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Timestamp: 2019-04-24 15:01:36+00:00

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Course Requirements: Classroom presentations and a short assignment for each module.
This course is intended to explore some of the ways in which we might theorise the connections between democracy and culture in contemporary India. It will also serve as an introduction to the kind of inter-disciplinary research being done at CSCS. The first module will look at the issues surrounding our understanding of the colonial past, of the nationalist struggle, and the present-day critiques of those earlier historical-political moments. Module Two presents some of the key formulations that have emerged in cultural studies in India, focussing in particular on the attempts to conceptualise popular cultural practices. The third module of the course addresses public space. It will explore the translation of concepts of public access, the right to access and the terms of access, into geographic and later narrative definition. The three sessions address three moments in the history of abstract space: cinema space, video space and cyber space. Module Four looks at questions of linguistic nationalism. It will also explore how a specific form of regionalism gets articulated as linguistic identity. The fifth module looks at contemporary discourses of rights and analyses their implication in questions of culture; we will also discuss the debates around multiculturalism and their possible relevance for the Indian context.
Session II: Nationalism and its Politics. Partha Chatterjee, "The Thematic and the Problematic" Rajni Kothari, "Rise of the Dalits and the Renewed Debate on Caste", Ashis Nandy, "The Twilight of Certitudes: Secularism, Hindu Nationalism and other Masks of Deculturation"
Session III: Colonialism and the Present. Tejaswini Niranjana, "Left to the Imagination: Indian Nationalisms and Female Sexuality in Trinidad" (ms. Version), Paul Gilroy, "The Black Atlantic as a Counter-Culture of Modernity", Partha Chatterjee, "Beyond the Nation? Or Within?"
Session I: Interpretation and Resistance. Guha, Ranajit, "Prose of Counter-insurgency" and Elementary aspects of peasant insurgency (selections), Amin, Shahid. 1984. "Gandhi as Mahatma: Gorakhpur District, Eastern U.P., 1921-22", Todd Gitlin, "The Anti-Political Populism of Cultural Studies"
Session II: Ideology and Culture. Madan Gopal Singh, "Technique as Ideology". Ashish Rajadhyaksha, "Beaming Messages to the Nation", Sudipta Kaviraj, "Capitalism and the Cultural Process". M. Madhava Prasad, "Cinema and the Desire for Modernity".
Session III: Culture as field of the Political. Vivek Dhareshwar, "Caste and the Secular Self". Ashish Rajadhyaksha, "Epic Melodrama". Tejaswini Niranjana, "Nationalism Refigured : Contemporary South Indian Cinema and the Subject of Feminism".
Frederic Jameson. 'Video', from Postmodernism, Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.
Ashish Rajadhyaksha, 'Video, Art, Medeamaterial'.
Screening: Shilpa Gupta's websites, Cyber games.
Session II: Nair, Janaki.1996, "Memories of Underdevelopment" EPW Vol.XXXI (41&42) 2809-2816. Niranjana, Tejaswini, P. Sudhir and Vivek Dhareshwar eds.,1993. Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India. Seagull: Calcutta. Rao, Raghavendra. 2000. Imagining Unimaginable Communities Hampi: Kannada University.
Session III: Rubinoff 1998, The Construction of a Political Community New Delhi: Sage. Saberwal, Satish.1971. "Regions and their Social Structures" Contributions to Indian Sociology. No, V December. Pp 82-98. Soja, Edward 1993. The Postmodern Geography, the Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. London: Verso. Vyasulu, Vinod. 1997. Facets of Development: Studies in Karnataka. Jaipur: Rawat Publications Karnataka.
American Anthropological Association's statements on human rights (1947 & 1999) & Talal Asad, "Anthropology and human rights" Tagore, "Civilization and Progress" and "Nationalism", Gandhi, "Duties and Rights", Macau Mutua, "The Metaphor of Human Rights"
This course aims at exploring the interplay between culture and Law-Rights in such a way that certain interdisciplinary concerns in the research and teaching of law in general, and legal theories and philosophies in particular in regular law schools and departments, are addressed. The course however does not have a clear hypothesis. It is exploratory in nature and addresses four themes, which I believe are important, and could potentially not only illuminate our understanding on them but also redefine legal pedagogic engagement. The first theme explores into the histories and philosophies of "path-making" in modern law with the help of a set of critical texts with a view to critically reflect on the question of 'normativity'. Similarly the second theme will address what is by now a well-explored theme in cultural studies, viz., "cultural translations and the problem of intelligibility". I hope the readings chosen for the them adequately represent the complexity of the issue and also help us grapple with the core concerns. The third theme broadly looks at the contributions of anthropologists to the understanding of custom and law, including the negotiations of rules and laws outside the realm of state. The fourth theme attempts at addressing some of the keenly contested contemporary concerns in law and society studies such as the imaginations of "secularism" and identity politics.
1. Austin Sarat and Thomas Kearns, eds. Law in the Domains of Culture , chs. 1 and 2. 2. Robin West, "Disciplines, Subjectivity and Law" in Austin Sarat and Thomas Kearns, eds, The Fate of Law.
1. Lon L. Fuller, "The case of the Speluncean Explorers". 2. Samuel Thompson, "The Authority of Law". 3. Henry Maine, The Ancient Law 4. Bentham, Selections from Theory of Legislation. 5. Peter Fitzpatrick, Modernism and Grounds of Law.
1. Bernard Cohn, "From Indian Status to British Contract". 2. Eric Stokes, The English Utilitarians and India. Ch. III. 3. Sanjay Nigam, "Disciplining and Policing the 'Criminals by Birth'". 4. Ronen Shamir and Daphna Hacker, "Colonialism's Civilising Mission: The Case of the Indian Hemp Drug Commission".
1. A.K. Ramanujan, "Is there an Indian way of Thinking?" 2. Ashis Nandy, "History's Forgotten Doubles". 3. James C. Scott, "Geographies of Trust...", 4. Partha Chatterjee, "Community in the east" 5. Comaroff, "Colonialism, law..."
Readings: 1. Sally Engle Merry, "Resistance and Cultural Power of Law. 2. Alan Hunt, "The Role of Law in the Civilizing Process and the Reform of Popular Culture". 3. R.S. Khare, "Indigenous Culture and Lawyer's Law in India". 4. Robert Porter, "Strengthening Tribal Sovereignty through Peacemaking: How the Anglo-American Legal Tradition Destroys Indigenous Societies".
Readings: 1. Satyamurthy, Rights of Citizens 2. Sudhir Chandra, Enslaved Daughters. 3. Upendra Baxi, Future of Human Rights, ch. 3. 4. Satish Sabharwal, in Satish Sabharwal and Hieko Seivers eds., Laws, Rules and Constitutions. 5. Sumit Guha, in Satish Sabharwal and Hieko Seivers eds., Laws, Rules and Constitutions.
Readings: 1. Sally Falk Moore, "Certainties Undone: Fifty Turbulent Years of Legal Anthropology, 1949-1999". 2. Clifford Geertz, "Local Knowledge: Fact and Law in Comparative Perspective".
Readings: 5. A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Structure and Function of Primitive Society, chs. XI and XII. 6. A.I. Pershits, "The Primitive Norm and Its Evolution". 7. Carol Greenhouse, "Looking at Culture, Looking for Rules". 8. Bernard Cohn, "Anthropological Notes on Disputes and Law in India". 9. Donald R. Davis, Jr. "Recovering the Indigenous Legal Traditions of India". 10. Sumit Guha, "Wrongs and Rights in the Maratha Country: Antiquity, Custom and Power in Eighteenth Century India".
Readings: 1. Anna-Maria Marshall and Scott Barclay, "In Their Own Words: How Ordinary People Construct the Legal World". 2. Marc Galanter, Law and Society in Modern India, Part II. 3. Sarah Leah Whitson, "Lok Adalats: An Experiment in Informal Dispute Resolution in India".
Session Eleven: Am happy to go with any text you might find useful but my suggestions would be Nandy, Bhargava and Donald Smith.
(i) Everson v. Board Of Education Of Ewing 330 US 1 (1947). (ii) Wisconsin v. Yoder 32 L.Ed.2d 15. (iii). Constituent Assembly debates. (iv) Text of Indian constitution Arts. 25-28. (v) The Commissioner Hindu Religious Endowments, Madras v. Sri Laxmindra Thirtha Swamiar of Shirur Mut AIR 1954 SC 282. (vi) S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994) 3 SCC 1. (vii)Sastri Yagnapurushadji And Others v. Muldas Bhudardas Vaishya AIR 1966 SC 1119. (viii) Ramesh Yashwant Prabhoo (Dr.) v. Prabhakar K. Kunte, (1996) 1 SCC 130. (ix) State of Karnataka v. Praveen Togadia 2004 (4) SCC (May 14th). Session Fourteen: Concluding Reflections Readings: 1. Guyora Binder and Weisberg, "Cultural Criticism of Law".
Readings: 1. Guyora Binder and Weisberg, "Cultural Criticism of Law".
1. Critique of the enlightenment I. Kant, 'An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment', pp 17-22, from Practical Philosophy, M. Horkheimer and T. Adorno, 'The Concept of Enlightenment', pp 3-43, Dialectic of Enlightenment. M. Foucault, 'What is Enlightenment?' pp 32-50, The Foucault Reader. Ashis Nandy, 'Science as a Reason of State', pp 1-23, Nandy ed. Science, Hegemony and Violence.
2. The Group S. Kracauer, 'The Group as Bearer of Ideas', pp 143-170, from The Mass Ornament. Also from The Mass Ornament: 'The Hotel Lobby', 'The Little Shopgirls Go to the Movies' and 'Cult of Distraction' for classroom presentation. E. Fromm, 'Freedom: A Psychological Problem?' and 'The Emergence of the Individual and the Ambiguity of Freedom', pp 1-32, from The Fear of Freedom.
3. The Group S. Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. (From Civilization, Society and Religion, v 12, The Pelican Freud Library, pp 93-178) Classroom presentation: S. Freud, 'Civilisation and its Discontents'. (From Civilization, Society and Religion, v 12, The Pelican Freud Library, pp 245-340), H. Marcuse, 'The Dialectic of Civilization', pp 71-95, from Eros and Civilisation: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud.
4. Culture Industry T. Adorno/M. Horkheimer, 'The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception' pp 120-167, Dialectic of Enlightenment. T. Adorno, 'Culture Industry Reconsidered', pp 85-92, The Culture Industry. T. Adorno, 'Anti-Semitism and Fascist Propaganda', pp 218-231, from The Stars Down to Earth. T. Adorno, 'Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda', pp 114-135, from The Culture Industry.
5. Consumption and mobilization - I Ashis Nandy, "Indian Popular Cinema as a Slum's Eye View of Politics." In Ashis Nandy (ed), The Secret Politics of Our Desires: Innocence, Culpability and Indian Popular Cinema. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998. Ashis Nandy, "An Intelligent Critic's Guide to Indian Cinema." In Ashish Nandy, The Savage Freud and other essays and possible and retrievable selves. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995 K. Sivathamby, Tamil Film as a Medium of Political Communication. South Asia spl issue, 'Aspects of the Public in Colonial South Asia.' Robert Hardgrave Jr. and Anthony Niedhart. 1975. 'Film and Political Consciousness in Tamil Nadu.' Economic and Political Weekly. 10:1/2 (January). pp. 27-35. Classroom Presentation: M.S.S. Pandian, 1992. The Image Trap: M.G. Ramachandran in the Film and Politics. Delhi: Newbury Park, London: Sage.
6. The city Walter Benjamin, 'Paris: Capital of the Nineteenth Century', from The Arcades Project, pp 3-26. Susan Buck-Morss, 'Dream World of Mass Culture' (pp 253-286) from The Dialectics of Seeing. Fredric Jameson, Signatures of the Visible. New York, London; Routledge (Chapter I, "Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture").
7. Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Walter Benjamin, 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction', pp 219-253, from Illuminations. T. Adorno, on Benjamin's essay, letter to Benjamin, pp 120-126, Aesthetics and Politics. Classroom Presentation: W. Benjamin, 'The Author as Producer', from Understanding Brecht. Gulam mohammed Sheikh, 'Mobile Vision, Some Synoptic Comments', Journal of Arts and Ideas, No. 5. Ashish Rajadhyaksha, 'The Phalke Era: Contradictions of Traditional form and Modern Technology', Tejaswini Niranjana et. al. (eds), Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India, pp. 47-82.
8. Mass to public J. Habermas, 'The Bourgeois Public Sphere: Idea and Ideology' (pp 89-140) and 'The Social-Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere' (pp 141-180), from The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere.
9. Proletarian Public sphere Negt and Kluge, 'The Public Sphere as Organisation of Collective Experience', 'On The Dialectic between the Bourgeois and Proletarian Public Sphere', pp 54-95, from Public Sphere and Experience: Towards an Analysis of the Bourgeois And Proletarian Public Sphere.
10. Public sphere at large - I Miriam Hansen, 'Foreword', Negt and Kluge, Public Sphere and Experience, pp 1-53. Nancy Fraser, 'Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution of Actually Existing Democracy.' M.S.S. Pandian, 'Beyond Colonial Crumbs: Cambridge School, Identity Politics and Dravidian Movement(s).' Economic and Political Weekly (February 18-25, 1995). pp. 385-391. M.S.S. Pandian, 'Tamil Cultural Elites and Cinema: Outline of an Argument.' Economic and Political Weekly 31:15 (April 13-20, 1996). pp. 950-955. Ravi Vasudevan, 'Reflections on the Cinematic Public, 1913-1943.' Paper presented at Study Week on 'Making Meaning in Indian Cinema' (26-29 October 1995). Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.
This course will seek to take a closer look at many of the debates on culture starting from the nineteenth century and investigate the relationship between the idea of social reform, and contemporary notions of culture and gender. Why have social reformers always invoked culture while attempting social transformation? What are the conceptual presuppositions of the discourse of reform that get articulated as cultural and gender questions? By keeping the 'women's question' as a common factor, the course will analyse various debates around culture and reform, not just in the nineteenth century social reform movement but also in our contemporary society.
Introduction: Okin, "Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?", Azizah Y al-Habiri, "Is Western Patriarchal Feminism Good for Third World/Minority Women?"
Amiya P.Sen, ed. Social and Religious Reform: The Hindus of British India, pp. 3-46. Rajaram Mohan Roy, Bentinck Lata Mani, "Contentious Traditions"
Missionary documents/Early Women's Writing on Hygiene, Superstition, 'Education' (to be provided) Excerpts from Katherine Mayo, Selections from Mother India and Muthulakshmi's response to Mayo.
Catherine A. MacKinnon. Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1989, Nivedita Menon, "Embodying the Self: Feminism, Sexual Violence and the Law"
Flavia Agnes: "Political Reformation of Christian Personal Law" and "Strategies of Reform", Law and Gender Inequity Reforming Communities and Feminism's Dilemma.
Justice Chandrachud's Judgement in the Shah Bano Case, Martha Nussbaum, "The Role of Religion".
Kalpana Ram, "Rationalism, Cultural Nationalism and the Reform of the Body Politics: Minority Intellectuals of the Tamil Catholic Community", in Social Reform, Sexuality and the State, ed. Patricia Uberoi, Sage, 1996, pp. 291- 318. Gabriela Dietrich, "Women and Religious Identities in India after Ayodhya" in Against All Odds: Essays on Women, Religion and Development from India and Pakistan, ed. Kamla Bhasin, Ritu Menon and Nighat Said, pp.35-50. Susie Tharu and Tejaswini Niranjana, "Problems for a Contemporary Theory of Gender"
Tejaswini Niranjana, " Feminism and Translation in India,: Contexts, Politics, Futures" Cultural Dynamics, Vol 10, Number 2 (July 1998): 133-146, Saba Mahmood, "Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival", Akeel Bilgrami, "What is a Muslim?"
This seminar will focus on research writing in social sciences-humanities contexts. Although there are no prescribed readings for the course, short readings and handouts will be provided from time to time. In this course, students will be expected to produce three pieces of writing: (a) a research journal (b) a literature review, and (c) the draft of a research proposal. In addition, each student will choose a topic to research for the CSCS Media Archive, and put together a mini-database of resources for inclusion in the electronic archive. In the introductory sessions, we will explore aspects of academic writing such as structuring an argument, structuring paragraphs and sentences, finding and constructing thesis statements, etc. Additionally, we will devote some sessions to methodological issues, with reference to the work of faculty and research scholars at the Centre. Students will learn to demarcate the context of research, identify a specific research problem, and formulate the methodology to be employed in their thesis. They will acquire these skills through a series of writing tasks assigned by the instructor.
Session I: Introduction. Exercises: Rewriting sentences; compare and contrast.
Session II: Discussion on methodology: examples from anthropology, history and literary studies. Issues of interdisciplinarity.
Session III: Topic Sentences and Thesis Statements. Sources and Bibliographies.
Session VIII: Quantitative and qualitative research.
Session X: Compiling a bibliography. Demarcating the field of research.
Session XI: Writing the research proposal.
Session XII: Discussion of Proposal 1.
Session XIII: Proposals 2 and 3.
Session XIV: Proposals 4 and 5.
The course will be in the form of discussion of some texts in terms of the following two questions: 1. How to conceive the relationship between education, socialization and self-formation (or 'personality development')? 2. How should the notion of 'intellectual virtues' be conceived and how to understand its distinctiveness and relation to moral virtues?
2. Amy Gutman, 1987, Democratic Education, Princeton University Press.
3. Louis Menand (Ed.), 1996, The Future of Academic Freedom, The University of Chicago Press.
4. Theodore Ziolkowski, 1990, German Romanticism and its Institutions, Princeton University Press.
5. Frank M. Turner (Ed.), 1996, John Henry Newmans 'The Idea of a University', Yale University Press.
6. Richard Rorty, 1999, Philosophy and Social Hope, Penguin Books.

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