pannikar, Autonomist Marxism and the Question of State Power

17. Sohini Mookherjee, Land Acquisition in an Era of Globaliszation: Compensation, Adjudication and
Movements

18. Preeti Rana, Changing Caste Identities: A Study of Jats in Haryana

107
19. Sharmin Khodaiji, The Great Transformation in the Late-Twentieth Century: An Inquiry into the
Origins of the Global Market System

20. Philip Verghese, State, Society and Human Rights: A Study on the Demand for Schedule Caste by
Dalit, Christians and Dalit Muslims in India

21. S. Chinbiaklum Underdevelopment and Ethnicity in Manipur

22. Bijendra Kumar Jha, Congress Party in Bihar: Decline in Electoral Base, 1967-1999

23. Rakesh Mehar, Crisis, Normalcy, Exceptionality: A Study of Extraordinary Laws in India

24. Urvashi Shaukeen, Jats and Their Case for Reservation

25. Vaibhav Raaj, The Land Question under Liberalization: Response of the All India Kissan Sabha

26. Garima Dhabahi, Prince, Paramount, People, Deciphering 'princely' Idioms and Symbols in Colonial
and Post Colonial Jaipur

27. Gautam Buddha Rai, Denotified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Tribes: The Politics of Misrecognition

28. Rakesh Ranjan, Religious Practices in Dalit Communities: An analysis of Autobiographies

29. T. Relange, The Autonomy Issues in Kashmir: Contestation and Reasonable Options

30. Kuvili Zhimo, Special Economic Zones and Land Acquisition Policy: Rehabilitation and Compensation
for Development Induced Development

31. Mili Sahu, Forest Policy and the Tribals: A Case study of Forest Rights Act (2006) in Odisha

32. Jyoti, Institutional Accountability: An Analysis of the Office of Comptroller and Auditor General
(C&AG) of India

33. Amita Sharma, Primitive Accumulation in Marxist Theory

34. Barun Adhikari, State and Identification Regimes: Debates on the Unique Identification Authority of
India

35. Nandita Badami, The Commodity and the Critique of Capitalism: Three Framings of the 'Object'

36. Shweta Rana, Changing Dynamics of Party Politics in Himachal Pradesh

37. Prakhar N. Sharma, Representation of Hinduism in the Judicial Discourse in Independent India

38. Anrara Raj Chawdhury, Work in Knowledge Economy: Reassessing the Marxist Theory Alienation

39. Himachi Chatterjee, Refugee Afterlife in West Bengal: A Study of the Camp and the Colony

40. Mona Verma, Rights of Women Prisoners: A Case Study of Inmates of Tihar Jail

41. Arda N.G., Labour and Literature in Marxism: The Early Communist Discourse in Kerala

42. M.V. Sita ---

43. Priyanka Banerjee, New Politics of Identity and Patterns of Governance in Bihar: The Nitish Kumar
Regime

44. Keny Kom, Tibetan Government in Exile: Experiments in Political

108
45. Sajjan Kumar, OBC Identity in Bihar: Rise & Electoral Decline of JD/RJD

46. Sandhip Yadav, Politics of Telecommunication Reform in India

47. Paromita Chakraborty, Agrarian Crisis and Farmers Suicides: The Case of Punjab

48. Meenakshi Burogohain, Dynasty Politics in Liberal Democratics: A Case study of India.

2013-14 (March-2014)
1. Ravi Shankar Kumar, Literature and Politics: Reading Dalit Literature.
2. Aiya Imtiaz, Judiciary Religion and Citizenship: An Analysis of Selected Judicial Pronouncements.

3. Sushmita Nath, Is multiculturalism good for women? An analysis of Indian state practices in the
aftermath of the shah bano judgement.

4. Pankaj Sarma, An analysis of the Assam Movement and its aftermath (1979-2000).

5. Arvind Kumar Patel, New Backward Caste Politics of Nitish Kumar and the JD(U)-BJP Alliance in
Bihar.

6. Naresh Kumar Bahari, Nultiple Strategies of Mobilization of the Sang Parivar in Rajasthan.

7. Ishta Vohra, Politics of Governance in Gujarat Under Narendra Modi (2001-2012).

8. Nidhi Nair, Dalit Identity and Politics: Comparative Study of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

9. Sushmita Chattopadhyay, The Saintly Idiom of Democratic Politics: Power and Women in India.

10. Ankita Banerjee, Reclaiming Freedom: A Critical Analysis of Rabindranath Tagore Ideas on Education.

11. Kriti Doval, Gender and Migration: A Study of Domestic Work Sector in India.

12. Arya Thomas, Revolutionary Organization in Liberal Democracy: A Interrogation of the Vanguard
Party.

13. Prashant Mishra, Debates in Agrarian Relations of Bihar.

14. Sonam Goyal, Agrarian Relations and Transformation in Rajasthan: Trends and Issues.

15. Anshul Trivedi, Debates on the Right to Food Security in India Under Liberalization.

16. Aashish Madhwani, Caste and Census in India: Debates in Contemporary India.

17. Latika Choudhary, Mahadev Goving Ranade and Surendranath Banerjee: Question of Social Reform in
the National Movement in the Late Nineteenth Century.

18. Kesang C. Bhotia, The Gorkhaland Movement: A Struggle for Statehood 1980-2012.

19. Sabah Sarif, Autonomy, Development and Democracy: A Case Study of Ladakh Autonomous Hill
Development Council.

20. Pragya Kishore, Religious Freedom in India: Interpretation of Supreme Court Judgments.

21. Debajanee Ganguly, State and Surveillance A Study of Internet Censorship in India.

22. Shambhu S Varda, The Debate Over Maharashtra- Dharma: An Analysis of the views of MG Ranade,
R. Bhagwat and V.K/Rajwade.

109
23. Vipin Krishna, The Nation and its `Servants’: A Study of Three Moments in the Administrative History
of India.

24. Harshita Y., Multiple Dminesions of the Public and the Private: The Role of Law in Women’s Lives in
India.

25. Kriti Budhiraja, Planning the Nation, Region and the City: Political Economy of the Nehru Period.

26. Suvaid Yaseen, Secularism and Islamic Movements: Reading the Hizbul Muzahideen in Kashmir.

27. Sudarshan Das, Mining and Marginalization of Tribals in Odhisha in an Era of Globalization.

LIST OF PH. D DEGREES AWARDED FROM APRIL 2009 TO MARCH 2014

2009-2010
1. Kamolini Devi, Food Security Migration and Public Policy: A Comparative Study of Two District in
Orissa in 1990s.
2. Yaransho Ngalung, State Model of Conflict Transformation: Critique from the Naga Perspective.

110
 3. Neeru Sharma, Identity Formation and Political Mobilization among Dalits in Punjab: A Comparative
Study of Ad-dharmis and Mazhabis in Jallandhar and Amritsar District.

4. Smita Patil, Caste System and Dalit Feminism: A Comparative Study of Mang and Mahar women in
Western Maharastra.

5. U.K. Sridhar, Political Ecology and Social Movements in Western Ghats: A Case Study of Kudramukh
Environment Movement.

2010-2011

1. H. Kham Kham Suan, Identities, Autonomy and Patriotism: A Symmetric Federalism in North-East
India.
2. Melvil Pierera, Customary Law and State Formation in Northeast India: A Comparative Study of the
Angami of Naga and the Garo of Meghalaya.

3. Bijen Meitei, Ethnic Diversity and Conflict in North East India: A Comparative Study of Manipur and
Meghalaya.

4. Preetam, Ambedkar and Indian Nationalism: Interface between Culture, Tradition and Democracy.

5. Harish Wankhede, Secularism and Social Justice: Religious Minorities and Pursuit of Equality.

2011-2012

1. Tamanna Khosla,Multiculturalism and Feminism: Reconsidering Cultural Diversity with Gender Equality.
2. B. Rajeshwari, Communal Riots, State Accountability and the Issues of Justice: A Study of Post-Riot
Judicial Inquiry Commission.

3. Pinki Maurya, Democratic Discontent and the Peace Process in Jammu and Kashmir in Post Kargil War.

4. Anita Tagore, Gender Politics and Property Rights of Hindu Women: A Comparative Study of West Bengal
and Bihar.

5. Pouljmi Pal, Information and State Regulatory Labour Laws: A Study of Women Construction Workers in
Delhi and Ahmedabad.

6. Chunnu Prasad, India's Refugee Regime and Resettlement Policy: A Case Study of Chakmas in Arunachal
Pradesh.

7. Muthu Kumar, Dalit Mobilization and Dravidian Movement: A Study of Emerging Social Conflict in Tamil
Nadu.

8. Dhanajoy Rai, Dalit Representation in Popular Hindi Cinema: An Exploration in the Context of Public
Sphere.

9. Sanjay Kumar Das, Land Acquisition, Livelihood Concerns and Adivasi Protests: A Case Study of Jaipur
District, Orissa.

10. Rusiram Mahananda, The Local Elites and the Politics of Rural Development: A Study of Bargarh District in
Orissa.

111
 2012-2013

1. Meenakshi Arora, Sharing of River Water and Political Interest: Disputes over Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal
between Punjab and Haryana.
2. Aftab Alam, Discrimination and Recognition: A Case Study of Dalit- Muslim in Bihar.

3. Andrew Jacob The Idea of Nationalism in the Writings of Renan and Ambedkar: A Comparative Study.

4. Aseem Prakash, Dalit Enterpreneurship and Discrimination: A Critique of the role of State and Market.

5. Venkatesh, Political Economy of Agrarian Distress in Telengana: A Study of Farmer’s Studies in Mahabib
Nagar District (1995-2010).

6. Soihiamlung Dangmei, Religious Politics and Search for Indegeneity: A Study of Donyipola and Heraka
Movement in North East India.

7. Santree Thapa Gurung, Ethnicity and Exclusion: A Study of Major Political Parties in Nepal.

8. Tapan Mahananda, Region, Domination and Underdevelopment: A Study of Koshala Movement in Western
Orissa.

9. Siddharth Mukherjee, State and Computer Software Industry in India: Regulatory Mechanism and Policy
Shifts.

2013-2014 (March-2014)

1. Shunti Joshi, Politics & Ecology: Caste Community and Region in Kumaon.
2. David Sechu, Development of Coalition Politics in Nagaland, 1990-2008.

3. Jubilee Shangrai, Tribal Identities and Political Among Nagas: 1960-2003.

4. Jagannath Ambagudia, Imigration, Local Communities and Conflict Over Resources: A Case Study of
Adivasis and Bengali Settlers in Malkangini and Nabarongpur District of Orissa.

5. Praveen K. Sahai, Associational Life and Democracy: Exploring the Ideas of `Public’ and `Community’ in
the city of Bhagalpur (1987-2001).

6. Arvind Shankar, Public-Private Partnership under Jaimurty: Politics of Housing.

112
CONTACT ADDRESS

109, First Floor, SSS-II Building

CENTRE FOR POLITICAL STUDIES

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Jawaharlal Nehru University

New Delhi-110067

Telephone Number: 011-26704413

E-mail: cpsjnu09@gmail.com

113