SS 461N Polity and Society in India

POLITY AND SOCIETY IN INDIA (SS 461N)

(M.A. 1st Semester, Core Course; Monsoon Semester: July-December)
Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University

COURSE NO.: SS 461N

Credits: 4 (Four)
Course Instructor: Asheesh Kumar

This course examines the ways in which state and society interact in India and constitute a
distinct kind of polity. The first section begins by introducing the students to basic concepts
required to understand polity and to theoretical approaches that explain the dynamics of
power. The second section introduces them to debates that have and continue to inform
nation building and state formation in India. The third section explores the structural
specificities of the Indian society and the dynamics of power that guide the discourse on
recognition and representation. Through these the course aims to familiarize students with
key concepts, approaches and debates with regard to polity and society and their interface in
the Indian context.
Evaluation: The students are required to write a Mid-semester test (1 credit), submit a term
paper of around 2000 to 2500 words and make a presentation (1 credit), and appear for the
end-semester exam (2 credits). All three are necessary requirements. As per the university
guideline, the students who fail to do the first two, namely mid-semester and the written
assignment, will not be eligible to write the end semester exam.

Course Outline

I. Polity and Society: Concepts and Approaches

a) Power, Authority, Legitimacy, Class, Ideology, Stateless Societies and
Emergence of State, Nation-State, Citizenship, Democracy
b) Sociology of Power: Marxist Tradition, Weberian Tradition, Elite Theory,
Pluralism, Post-Modernism
Essential Readings:
Sartori, Giovanni (1969), ‘From the Sociology of Politics to Political Sociology’, in S.M.
Lipset (ed.), Politics and the Social Science, New York: Oxford University Press
Michael Mann, ‘Societies as Organized Power Networks’, in Sources of Social Power:
Volume 1, p.1-33.
Faulks, Keith (1999), ‘Approaches and Key Concepts in Political Sociology, in Political
Sociology: A Critical Introduction, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp.11-31
Nordlinger, Eric. A, ‘Political Sociology: Marx and Weber’ in Nordlinger (ed.) Politics and
Society, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1970
Weber, M. (1978) ‘Domination, Legitimation, Authority and Charisma’, in Economy and
Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, Vol.1, Berkeley: University of
California Press, pp. 212-30, 241-54
Eisenstadt, S.N. (1959), ‘Primitive Political Systems: A Preliminary Comparative Analysis’,
in American Anthropologist, Vol. 61. No.2. pp. 200-220
Andreas Wimmer and Yuval Feinstein, ‘The Rise of the Nation-State Across the World-
1816 to 2001’, in American Sociological Review 75 (5), pp. 764–772; pp.785-786
SS 461N Polity and Society in India

Anderson, Benedict (1983), ‘Introduction’, in Imagined Communities: Reflections on the

Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Beso
Marshall, T.H (2009), ‘Citizenship and Social Class’, in J. Manza and M. Sauder (eds.)
Inequality and Society, New York: W.W Norton
Gramsci, A., (1971), State, Civil Society, Political Society, Hegemony, and Ideology, in
Selections from Prison Notebooks (Translated by Q. Harre) London: Lawrence and
Wishart. 144-153, 167-168, 180-182, 260-264

II. State Shaping the Society in India

a) Indian State and its Colonial Antecedents; Political Modernization and
Constitutional Democracy, Political Institutions and Democratic Processes
b) Nation Building; Developmental State and the Neo-Liberal Turn; Limits of
Representative Democracy and Local Governance; Challenges to Indian State

Essential Readings:
Fuller, C. J. 2000, ‘For An Anthropology of the Modern Indian State’, in C. J. Fuller, and V.
Benei (eds.) The Everyday State and Society in Modern India, New Delhi: Social
Science Press, pp. 1-26.
Pantham, T. (2003), ‘The Indian Nation-State: From Pre-Colonial Beginnings to Post-
Colonial Reconstructions’ in Veena Das (ed.) The Oxford India Companion to
Sociology and Social Anthropology, Vol. II, Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 1413-
47
Dallmayr, Fred and G.N. Devy (eds) (1998), ‘Introduction’, in India Between Tradition and
Modernity: India’s Search for Identity: A Twentieth Century Anthology, Walnut
Creek, CA: Altamira Press
Nandy, Ashis (1989), The Political Culture of the Indian State’, Daedalus, Vol. 118, No. 4,
Another India (Fall, 1989), pp. 1-26
Kashyap, Subhash C. (2004), Our Constitution: An Introduction to India’s Constitution and
Constitutional Law, New Delhi: National Book Trust
Kaviraj, Sudipta (2000), ‘Modernity and Politics in India’, Daedalus, Vol. 129, No. 1,
Multiple Modernities (Winter), pp. 137-162
Béteille, André (2012), Democracy and Its Institutions. New Delhi: Oxford University Press
Kaviraj, Sudipta (2011), ‘Democracy and Development in India’, in The Enchantment of
Democracy and India, Ranikhet: Permanent Black, pp. 116-160.
Manor, James. 1988, ‘Parties and the Party System’, in A. Kohli (ed.), India’s Democracy,
Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 62-98
Michelutti, Lucia. 2007, ‘The Vernacularization of Democracy: Political Participation and
Popular Politics in North India’, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute,
vol.13 (3), pp. 639-656
Chatterjee, P. (1997), Development Planning and the Indian State in his (ed.) State and
Politics in India, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 271-97
Chatterjee, Partha (2008), ‘Democracy and Economic Transformation in India’, Economic
and Political Weekly, Vol. 43, Issue No. 16, 19 Apr, 2008
Kohli, Atul (2006), ‘Politics of Economic Growth in India, 1980-2005, Part II: The 1990s
and Beyond’, Economic and Political Weekly, XLI (14), pp. 1361-70
Bardhan, P. (1997), ‘The State Against Society: The Great Divide in Indian Social Science
Discourse’, in A. Jalal and S. Bose (eds.) Nationalism, Democracy and Development,
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 184-95
Manor, James (2004), ‘Democratization with Inclusion: Political Reforms and People’s
Empowerment at the Grassroots’, The Journal of Human Development, 5(1), pp. 5-29
SS 461N Polity and Society in India

Kumar, Anand (2003), Political Sociology of Poverty in India: Between Politics of Poverty
and Poverty of Politics, CPRC India Working Paper, CPRC-IIPA
Report of the Expert Group to Planning Commission (2008), Development Challenges in
Extremist Affected Areas, Delhi: Government of India

III. The Political and the Social: Indian Society and Its Power Matrix
a) Issues of Nation-Building and Limited Citizenship; Negotiating with Political
Identities: Caste, Religion, Tribes, Minorities, Regionalism
b) Centralized State and Legitimation Crisis; The Politics of
Recognition/Representation and Emergence of Identity Politics; Patterns of
Collective Action: Protests and Social Movements

Essential Readings:
Jodhka, Surinder S. (2010), ‘Caste and Politics’, in Niraja Gopal Jayal and Pratap Bhanu
Mehta (eds.) The Oxford Companion to Politics in India, New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, pp. 154-167
Madan, T. N. (1987), ‘Secularism in its Place’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 46 (4): 747-
759
Padel, F. (2009), ‘A Case Study of Colonialism’ and ‘In the Name of Development’, in
Sacrificing People: Invasions of a Tribal Landscape, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan.
1-34 and 288-314.
Fazal, Tanweer, Nation-State and Minority Rights in India, London: Routledge, 2015
(Chapter 2)
Xaxa, Virginius (2005), Politics of Language, Religion and Identity: Tribes in India, Vol.
40, Issue No. 13, 26 March
Oommen, T.K (1997), Nationality, Ethnicity and Citizenship, London: Polity (Introduction)
Baruah, Sanjib (2010), ‘Regionalism and Secessionism’, in Niraja Gopal Jayal and Pratap
Bhanu Mehta (eds.) The Oxford Companion to Politics in India, New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, pp. 181-191
Kohli Atul (2009) ‘Centralization and Powerlessness’, Democracy and Development in
India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 23-42
Kumar, Anand (2014), ‘People, Power, and Paradigm Shift: New Trajectory of Politics and
Governance’, in Yogendra Singh (ed.) Indian Sociology: Emerging Concepts,
Structure, and Change, New Delhi: Oxford University Press
Jafferelot, C. (2009), Introduction, in Jafferelot and S. Kumar (eds.), Rise of the Plebeians:
The Changing Face of Indian Legislative Assemblies, Delhi: Routledge
Jafferelot, C. (2000), ‘The Rise of the Other Backward Classes in the Hindi Belt’, The
Journal of Asian Studies, 59 (1), pp.86-108
Taylor, Charles (1992), ‘Politics of Recognition’, in Amy Gutmann (ed.), Multiculturalism
and the Politics of Recognition, Princeton University Press
Kumar, Vivek (2010), ‘Different Shades of Dalit Mobilization’, in T.K. Oommen (ed.),
Social Movements I: Issues of Identity, New Delhi: Oxford University Press
Tilly, Charles. 2004, ‘Social Movements as Politics’, in Social Movements, 1768-2004,
Boulder: Paradigm Press, pp. 1-15.
Shah, Ghanshyam. ‘Grassroots Mobilizations in Indian Politics’, in A. Kohli (ed.), India’s
Democracy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 262-304
Rao, M S A (2006), Social movements in India, New Delhi: Manohar Publishers