\n\tSN2261: The Emergence of Contemporary South Asia
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\n\tSummer 2015
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\n\tClass Meetings, Seminar Room 2, ERC
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\n\tDr Sinderpal Singh (isassss@nus.edu.sg)
\n\tMon, Tue and Fri: 10 am-1 pm
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\n\tCourse Outline: The course begins with a brief exploration of the social, economic and political conditions of South Asia from about the middle of the nineteenth century — beginning with the Great Uprising of 1857 or the ‘Sepoy Mutiny’, as it was called by the British, and then analysing the impact of the British empire in India more widely till the 1930's. The course then surveys the Indian nationalist movement and some of its principal figures, such as Mahatma Gandhi, M.A. Jinnah and Jawaharlal Nehru, and the coming of the Partition of 1947 which results in the creation of India and Pakistan. The rest of the course will provide an assessment of South Asia, from 1947, looking at Bangladesh's creation, Sri Lanka's long-running civil war, Pakistan's domestic struggles and India's complex socio-economic attributes. This will be done thematically and not chronologically. Some of the issues that will be considered are: the processes of democracy (or the lack of it as the case may be), religion and politics, caste and community and economic development.
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\n\tGrading: Class participation : 30%
\n\n\tMid-term assignment: 40%
\n\n\tFinal essay: 30%
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\n\tTeaching Format: This module will be conducted as a discussion-based seminar. Students are expected to come to class after adequate preparation that enables a robust discussion of the readings. There will be a short lecture and/or a screening of a film at the beginning of the class. The rest of the time will be spent on in-depth small-group discussions as well as wider class engagement with the essential readings for each class. I will distribute or e-mail in advance a set of Discussion Questions which will serve as the starting points for the discussions in each class. Active and informed participation in class will contribute towards grades (40%).
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\n\tCourse Requirements: 1. Active and informed discussion in class on one of the four Discussion Questions for each class. The exact mode of organising class discussions will be outlined in the introductory session.
\n\n\t2. The mid-term assignment allows you to study a topic of particular interest related to South Asia and exposes you to contemporary South Asian events and media. Follow these steps: (1) Pick a South Asian country of special interest to you as well as a contemporary topic that you would like to explore (such as party politics, a religious group or movement, economics, ethnic challenges to the state, health issues, language, education, films, sport etc); (2) undertake a web search to identify the major daily national newspapers published in English within that South Asian country and available to you on-line; (3) pick 2 newspapers among these and submit the names to me for approval (to be sure they are appropriate major papers) (4) track this topic across your 2 newspapers for 2 more consecutive weeks, keeping a slightly more detailed log (date, title, short content summary for each article) of the articles related to this topic; (5) write a 1,500-word discussion of what you have discovered, indicating key themes and problems revealed by the research; (8) submit the discussion paper to me as a paper copy.
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\n\t3. A final paper of around 2,000 words, which would be based on an informed reaction to a multimedia source that will be provided in the introductory session. Details will be discussed in the introductory session.
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\n\tSchedule and Readings
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\n\tClass 1: Introduction to course
\n\n\tA screening of The Story of India (documentary by Michael Wood produced for PBS and the BBC). The screening will be followed by a discussion of some of the themes of the documentary and its relevance to the rest of the course.
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\n\tClass 2: The British Raj in India
\n\n\tEssential Readings: Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, A Concise History of India (Cambridge University Press: 2002), pp. 99-114; 123-31
\n\n\tB.R. Tomlinson, India and the British Empire, 1880-1935, The Indian Economic and Social History Review (October 1975). pp. 337-80.
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\n\tClass 3: Growth of Indian Nationalism and the Gandhi phenomenon
\n\n\tScreening of a short documentary on Gandhi
\n\n\tEssential Readings: Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy (Routledge, 2011), pp. 89-103; 111-21; 131-36.
\n\n\tAnthony J. Parel, ed. Hind Swaraj and Other Writings (Cambridge: 1997), pp. 26-29; 34-57; 88-99.
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\n\tClass 4: The idea of Pakistan and Partition
\n\n\tScreening of short excerpt from a documentary on Partition.
\n\n\tEssential Readings: Presidential address of M.A. Jinnah, Lahore, March 1940 in Mushirul Hassan ed., India’s Partition: Process, Strategy and Mobilization (Delhi: 1993), 44-58.
\n\n\tStephen Cohen, The Idea of Pakistan (New Delhi: 2006), pp. 25-38.
\n\n\tSaadat Hasan Manto, ‘Toba Tek Singh,’ in Mushirul Hassan ed., India’s Partition: Process, Strategy and Mobilization (Delhi: 1993), pp. 390-95.
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\n\tClass 5: The idea of India and the significance of Nehru
\n\n\tEssential Readings: Paul Brass, The Politics of India Since Independence (Cambridge: 2001), pp. 1-28.
\n\n\tStanley Wolpert, A New History of India (New York: 2009), pp. 370-90.
\n\n\tRamachandra Guha, Nehru, ‘Verdicts on Nehru: Rise and Fall of a Reputation,’ Economic and Political Weekly (May 7-13, 2005), pp. 1958-1962.
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\n\tClass 6: The East Pakistan Crisis and the Formation of Bangladesh
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\n\tRecommended Readings: Philip Oldenburg, ‘“A Place Insufficiently Imagined": Language, Belief, and the Pakistan Crisis of 1971’, The Journal Of Asian Studies (August 1985). pp.711-33.
\n\n\tRichard Sission and Leo. E. Rose, War and Secession: India, Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh (California: 1990). pp.177-205.
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\n\tFieldtrip Week:
\n\n\tNo classes
\n\n\tOptional activities: Visit Little India and sample the sights, sounds and tastes.
\n\n\tWatch two films available in the NUS central library: Gandhi (dir. Richard Attenborough) and Garam Hawa (dir. M.S. Sathyu).
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\n\tClass 7: The state, religion and politics in Pakistan
\n\n\tEssential Readings: Anatol Lieven, Pakistan: A Hard Country (London: 2012), pp. 60-80.
\n\n\tStephen Cohen, The Idea of Pakistan (New Delhi: 2006), pp. 180-200
\n\n\tMohsin Hamid, ‘A Beheading,’ Granta (Autumn 2010), pp. 193-95.
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\n\tClass 8: Politics of religion in India
\n\n\tScreening of In the Name of God (dir: Anand Patwardhan; Hindi with English sub-titles, 90 min).
\n\n\tEssential Readings: V.D. Savarkar, Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? (New Delhi: 2009).
\n\n\tRamachandra Guha, India After Gandhi (London: 2007), pp. 633-59.
\n\n\tSusanne Rudolph and Lloyd Rudolph, ‘Modern Hate,’ The New Republic (March 1993), pp. 24-29.
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\n\tClass 9: Politics of religion and language in Sri Lanka
\n\n\tEssential Readings: Robert N. Kearney, 'Ethnic Conflict and the Tamil Separatist Movement in Sri Lanka', Asian Survey (Sep., 1985), pp. 898-917.
\n\n\tSandra Destradi, 'India and Sri Lanka's Civil War: The Failure of Regional Conflict Management in South Asia', Asian Survey (May/June 2012), pp. 595-616.
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\n\tClass 10: The Question of Caste
\n\n\tEssential Readings: Nicholas Dirks, Castes of Mind (Princeton: 2001), 1-18.
\n\n\tAshutosh Varshney, ‘Is India Becoming More Democratic?’ The Journal of Asian Studies (February 2000), pp. 3-25.
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\n\tClass 11: Political economy and development in India
\n\n\tScreening of short documentary on Bombay/Mumbai.
\n\n\tEssential Readings: Edward Luce, In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India (London: 2006), pp. 25-63.
\n\n\tJean Dreze and Amartya Sen, India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity (Delhi: 1995), pp. 27-56.
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\n\tClass 12: Any other topic that might be of interest/Course wrap-up.
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