Democracy and Development in India (MDC Political Science)

Course Type	Course Code	No. Of Credits
Discipline Core	NSGA1MDC304	4

Course coordinator and team: Dr. Ekta Singh

Course Details:
1. Summary

India as one of the largest successful democracies in the world has been characterized by immense diversity and complexity with many religions, regions, castes, class and gender intersecting in myriad ways. Political contestations have played out not only in the realm of formal electoral politics, but also in multiple arenas of everyday life. The course engages with issues of empowerment, development, citizenship, and marginalization and how these are shaped around mobilisation and contestations of gender, caste, class, religion and region. The course thus seeks to understand the puzzle of Indian democracy and explain the numerous paradoxes and challenges underpinning Indian politics and society.

Objectives:

The overall objective of this course is to:

To provide students with a historically informed understanding of major factors and processes that have shaped and continue to shape Indian politics.

To help students appreciate the struggles and claims of different communities that impart peculiar flavor to Indian democracy.

To help students understand the contestations and paradoxes that characterize democracy and development in India.

Learning Outcomes: At the end of this course, students are expected

To have a historically informed understanding of the fraught relationship between democracy and development in the Indian context.

To be aware of major faultlines and flashpoints in the trajectory of Indian politics.

To have an understanding of India’s complex social fabric marked by caste, class, region, religion and other identity markers and their interface with politics.

Overall structure: This course is divided into five modules, and course delivery timeline is tabulated below:

Srl. No.	Name of the Module	Number of weeks
1.	The Enchantment of Democracy and Development Planning	2 weeks
2.	Deepening of Democracy, Crisis of Governability and Elite Revolts	3 weeks
3.	Citizenship Practices: Negotiations and Claim making	3 weeks
4.	Paradox of Development: Contestations and Contradictions	3 weeks
5.	Media, Mobilization and Public Sphere: Beyond Rhetoric	3 weeks

Essential Readings:

Khilnani, Sunil (1998). Idea of India [Chapter-1 Democracy]

Menon, Nikhil (2022). Planning Democracy: Modern India’s Quest for Development. New York: Cambridge University Press [Select Chapters].

Kaviraj, S., Sangari, K. (1995). ‘Democracy and Development in India’ in Bagchi, A.K. (eds) Democracy and Development. International Economic Association Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Stepan, Alfred, Juan Linz, Yogendra Yadav (2011). Crafting State-Nations: India and Other Multinational Democracies, John Hopkins University. [Ch-2 India as a State-Nation: Shared Political Community Amidst Deep Cultural Diversity]

Shani, Ornit (2017). How India Became Democratic: Citizenship and the Making of the Universal Franchise, Cambridge University Press [ Ch-1 Designing For Democracy, Ch-2 The Pursuit of Citizenship in the Making of Electoral Roll, Ch-3 The Roll as ‘Serialised Epic’ and the universalization of Universal Franchise].

The State and Development Planning in India, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.24, No.33. August 19, 1989.

Francine Frankel (2005). India’s Political Economy, 1947-2004: The Gradual Revolution, 2 nd Edition [Chap 3: Growth and Democratic Social Transformation: Multiple Goals of Economic Planning]

Ghosh, Jayati (1997). ‘Development Strategy in India: A Political Economy Perspective’ in Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal ed. Nationalism, Democracy and Development, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Bishnupriya Gupta. 2018. “Falling Behind and Catching Up: India’s Transition from a Colonial Economy.” Working paper, University of Warwick.

Shani, Ornit (2022). ‘India’s Democracy before the democratic discontent, 1940s-70s’, History Compass

Kaviraj, Sudipta (2012). The Enchantment of Democracy and India: Politics and Ideas, Ranikhet: Permanent Black.

Chakrabarty, Bidyut. ‘Jawaharlal Nehru and Planning, 1938–41: India at the Crossroads’. Modern Asian Studies 26, no. 2 (1992): 275–287.

Shani, Ornit (2021). ‘Women and the Vote: Registration, Representation and Participation in the Run-up to India’s First Elections, 1951-52’, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol.44, Issue 1.

Balasubramanian, Aditya (2021). ‘Contesting “Permit-And-License Raj”: Economic Conservatism and the Idea of Democracy in 1950s India’. Past & Present 251, no. 1, 189–227.

Mukhopadhyay, Apurba (2013). Post-Colonial democracy in India: Structures and Processes, Kolkata and New Delhi: Setu Prakashani.

Kothari, Rajni (1988). ‘Decline of the Modern State’ in State Against Democracy: In Search of Humane Governance, Delhi: Ajanta.

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

Kohli, Atul (1994). ‘Centralization and Powerlessness: India’s democracy in a Comparative Perspective’ in J. Midgal, A. Kohli and V. Shue (eds). State Power and Social Forces, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

F. Frankel, (2005) ‘Crisis of National Economic Planning’, in India’s Political Economy (1947-2004): The Gradual Revolution, Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 93-340.

Harriss, John and Stuart Corbridge (2000). Reinventing India: Liberalization, Hindu democracy and Popular Democracy, Contemporary Sociology, 31(3).

Yogendra Yadav, “Understanding the Second Democratic Upsurge: Trends of Bahujan Participation in Electoral Politics in the 1990s,” in Transforming India: Social and Political Dynamics of Democracy, ed. Francine R. Frankel et al. (New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press, 2000), 120–45.

Arora, Balveer (2006). ‘From Reluctant to Robust Federalism’ in Mary John, Praveen Jha and Surinder Jodhka ed. Contested Transformations: Changing Economies and Identities in Contemporary India, Tulika Books.

E. Sridharan (2012). Coalitions and Democratic Deepening in India in Coalition Politics and Democratic Consolidation in Asia, Oxford University Press.

Jaffrelot, Christopher (2013). India’s Silent Revolution: The Rise of Low Castes in North India, Delhi: Permanent Black

Alam, Javeed (2012). Who Wants democracy?, Orient Longman. [Elite Counter-reaction and the Turn to the Right]

James Manor, “Prologue: Caste in Indian Politics”, in Rajni Kothari, Caste in Indian Politics [Revised by James Manor], New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2010.

Christophe Jaffrelot, ‘The Rise of Other Backward Classes in the Hindi Belt’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 59-1, 2000, pp. 86-108.

Herring, Ronald J. (2013). ‘Class Politics in India: Euphemisation, Identity and Power’ in Atul Kohli, Prerna Singh ed. Routledge Handbook of Indian Politics

Fernandes, Leela (2006). India’s new Middle Class: Democratic Politics in the Era of Economic Reforms, University of Minnesota Press.

Rudolph Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph (2001). Iconisation of Chandrababu: Sharing Sovereignty in India’s federal Market Economy, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.36, 1541-52.

Krishna, Anirudha (2017). The Broken Ladder, Chapter 2, pp. 27-51

Maiorano, Diego (2021). Review Essay: The Politics of Claim Making in India, Pacific Affairs, Vol.94, No.3.

Jayal, Niraja Gopal (2013). Citizenship and Its Discontents: An Indian History, Harvard University Press.

Partha Chaterjee (2004). ‘Populations and Political Society’ in The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World, Columbia University Press, pp. 27- 52..

Chopra, Rohit (2013). Who is an Indian Citizen? https://caravanmagazine.in/reviews-essays/who-indian-citizen

Nilsen, A. G. (2018). ‘India’s Turn to Rights-Based Legislation (2004–2014): A Critical Review of the Literature’. Social Change, 48(4), 653-665.

Chopra, D. (2021). The resistance strikes back: women’s protest strategies against backlash in India. Gender & Development, 29(2–3), 467–491.

Kohli, Atul (2012). State and Redistributive Development in India in Nagaraj R. ed. Growth, Inequality and Social Development in India. Development Pathways to Poverty Reduction, Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Shani, Ornit (2010). Conceptions of citizenship in India and the ‘Muslim question’. Modern Asian Studies 44 (1): 145-73.

Bardhan, Pranab (2008). Democracy and Distributive Politics in India in Shapiro, I., Swenson, P. and Panayides, D. ed. Divide and Deal: The Politics of Distribution in Democracies. New York, USA: New York University Press

Hertel, Shareen. “Hungry for justice: Social mobilization on the right to food in India.” Development and Change 46, no. 1 (2015): 72-94.

Jenkins, R. and Manor, J. (2017). Politics and the Right to Work. Oxford University Press.

Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha. 1994. “Ecological Conflicts and the Environmental Movement in India.” Development and Change. 25: 101-136.

Hashmi, Fahad (2022). Citizenship, Religion and Politics of Belonging: A Case Study of Shaheen Bagh, South Asia Multidiciplinary Academic Journal.

Nayar Madhav (2020).The History of Student Protests in India https://thewire.in/politics/the-history-of-student-protests-in-india

Sinha, Soumodip (2022). ‘Politicization of Universities in a Postcolonial Context: A Historical Sketch of Student Political Activism in India’, South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal

Ghosh, Nandini (2022). Citizenship, Rights, and Persons with Disabilities in India

Jayal N. G. (2011). The transformation of citizenship in India in the 1990s and beyond (pp. 141–156). In Ruparelia S., Reddy S., Harriss J., & Corbridge S. (Eds), Understanding India’s new political economy: A great transformation? Routledge.

Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (2003). The Burden of Democracy, Penguin Books.

Nayak, Pulin (2012). Economic Development and Social Exclusion in India, Critical Quest Series.

B. D. Sharma (2010). Unbroken History of Broken promises: Indian State and the Tribal People, (Chapter 1), Freedom Press and Sahyog Pustak Kuteer, New Delhi.

Prakash, Aseem (2018). ‘Dalit Capital and Markets: A Case of Unfavourable Inclusion’, Journal of Social Inclusion Studies, Vol. 4, Issue 1.

Nielsen, Kenneth & Nilsen, Alf. (2022). ‘India’s Evolving Neoliberal Regime of Dispossession: From the Anti-SEZ Movement to the Farm Law Protests’. Sociological Bulletin.

Kohli, Atul (1990). Democracy and Discontent. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Datta, Anjali Bhardwaj, Uditi Sen, and Mytheli Sreenivas, eds. (2021). ‘A Country of Her Making: Women’s Negotiations of Society and Politics in Post-Colonial India’. Special Section in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 44, no. 2: 218–397

Dreze, Jean and Amartya Sen. 2013. An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Behl, Natasha (2022). ‘India’s Farmers Protest: An Inclusive Vision of Indian democracy’, American Political Science Review, Vol.116, Issue 3.

Nathan, D. and V. Xaxa eds (2012). Social Exclusion and Adverse Inclusion: Development and Deprivation of Adivasis in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Krishna, Aniruddha (2017). The Broken Ladder: The Paradox and Potential of India’s One Billion, Penguin.

Chandhoke, Neera (2016). Democracy and Revolutionaty Politics, Bloomsbury Academic.

Tillin, Louise (2013). Remapping India: New States and Their Political Origins, London: Hurst [Chapter 3 ‘Social Movements, Political Parties and Statehood: Jharkhand and Uttarakhand].

Krishna, Anirudh. 2002. Active social capital: Tracing the roots of development and democracy. Columbia University Press.

Brass, Paul. (2003). The production of Hindu-Muslim violence in contemporary India. University of Washington Press, [Chapter 1 Introduction: Explaining communal violence].

Shah, Alpa. 2010. In the shadows of the state: Indigenous politics, environmentalism, and insurgency in Jharkhand, India. Duke University Press. Chapters 1 and 3

Nilsen, Alf Gunvald. (2012). ‘Adivasis in and against the state: Subaltern politics and state power in contemporary India’. Critical Asian Studies 44 (2): 251-82.

Sahoo, Sarbeswar. 2013. ‘Doing development or creating dependency? NGOs and civil society in India’. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 36 (2): 258-72.

Saad Filho, A. (2011). ‘Growth, poverty and inequality: policies and debates from the (post-) Washington Consensus to inclusive growth’. Indian Journal of Human Development, 5(2): 321–344

Sharma, Aradhana (2008). Logics of Empowerment: Development, Gender and Governance in Neoliberal India, University of Minnesota Press.

Shah, Alpa and Jen Lerche (2018). ‘Tribe, Caste and Class – New Mechanisms of Exploitation and Oppression’ in Ground Down by Growth: Tribe, Caste, Class and Inequality in 21^st Century India, Pluto Press.

Morris-Jones, W. H. (1963). “India’s Political Idioms”. in C. H. Philips ed. Politics and Society in India. Allen and Unwin, pp. 133–154.

Yatindra Singh Sisodia and Pratip Chattopadhyay (2023) ed. Political Communication in Contemporary India: Locating Democracy and Governance, Routledge. [Ch-6 Rhetoric in democracy: Inventing and Reinventing Language for Democracy Politics and Ch-7 Personalization of Politics: Shifting Paradigm of Democracy in Digital Age]

Chatterjee, Partha (2020). I am the People: Reflections on Popular Sovereignty Today, Ranikhet: Permanent Black [Chapter 3: “I am the People”]

Saeed, Saima (2013) Screening the Public Sphere: Media and Democracy in India, New Delhi: Routledge.

Mustafa, Seema (2013). ‘The role of Media in Contemporary Indian Politics’ in Ajay Mehra ed. Emerging Trends in Indian Politics: The 15^th General Election, Routledge.

Neyazi, Taberez Ahmed (2018). Political Communication and Mobilisation: The Hindi media in India. Cambridge University Press.

Farhat Basir Khan (2019). The Game of Votes: Visual Media Politics and Elections in the Digital Era, New Delhi: SAGE Publications.

Ravish Kumar (2018). The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation, New Delhi: Speaking Tiger. [Chap I: 1-31]

Martelli Jean Thomas and Christopher Jafferlot (2023). ‘Do Populist Leaders Mimic the Language of Ordinary Citizens? Evidence from India’, Political Psychology, Vol.44, Issue 5.

Bajpai, Anandita (2018). Speaking the Nation: The Oratorical Making of Secular, Neoliberal India, Oxford University Press.

Gudavarty, Ajay (2018). India After Modi: Populism and the Right, Bloomsbury.

Gudavarty, Ajay (2023). Politics, Ethics, and Emotions in ‘New India’, Routledge.

Muralidharan, Sukumar (2022). ‘Free speech, democracy and ‘hidden persuaders’: segregation in the public sphere’ in Peter Ronald deSouza et al. ed. Companion to Indian Democracy, Routledge.

Lama, Stephanie Tawa (2023). AAP, Apps and WhatsApp: What Digitalization does to (and says about) Participatory Governance in Delhi, South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal.

Sinha, Subir. (2017). “Fragile Hegemony: Modi, Social Media, and Competitive Electoral Populism in India.” International Journal of Communication (11):4158–80.

Tawa Lama-Rewal, Stéphanie. (2020). “It’s Effective Because It’s Affective: The Dynamics and Significance of Emotions in a Delhi Jan Sunwai.” in Emotions, Mobilisations and South Asian Politics, edited by A. Blom and S. Tawa Lama-Rewal. Delhi: Routledge India.

Pedagogy:

Instructional design: Classroom teaching.
Special needs (facilities, requirements in terms of software, studio, lab, clinic, library, classroom/others instructional space; any other – please specify): Not required.
Expertise in AUD faculty or outside: This course will be offered by AUD faculty.
Linkages with external agencies (e.g., with field-based organizations, hospital; any others): Not required.

Assessment structure (modes and frequency of assessments): There will be two assessments of 50% each.