डॉ. बी. आर. अम्बेडकर विश्‍वविद्यालय दिल्ली
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi
Established by The Government of NCT of Delhi

Course Coordinator and Team: Anil Persaud & Rahul Kumar Ishwar (Adjunct Faculty) Email of course coordinator: rkishwar@aud.ac.in

Pre-requisites: None

 

 

Aim: The aim of this course is to enable the students to appreciate the nature and role

of decolonization in global history since 1945 in general and during the last two decades in particular.

 

Course Outcomes:

1. Have a basic understanding of the ongoing relevance of decolonization debates in various part of the globe.
2. Be aware of the connections between decolonization of the past and decolonization of the present.
3. Have an improved sense of geography.
4. To enable the students to appreciate the empowering impact of decolonization on marginalised communities while at the same time being conscious of the dark side of

the decolonization

5. This course aims to offer students a further opportunity to improve their proficiency with reading and writing scholarly papers and advance their capacity for critical and conceptual thinking.

 

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

1. Introduction - Decolonisation and its history. Here the student is oriented to make a difference between what was and continues to be referred to as decolonisation, i.e, independence from colonial rule and contemporary decolonization as it manifests itself in contemporary decolonization movements such as #IdleNoMore, #BlackLivesMatter, GreatReturnMarch, #Occupy, and #Rhodes/FeesMustFall.
2. Indigeneity- Is contemporary decolonization a post-colonial phenomenon? In what sense are they postcolonial? What does decolonization mean to indigenous peoples? Why is indigenous peoples’ decolonization a threat to postcolonial nation states? We begin with a focus on the question of naming and ask “what do ‘indigenous’ people want to be called?
3. Reparations - This module addresses questions such as: What are reparations? Reparations for what? And why is reparations still even being debated?
4. Repatriation - The student is here required to engage with the issue of repatriations by focusing on two important aspects: artefacts such as skulls (taken for scientific research and as museum exhibits) and archives (as in the case of the Mau Mau, to erase colonial injustices).
5. Neocolonization (Land Grab, and the Palestine question) and a critique of decolonization - This module takes up the issue of land grabbing as an instance of neocolonization along with the ongoing occupation of Palestine as the contemporary continuation of historical European colonialism. The module also seeks to problematise the concept of decolonization by focusing on its

limitaions and on its dark side.

 

 

Assessment Details with weights:

If the present circumstances continue and only online teaching and assessment are possible, then this course shall have three assignments, with first two having 30 weightage each and the third one having 40 weightage. Each of the assignments will be accompanied by a brief assignment based viva consisting of 5 to 8 questions.

If the situation changes and returns to normal, then first two assignments (30 weightage each), accompanied by viva, will be retained but the third assignment (having 40 weightage) will be replaced by an end semester exam (having 40 weightage) as was

the case in the pre-lockdown period.

 

 

Indicative reading list:

Primary Readings:

1. Duara, Prasenjit (ed.). Decolonization: Perspectives from Now and Then. Routledge, 2003. Introduction and the section “in their own words” which offers brief extracts from the writings of major anti-colonial leaders, Ho Chi Minh, Jawaharlal Nehru, Kwame Nkrumah etc.
2. Rothermund, Dietmar, The Routledge Companion to Decolonization, Routledge,

2006. Two chapters respectively titled, 'Chronology, Background,

Historiography', and

'From Colonialism to Neocolonialism?'.

3. Albert Memmi, Decolonization and the Decolonized. University Of Minnesota Press, 2006. “Solidarity of the Vanquished,” and “Headscarves and Metissage.”

 

Readings for each module:

First Module: Introduction: Decolonization and its history, and contemporary decolonization movements

1. See relevant chapters from Prasenjit Duara and Dietmar Rothermund books.

2. Andrew Crosby and Jeffrey Monaghan, “Settler Colonialism and the Policing of Idle No More”, in Social Justice, Vol 43, No. 2, 2016, pp. 37-57.
3. Todd Gitlin, ''Occupy's Predicament: the Moment and the prospects for the

Movement”, in The British Journal of Sociology, Vol 64, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 3-25.

4. Ian Glenn, “Rhodes Must Fall(#RMF) And Fees Must Fall(#FMF)”, in Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa, Vol 70, No. 1, 2016, pp. 83-94.

Second Module: Indigeneity

1. Adam Kuper, “The Return of the Native.” Current Anthropology Volume 44, Number 3, June 2003, AND the responses.
2. Patrick Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native.” Journal of Genocide Research (2006), 8(4), December, 387–409
3. Tomson Highway - The Rez Sisters: A Play.

 

 

Third Module: Reparations

1. Shashi Tharoor MP, “Britain Does Owe Reparations.” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7CW7S0zxv4]
2. Rajeev Bhargava, “How Should we Respond to the Cultural Injustices of Colonialism

?” in Jon Miller & Rahul Kumar (eds.), Reparations: Interdisciplinary Inquiries. Oxford University Press (2007).

3. Ta Nehesi Coates, “The case for reparations.” The Atlantic, June 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for- reparations/361631/

Fourth Module: Repatriation

1. George Steinmetz and Julia Hell , “The Visual Archive of Colonialism: Germany and Namibia,” Photo Essay. Public Culture, 18:1, 2006.
2. David M. Anderson, “Guilty Secrets: Deceit, Denial, and the Discovery of Kenya’s ‘Migrated Archive’” (2015) History Workshop Journal, Issue 80.

Fifth Module: Neocolonization: Land Grab, and the Palestine question