Independent India

HISA 3003–001

Gilmer Hall 141 11-12:15 Tu/Th

 

Dr. Spencer A. Leonard

Nau Hall 155

sal9c@virginia.edu

Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 12:30-1:15, Thursday 2-3:30, and by appointment

 

Course Description

Just as India was once the “jewel in the crown” of the British Empire, upon independence it was in many respects the exemplary post-colonial experiment, attempting to avoid the either/or terms of the Cold War; to overcome, largely on its own resources, the debilitating legacy of colonialism; and to achieve for itself a place in the modern world commensurate with its size and social energy. And, crucially, it attempted to do this on the basis of universal suffrage democracy. This class will trace the history of this second-largest country on earth in broad terms—economic, political, social, and cultural. In addition, while the class does not treat India’s regional neighbors (above all, Pakistan and Bangladesh) independently, it does take up the subject of South Asia as both a geopolitical and a civilizational region, one characterized simultaneously by intense military hostility and deep cultural and historical commonalty.

In taking up this history, we are also questioning it in a number of ways and in a range of registers; and we will do so in a way that is accessible to students uninitiated in the region’s history. To aid in this endeavor, our course will engage not only works of history per se, but also broad-gauged contemporary accounts of the region by one of the leading writers of the second half of the 20th century: the Trinidad-born, Nobel-Prize-winning British writer, V. S. Naipaul. As a curious sort of inside-outsider, Naipaul wrote some of the most penetrating general accounts of India at three crucial phases in India’s post-Independence history—the early 1960s, the mid-1970s, and the late 1980s. Everyone in this class will be reading at least two of Naipaul’s works, some of you will read three. Naipaul’s non-fiction works on India are intended to serve our class in a number of ways, above all by giving students a deep sense of “what history felt like,” as, curiously, recent history can be quite difficult for students, including Indian students, to imaginatively inhabit for themselves.

Given that this course is intended to provide students with a broad introduction to the leading political and economic issues and debates in post-Independence Indian history from the mid-20th century to the present, it concentrates on achievement of independence, the consolidation of Indian democracy and developmental socialism under the predominance of the Indian National Congress, and the unraveling of both the developmental state and Congress predominance in the crisis of the 1970s leading ultimately to the neoliberalism that has characterized Indian economic policy since the 1980s. Roughly concurrent with this transformation of Indian economic policy is the shift whereby, first, the Hindu right replaces the Communist left as the leading political force in opposition to the Congress until, finally, with the last election, the Congress itself seems to have entered into terminal decline.

 

Requirements:  Students are expected to read all assigned texts, complete all written assignments, attend class regularly, and, of course, show up for and take exams. Grades will be computed according the following breakdown:

• Class Participation (10%): Raising questions in class will be noted and will raise your class participation grade.

• Exams (22.5% each): Students are required to take a mid-term and a final exam.  

• Thesis Identification Papers (7.5% each): Students are required write two 2–2½ page papers identifying the thesis or argument Naipaul is making—first in An Area of Darkness and then in A Wounded Civilization—in regard to the condition of India in the year or historical moment in which he is writing.

• Course Paper (30%): Students are required write a 6-8 page analysis of either Naipaul’s Million Mutinies Now or Bidwai’s Phoenix Moment, a book about the history and current crisis of the radical left in India.

 

Guidelines for Written Assignments: Course essays should be the appropriate length (neither significantly greater nor less than the assigned length), double-spaced, in Times New Roman 12-point font, with no manipulation of the standard margin settings in Word.

All papers are to be submitted via Collab.

Plagiarized papers will be returned unmarked. All cases of plagiarism without exception will also be referred to the Honors Committee. It is assumed that students know what constitutes an act of plagiarism, and no plea of confusion or incomprehension will be entertained. The instructor reserves the right in cases of plagiarism that cannot be definitively established, to request that the student submit a different paper or take a supervised written exam.

Though students need not refer to any outside sources for their papers, should they refer to or in any way rely upon a secondary source or sources, whether printed or on the web, they should cite those sources in footnotes drafted in accordance with the Chicago Manual of Style, which is available electronically through the library’s webpage.

 

Required Readings:

Guha, Ramachandra. India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy.

New York: Harper Perennial, 2008.

Hiro, Dilip. The Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry Between India and Pakistan.

New York: Nation Books, 2015.

Naipaul, V. S. India—An Area of Darkness. New York: Vintage Books, 2002 [1964].

________. India—A Wounded Civilization. New York: Vintage Books, 2003 [1976].

 

Course Paper Readings (choose one):

Bidwai, Praful. The Phoenix Moment: Challenges Confronting the Indian Left. New York:

HarperCollins, 2016.

Naipaul, V. S. India—A Million Mutinies Now. New York: Vintage Books, 2011 [1990].

 

Reading Schedule

Week One (January 19) - Introduction to the Class

V. S. Naipaul An Area of Darkness — Prelude and Part One

 

Week Two (January 24 & 26)

V. S. Naipaul An Area of Darkness — Part Two

 

Week Three (January 31 & February 2)

V. S. Naipaul An Area of Darkness — Part Three

*Friday, February 3 — 2–2½  pg. paper on An Area of Darkness

 

 

 

Week Four (February 7 & 9)

Ramachandra Guha India After Gandhi — Prologue and Part One (skim chapter 4)

 

Week Five (February 14 & 16)

Ramachandra Guha India After Gandhi — Part Two (skim chapter 12)

 

Week Six (February 21 & 23)

Ramachandra Guha India After Gandhi — Part Three  (skim chapter 15)

 

Week Seven (February 28 & March 2)

Ramachandra Guha India After Gandhi — Part Four, chapters 18-22 (skim 18 & 20)

*Thursday after class through Friday midnight, March 2-3 - Mid-Term Exam via Collab

 

Week Eight (March 14 & 16)

V. S. Naipaul A Wounded Civilization — Foreword and Parts 1 & 2

 

Week Nine (March 21 & 23)

V. S. Naipaul A Wounded Civilization — Part 3

Ramachandra Guha India After Gandhi — Part Four, chapters 23-25

*Friday,  March 24 — 2–2½ pg. paper on A Wounded Civilization

 

Week Ten (March 28 & 30)

Ramachandra Guha India After Gandhi — Part Five (skip chapter 30)

 

Week Eleven (April 4 & 6)

Ramachandra Guha India After Gandhi — Epilogue

Dilip Hiro The Longest August — Introduction and Chapters 1-5

 

Week Twelve (April 11 & 13)

Dilip Hiro The Longest August — Chapters 6-10

 

Week Thirteen (April 18 & 20)

Dilip Hiro The Longest August — Chapters 11-16

 

Week Fourteen (April 25 & 27)

Dilip Hiro The Longest August — Chapters 17-20 & Epilogue

 

Week Fifteen (May 2)

No Reading—Class Conclusion and Final Exam Review

*Tuesday after class through Wednesday midnight, May 2-3 - Final Exam via Collab

 

Exam Period

Discussion sessions on V.S. Naipaul A Million Mutinies Now and Praful Bidwai The Phoenix Moment on Sunday May 7

*Wednesday, May 10 at midnight — 6-8 pg. course paper