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A Passage to India: Introduction to Modern Indian Culture and Society >> Content Detail



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This course emphasizes class discussion. Student groups take turns leading the discussions, which should be based on questions inspired by the readings.

Books for Required Reading

Amazon logo Sahgal, Nayantara. Rich Like Us. 1st ed. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1999. ISBN: 8172233752.

Amazon logo Chughtai, Ismat. The Quilt and Other Stories. Translated by Tahira Nagvi and Syeda S. Hameed. 4th ed. Columbia, MO: South Asia Books, 1999. ISBN: 8185107106.

Amazon logo Hossain, Rokeya Sakhawat. Sultana's Dream: And Selections from the Secluded Ones. New York, NY: Feminist Press, 1988. ISBN: 0935312838.

Amazon logo Devi, Mahasweta. Imaginary Maps: Three Stories. Translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Oxford, UK: Routledge, 1994. ISBN: 0415904633.

Amazon logo Antherjanam, Lalithambika, Gita Krishnakutty. Cast Me Out If You Will: Stories and Memoirs from Kerala. 1st ed. New York, NY: Feminist Press, 1998. ISBN: 1558611886.

 

LEC #TOPICSREADINGS
1Introduction
2Quest for Freedom, Partition and Memories (1857-2004), (A Historical Approach and Personal Memoirs)Film: Mehta, Deepa. Earth. 1998.

Reading: Amazon logo Chandra, Bipan, Mridula Mukherjee, Aditya Mukherjee, K. N. Panikkar, and Sucheta Mahajan. India’s Struggle for Independence. New Delhi, India: Penguin Books, 1989. ISBN: 0670821519. (Selections from this text.)

Reading: Amazon logo Butalia, Urvashi. The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. ISBN: 0822324946. (Extracts from this text.)
3Land Reforms (1950-85): Poverty Line and PeasantryFilm: Benegal, Shyam. Ankur. 1974.

Reading: Amazon logo Seth, Vikram. A Suitable Boy. New York, NY: Perennial Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 1993. ISBN: 0060925000. (Selections from this text.)

Reading: Besley, Timothy, and Robin Burgess. "Land Reform, Poverty Reduction, And Growth: Evidence From India." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 115, no. 2 (2000): 389-430.
4"The Emergency Rule" (1975-77): Democracy or Dictatorship?Reading: Amazon logo Sahgal, Nayantara. Rich Like Us. 1st ed. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1999. ISBN: 8172233752.
5"The Emergency Rule" (1975-77): Democracy or Dictatorship? (cont.)Reading: Amazon logo Sahgal, Nayantara. Rich Like Us. 1st ed. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1999. ISBN: 8172233752.
6The Universal Civil Code Debate and the Shah Bano Case (1985 and its Aftermath): Women and IslamReading: Amazon logo Chughtai, Ismat. "The Wedding Shroud" and "Choti Apa." In The Quilt and Other Stories. Translated by Tahira Nagvi and Syeda S. Hameed. 4th ed. Columbia, MO: South Asia Books, 1999. ISBN: 8185107106.

Reading: Amazon logo Hossain, Rokeya Sakhawat. "Purdah Observed." In Sultana's Dream: And Selections from the Secluded Ones. New York, NY: Feminist Press, 1988. ISBN: 0935312838.
7Mandal Commission (1990): Caste and Affirmative ActionFilm: Mundhra, Jag. Bawandar. 2000.

Reading: Amazon logo Devi, Mahasweta. Imaginary Maps: Three Stories. Translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Oxford, UK: Routledge, 1994. ISBN: 0415904633.

Reading: Omvedt, Gail. "Introduction to Dalit Poems." Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars X, no. 3 (1978): 2-10. (Selections from this text.)
8Documentary Cinema and Academic debate: Ayodhya (1992): Religious Conflict, Within and Beyond BordersFilm: Bose, Sugata. Mandir, Masjid, Mandal, and Marx: Democracy in India. 1991.

Reading: Amazon logo Varshney, Ashutosh. Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN: 0300085303. (Selections from this text.)
9Parallel Cinema and Fiction: Seventy-Third Amendment, Panchayati Raj and the Empowerment of Women (1992-2004)

Guest Speaker: Professor Esther Duflo, MIT
Film: Kapur, Shekhar. Bandit Queen. 1994.

Reading: Sen, Amartya. "More than 100 million women are missing." New York Review of Books, December 1990.

Reading: Amazon logo Antherjanam, Lalithambika, Gita Krishnakutty. Cast Me Out If You Will: Stories and Memoirs from Kerala. 1st ed. New York, NY: Feminist Press, 1998. ISBN: 1558611886. (Selections from this text.)
10Popular Culture and its Critique: The World Cup and Bollywood Goes West (1983-2001): Cricket mania, Post-Colonialism and National PrideFilm: Gowariker, Ashutosh. Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India. 2001.

Reading: Majumdar, Boria. "The Empire Drives Back." outlookindia.com, July 16, 2001. (Web publication.)

Reading: Amazon logo Nandy, Ashis. The Tao of Cricket: On Games of Destiny and the Destiny of Games. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN: 0195653211. (Selections from this text.)
11Ethnography and Pulp Magazines: Star TV arrives in India: Global or Local? (1990's - the present)

Health Care in India: guest lecture by expert from MIT-Health, followed by Q and A
Reading: Amazon logo Mankekar, Purnima. Screening Culture, Viewing Politics: An Ethnography of Television, Womanhood, and Nation in Postclolonial India. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0822323907. (Selections from this text.)

Reading: Stardust and Filmfare, North Indian cine magazines. (Excerpts from these texts.)
12Press and Other Media: IT Revolutions (1990-the present): BPOs, Call Centers, Outsourcing and all thatReading: Amazon logo Narayanamurthy, N. R. "Making India a significant IT player in this millennium." In India: Another Millennium? Edited by Romila Thapar. New Delhi, India: Viking and Penguin Books, 2000. ISBN: 0140298835.

(Articles by Narayanmurthy.) 

Reading: Times of India, The Hindu, India Today, and Frontline, Indian newspapers and magazines. (Clips and excerpts from these texts.)
13History and Religion in Modern Times: The Romila Thapar Controversy (2001 and Ancient History): Myth, Legends, History and National IdentityReading: Thapar, Romila. "In Defence of History." Lecture delivered at Tiruvananthapuram, March 2, 2002.

Reading: Amazon logo Sen, Kshitimohan. Hinduism. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1995. ISBN: 0140136509. (Selections from this text.)
14Politics, Documenting and Civil Society: Elections 2003-2004: Consensus and Controversies

Guest Speaker: Professor Abhijit Banerjee, MIT
Wrap up Discussion
Film: Banerjee and Banerjee. The Name of the Disease. (In-class screening.)

Readings: Probe Report, Indian Express and Outlook. (Excerpts from these texts.) 

 


 








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