Political Theory as Practice

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

Course Details:

Summary The course has been designed to introduce students to ‘ideas’ that have informed politics and institutions of governance - the different conceptions and justifications for political practices. The course is aspirational in trying to break away from the conventional model of understanding political theory - in a western political theory mould or critiquing the same through western-non- western binaries. The course seeks a departure from by not only introducing students to different ‘perspectives of political theory’ that have been used to frame and understand politics but also laying emphasis on the need to see political theory itself as developing from varied contexts. The idea is to allow students to not just study theories and apply in different contexts but to appreciate theorization itself as a ‘process’ emerging from varied contexts as argued by Prathama Banerjee and Maitreyee Chowdhury. The effort is to help students appreciate the ‘meaning’ that has been ascribed to concepts and practices in different contexts while introducing them to western political theory. This is attempted by not only emphasizing the need to bridge the gap between theory and practice in our articulation of political theory but understanding ‘political theory as practice’. In doing so, the course makes a case for an ‘emic political theory’ by exposing students to literature (including ethnographic) that incorporates different ways in which concepts and values have been and are understood across cultures.

Objectives:

The objectives of this course are:

To enable students to see political theory as practice-oriented and not rooted in abstraction.

To reinvigorate the ‘political’ within political theory emphasizing the political nature of political theory.

To enable students to see the world from different vantage points and their intersections.

Expected Learning Outcomes

After completing this course the students will be able to:

To appreciate ‘political theory as practice’ as reflected in different historical contexts
Engage with the major debates around key political theory concepts by grounding them in different contexts .
To appreciate the role and relevance of perspective building in understanding politics and to help students develop one.

Overall structure:

This course is organized around four units.

Unit	Topic	Duration (Weeks)
1.	Political Theory as Practice	3
2.	Key Concepts: Liberty, Equality, Rights	3
3.	Law, State, and Justice	3
4.	Democracy as an Ethical Ideal	3

Core Readings:

Bhargava, R. (2008) ‘What is Political Theory’, ‘Why do we need Political Theory’ in Bhargava, R. and Acharya, A. (eds), Political Theory: An Introduction. New Delhi: Pearson Longman, pp. 2-16.
Chaudhuri, Maitrayee and Manish Thakur (2019). ‘Introduction’ in Doing Theory: Locations, Hierarchies, and Disjunctures, Orient Blackswan.
Banerjee, Prathama (2020). ‘Introduction’ in Elementary Aspects of the Political- Histories from the Global South, Duke University Press.
Bhargava, R. (2008). ‘Introduction: Outline of a political theory of the Indian Constitution’. In R. Bhargava (Ed.),Politics and ethics of the Indian Constitution. Oxford University Press.
Banerjee, Supurna and Nandini Ghosh (2018). Introduction. Debating Intersectionalities: Challenges for a Methodological Framework, South Asian Multidisciplinary Academic Journal [Online] https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/4745 (Accessed on 04-06-2023)
Mahajan, Gurpreet (2013). ‘Indian Political Theory: beyond cultural essentialism’ in India-Political Ideas and the Making of a Democratic Discourse (Zed Books: London and New York).
Herzog, Lisa and Bernardo Zacka. (2017). ‘Fieldwork in Political Theory: Five Arguments for an Ethnographic Sensibility’. British Journal of Political Science, 49(2): 763-784. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of- politicalscience/article/fieldwork-inpolitical-theory-five-arguments-for-an-ethnographic sensibility

V. Sriranjani (2008) ‘Liberty’ in Bhargava, R. and Acharya, A. (eds), Political Theory: An Introduction. New Delhi: Pearson Longman.
Acharya, Ashok (2008). ‘Equality’ in Bhargava, R. and Acharya, A. (eds), Political Theory: An Introduction. New Delhi: Pearson Longman.
Sengupta, Papia (2008). ‘Rights’ in Bhargava, R. and Acharya, A. (eds), Political Theory: An Introduction. New Delhi: Pearson Longman.
Mahajan, Gurpreet (2013). ‘Liberty’ and ‘Equality’ in Political Ideas and the Making of a Democratic Discourse, Zed Books.
Chandhoke, Neera (2005). ‘Individual and Group Rights: A View from India’ in Zoya Hasan, E. Sridharan, R. Sudarshan ed. India’s Living Constitution: Ideas, Practices, Controversies, Delhi: Permanent Black.
Begari Jagannatham ed. (2022). ‘Ambedkar’s debate on equality and liberty: Fraternity as Political Normative’ in B. R. Ambedkar and Social Transformation, Routledge.
Ambedkar’s final speech in the Constituent Assembly, dated November 25, 1949.
Basu, Srimati (1999). She Comes to Take Her Rights: Indian Women, Property, Propriety, SUNY Press.
Rudolph, Lloyd (2010). An Ethnography of Associational Life: Caste and Politics in India APSA 2010 Annual Meeting Paper, Available at: SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1644339
Katherine Smits (2016). Applying Political Theory, Palgrave Macmillan. [Select Chapters]

Menon, Krishna (2008). ‘Justice’ in Bhargava, R. and Acharya, A. (eds), Political Theory: An Introduction. New Delhi: Pearson Longman
Rodrigues, Valerian (2011). ‘Justice as the Lens: Interrogating Rawls through Sen and Ambedkar’, Indian Journal of Human Development, Vol.5, No.1, Sage.
Stephen Perry (2013). “Political Authority and Political Obligation,” in Leslie Green and Brian Leiter (eds.), Oxford Studies in the Philosophy of Law, vol. II. (OUP)
Anna Stilz (2013). “Why Does the State Matter Morally? Political Obligation and Particularity,” in Sigal R. Ben-Porath & Roger M. Smith (eds.), Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship (Philadelphia, Pa.: U. Penn, 2013),
Kulkarni, Mangesh (2013). ‘Law, Rights, and the Indian State’ in Vanaik Achin ed. ICSSR Research Surveys and Explorations: Political Science Vol. 1 (OUP).
Palshikar, Suhas (2008) “The Indian State: Constitution and Beyond” in Rajeev Bhargava ed. Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution, Oxford University Press.
Candice Delmas (2014). “Political resistance: A matter of fairness,” Law and Philosophy 33:4 , 465-488.
Srinivasan, Janaki (2008) ‘Democracy’ in Bhargava, R. and Acharya, A. (eds), Political Theory: An Introduction. New Delhi: Pearson Longman
Guha, Ramachandra (2013). ‘Democracy and Violence in India and Beyond’, Economic and Political Weekly,Vol.48, No.14.
Begari Jagannatham ed. (2022). ‘Ambedkar’s Democracy and State Socialism’ in B. R. Ambedkar and Social Transformation, Routledge.
Dara, Krishna Swami (2013). ‘Demystifying Democracy in the Dalit-Bahujan, Adivasi, and Feminist Discourses in Vanaik Achin ed. ICSSR Research Surveys and Explorations: Political Science Vol. 3 (OUP).

Pedagogy:

1. 1. Instructional design

The course will be a combination of lectures and tutorials.

1. 1. Special needs (facilities, requirements in terms of software, studio, lab, clinic, library, classroom/others instructional space; any other – please specify)

Basic infrastructure for power point

1. 1. Expertise in AUD faculty or outside : The faculty within AUD has the requisite expertise to transact the course.
1. 1. Linkages with external agencies (e.g., with field-based organizations, hospital; any others)

Assessment structure (modes and frequency of assessments)

The course will have two types of assessments:

The first assessment based on case studies will have an overall weightage of (50%) with two components-
1. a written assignment (30%) and
2. Individual presentation (20%)
The final assessment (50%) will consist of a in-class summative examination with descriptive analytical type questions