you need to have completed the readings for the week. Based on those readings, please write a 1-2 paragraph post (it does not need to be longer than that) that makes a clear and concise argument about a theme or aspect of the readings that ties them together. You do not need to be very formal, but you should write with proper grammar and make sure that your writing is well constructed, as well as have a clear thesis statement.
Chapters to do the summaries on (mentioned below) : Language and the constitution of new nations, making nations on the bodies of women, nationalism and the diaspora, Development and its discontents, How to riot in South Asia, Modi’s Gujarat and the making of new India
So, 6 1-2 paragraph posts : (around 1 page per 2 assignments)
Please find necessary readings for each chapter/assignment below:
ASSIGNMENT 1: Language and the constitution of South Asian nations
NCERT Textbook Colonial and Modern India: “Framing the Constitution” (required)
Ramachandra Guha, “Redrawing the Map” in India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy : 189-208 (required)
France Bhattacharya, “East Bengal: Between Islam and Regional Identity,” in Christopher Jaffrelot, ed., A History of Pakistan and its Origins (Anthem Press, 2002): 39-60. (required)
Aatish Taseer, “How English ruined Indian literature,” New York Times, March 29 2015 (required)
Primary sources:
Meghna Guhathakurta, Willem an Schendel, eds., The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Duke University Press, 2013): 159-169; 175-176; 184-186; 214-219; 225-236; 262-263; 332-335 (required)
ASSIGNMENT 2: Making nations on the bodies of women
Urvashi Butalia, “Community, State and Gender: On Women’s Agency during Partition,” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 28, No. 17 (1993), 12-21 (required)
Yasmin Saikia, Women, War and the Making of Bangladesh (Duke University Press, 2011) 122-157, 186-212 (required)
Zoya Hasan, “Minority identity, state policy and the political process,” in Zoya Hasan, ed., Forging Identities: Gender, Community and the State, (Westview Press, 1994) (required)
Primary sources:
Sati Regulation (required
)Report on the Roop Kanwar case (Links to an external site.) (required)
Saadat Hasan Manto, Khol do (optional)
Amrita Pritam, Aaj akhan Waris Shah nu (optional)
ASSIGNMENT 3: Nationalism and the Diaspora
Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, The South African Gandhi (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016): 26-48 (required)
Sana Aiyar, “Negotiating nationhood” in Indians in Kenya: The Politics of Diaspora (Links to an external site.) Harvard University Press, 2015) (required)
Primary sources (required):
Speeches of Jawaharlal Nehru in Lok Sabha, September 2, 1957 and December 17, 1957
Speech of Narendra Modi at Madison Square Gardens, September 28, 2014 (Links to an external site.) (English summary and video)
Full transcript in Hindi (Links to an external site.) (optional)
ASSIGNMENT 4: Development and its Discontents
Metcalf and Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, 231-251 (required)
Leela Fernandes, India’s New Middle Class: Democratic Politics in an Era of Economic Reform (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006): 29-87 (required)
Vandana Shiva, “Homeless in the ‘Global Village’,” in Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, eds., Ecofeminism (Links to an external site.) (Zed Books, 1993): 98-107 (required)
Vandana Shiva, “The Chipko Women’s Concept of Freedom’,” in Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, eds., Ecofeminism (Links to an external site.) (Zed Books, 1993): 246-250. (required)
(Please make sure you are signed into Georgetown University library to access these book chapters)
Primary Source:
Excerpt from “Towards equality: report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India,” 1974 (required)
ASSIGNMENT 5: How to riot in modern South Asia
David Ludden, “Ayodhya: A Window on the World,” in Contesting the Nation: Religion, Community and the Politics of Democracy in India, ed. David Ludden, (University of Pennsylvania, 1996): 1-23 (required)
Stanley Tambiah, “Reflections on Communal Violence in South Asia,” Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 49, No. 4 (1990): 741-760 (required)
Primary sources:
Sarvepalli Gopal, Romila Thapar et al, “The Political Abuse of History: Babri Masjid-Rama Janmabhumi Dispute,” Social Scientist, Vol. 18, No. 1/2 (1990): 76-81 (required)
Film:
Anand Patwardhan, Ram ke Naam (1992). (Links to an external site.)
ASSIGNMENT 6 Pahle kasai, phir isai: Modi’s Gujarat and the making of New India
Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi, “On the Political Uses of Disgust in Gujarat,” South Asian History and Culture, Vol. 1, No. 4, 2010 (required)
Talal Asad, “Religion, Nation-State, Secularism” in Peter van der Veer and Hartmut Lehmann, eds. Nation and Religion (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999): 178-196. (required)
Basharat Peer, In India’s Largest Muslim Ghetto, The Hindu, June 20, 2015 (Links to an external site.) (required)
Primary sources:
Human Rights Watch, “We have no orders to save you: state participation and communal violence in Gujarat,” Vol. 14, No. 3, April 2002 (required)
