Contemporary India 1947-92

Semester and Year Offered: Winter 2019

Course Coordinator and Team: Dr. Rahul Kumar Ishwar

Email of course coordinator: rahulishwar@gmail.com

Pre-requisites: None

Aim: This course seeks to deal with the political, economic and social trajectories of the post-independent India. It analyses the nature of socio-economic and political transformation of post-independent India. The course deals with the period between 1947 and 1992. However, all the decades do not get an even treatment. There is a focus on the Nehruvian period between 1947 and 1964 given that this period had a decisive role in shaping the political, economic and social contours of the coming decades. The course seeks to cultivate a decadal perspective among the students so that they can understand, for instance, why the optimism of 1950s gave way to the frustration and turmoil of the 1970s. The course deals with the fundamental structures and ideologies of the post-independent India such as democracy, nationalism, secularism and caste.

Course Outcomes:

1. To enable a comprehensive understanding of the political, economic and social trajectories of the post-independent India during the period between 1947 and 1992
2. To familiarise the students with the challenges and achievements of the foundational period that is the Nehruvian period of post-independent India
3. To cultivate among the students a decadal approach towards the history of post-independent India
4. To enable the students to appreciate the nature and stages of socio-economic transformation of post-independent India
5. To create a better understanding of the fundamental structures and ideologies of post-independent India such as democracy, secularism, caste etc.

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

1. The first two modules deal with the political and economic consolidation and integration of early post-independent Indian nation-state. The first module deals with agrarian reforms and the integration of princely states.
2. The second module deals with the making of the Indian constitution, the language problems, the Nehruvian polity etc.
3. The third module takes up the question of the Indian economy and analyses its transformation from the Nehruvian planned and command economy to liberalization and privatization in early 1990s.
4. This module discusses nation and nationalism and analyses the separatist challenges faced by the Indian nation.
5. The fifth module is about the nature of Indian democracy and the challenges that it has confronted over the decades including the challenge of Emergency.
6. This module deals with the nature of Indian secularism and the challenges faced by it including the challenge of Ayodhya movement.
7. The seventh module begins with a general discussion of caste and casteism in India and focuses on major caste movements in post-independent India such as the dalits movements and the rise of the OBCs.
8. The final module discusses India's foreign policy and the wars that India had to fight with China and Pakistan.

Assessment Details with weights:

1. The assessment process in this course consisted of three parts. The first component was take home assignment with 30 per cent weightage. Presentation was a mandatory part of the assignment.
2. Mid semester examination was the second component and had 30 per cent weightage.
3. End semester examination was the third and final component with 40 per cent weightage.

Reading List:

• Bipan Chandra et.al, India After Independence
• Paul R.Brass, The Politics of India Since Independence
• Ramchandra Guha, India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy
• Hiranmay Karlekar (ed.), Independent India: The First Fifty Years
• Shashi Tharoor, India from Midnight to Millennium

ADDITIONAL REFERENCE:

• Achin Vanaik and Rajeev Bhargava (ed.), Understanding Contemporary India.
• Andre Betteille, Society and Politics in India
• B.R.Nanda (ed.), India’s Foreign Policy
• Bimal Jalan (ed.), The Indian Economy: Problems and Prospects
• Bipan Chandra et.al, India After Independence
• Eleanoe Zelliot, From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement
• Francine R. Frankel, India's Political Economy: 1947-2004.
• Granville Austin, The Indian Constitution: The Cornerstone of a Nation
• Granville Austin, Working a Democratic Constitution: the Indian Experience.
• Hiranmay Karlekar (ed.), Independent India: The First Fifty Years
• Lloyd I.Rudolf and Susanne Hoeber Rudolf, The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India.
• M.N.Srinivas (ed.), Caste: Its Twentieth Century Avatar
• Myron Weiner, The Indian Paradox: Essays in Indian Politics
• Niraja Gopal Jayal (ed.), Democracy in India
• Niraja Gopal Jayal and Pratap Bhanu Mehta (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Politics in India.
• Partha Chatterjee (ed.), Wages of Freedom: Fifty Years of the Indian Nation-State
• Rajni Kothari, Politics in India
• Ramchandra Guha, India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy
• S.Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru, Volumes 2 and 3
• Sunil Khilnani, The Idea of India