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State, Nation, Citizenship and Law (SNCL)

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Course Type Course Code No. Of Credits
Foundation Core SHS202808 2

Semester and Year Offered: 2nd Semester

Course Coordinator and Team: TBD

Email of course coordinator: TBD

Pre-requisites: Any Post Graduate student

Course Objectives/Description:

This course aims to unpack the gendered nature of some of the key concepts (State, Nation, Citizenship and Law) that are central to politics and impinges upon almost all aspects of life in contemporary times. In order to unsettle the established conventions about the nature of the ‘political’ the course will employ the insights of feminist theory. The course seeks to demonstrate how the conventional terms of reference for debating these concepts has been significantly transformed by a feminist critique. It is in this context that this course also seeks to examine some of the complexities of gender questions beyond the simple binary of masculinity and femininity.

The course will also examine the nature of feminist debates in India on the State, nation, citizenship and law by raising some important questions:

What does the discussion on the Indian State look like from feminist perspectives? How does the debate on the Indian nation and questions of nationalism appear in this context? What is the nature of Indian citizenship when evaluated from a feminist perspective and last but not the least what has been the nature of feminist engagement with law in India?

Course Outcomes:

On successful completion of this course students will be able to:

  1. Identify key aspects of the dimensions of the State & State-apparatus.
  2. Demonstrate awareness of key texts and topics related to the State, the Nation, Citizenship and Law.
  3. Trained to use specific research tools for specific State-related topics of interest.
  4. Demonstrate a knowledge of skills required to read a range of perspectives of the State and the Nation.
  5. Apply innovative skills to source materials on contemporary readings of the Law and Citizenship.

Main modules:

Module 1

Understanding the State

Module 2

Understanding the Nation

Module 3

Understanding Citizenship

Module 4

Understanding Law

Assessment Details with weights:

  • Assessment 1: 40%
  • Assessment 2: 40%
  • Class participation and attendance: 20%

Reading List:

  • Johanna Kantola- Feminists Theorize the State. Palgrave. 2006. Chapters 1 and 2.
  • Catherine A. MacKinnon- Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Harvard University Press. 1989. Chapter 3 pages 155- 170.
  • Veronique Mottier- Feminism and Gender Theory: The Return of the State in Political Theory edited by Gerald F. Gaus and Chandran Kukathas. Sage, 2004.
  • Nirmala Banerjee- Whatever Happened to the Dreams of Modernity-The Nehruvian Era and Woman s Position. Vol. 33, Issue No. 17, 25 Apr, 1998. Economic and Political Weekly
  • Nivedita Menon and Aditya Nigam- Power and Contestation. Orient Longman. 2007. Chapters 3 and 4.
  • Jyoti Puri- Sexual States. Orient Blackswan. 2016. Chapters 1, 5 and 6: Governing Sexuality, Constituting States ( chapter 1), Pivoting toward the State Phase One of the struggle against Section 377 ( chapter 5), State vs. Sexuality ( chapter 6)
  • Nira Yuval-Davis- 2003 (PDF available) Nationalist Projects and Gender (Nar. umjet. 40/1, 2003, pp. 9-36, N. Yuval-Davis, Nationalist Projects and Gender)...
  • Suruchi Thapar –Bjorkert- Gender, Nations and Nationalism from The Oxford Handbook of Politics and Gender. 2013.
  • Kumari Jayawardena-Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. Kali for Women. 1986. Introduction.
  • Mrinalini Sinha- Gendered Nationalism: from women to gender and back again? (Routledge Handbook of Gender in South Asia) edited by Leela Fernandes. 2014.
  • Judith Squires – Gender in Political Theory. Polity Press. 2008. Chapter 6- Citizenship.
  • Birte Siim- Citizenship from The Oxford Handbook of Politics and Gender. 2013.
  • Niraja Gopal Jayal- Citizenship and its Discontents. Permanent Black. 2013. Chapter 2.
  • Anupama Roy- Gendered Citizenship. Orient Longman. 2005. Chapters five and six.
  • Naila Kabeer (edited) - Inclusive Citizenship. Zubaan. 2005. Chapter 1.
  • Judith A. Baer- Feminist Theory and The Law from Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics. 2008
  • Catherine A. MacKinnon- Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Harvard University Press. 1989. Chapter 13 Feminist Jurisprudence.
  • Nivedita Menon- Recovering Subversion. Permanent Black. 2004. pages 17-21, 54-59, 204-208
  • Because I Have a Voice- edited Arvind Narrain and Gautam Bhan. Yoda. 2012. Chapter 2 -Challenging the Limits of Law
  • Jyoti Puri- Sexual States. Orient Blackswan. 2016. Part 2, Chapters 3 and 4- Sexual lives of Juridical Governance
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