Critiques of Inequality and Power in Modern India SALC 40100 Monday: 2.30-5.

15, Winter 2010 Rochona Majumdar Outline: The aim of the course is to critically analyze the ways in which ideas of power and social inequality was theorized in India in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While inequality was/ is discussed in colonial and postcolonial India along multiple axes, in this class we will limit our readings to critiques specifically featuring gender and caste. Weekly readings will include primary texts from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and more recent historical and sociological analyses. Requirements: Regular attendance, active classroom participation, a minimum of one presentation, and a final paper (between 20- 25 pages, double spaced, on a topic decided in consultation with the instructor). Week 1: Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay: Samya (Inequality) in S.N. Mukherjee and marian Maddan eds., Sociological Essays: Utilitarianism and Positivism in Bengal, pp. 83-111. [on chalk] Jean Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Translated by Donald. A. Cress, Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Co. 1992. Week 2: Women and Social reform in Modern India: A Reader, eds. Sumit and Tanika Sarkar, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008, entries by Rammohun Roy, Tracts on Sati pp. 497- 503; Tarabai Shinde, Stripurusha Tulana pp.521-534; M.G. Ranade From Miscallaneous Writings pp. 535-543; Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, The Worship of Women pp. 544-550. [on chalk] J.S. Mill, The Subjection of Women, in On Liberty and Other Essays, New York, Oxford, 1991, 471-557. Week 3: Jyotirao Phule, Slavery, in Writings of Jyotirao Phule, ed. G.P. Deshmukh, New Delhi: Left Word books, 2002, pp. 23-99; Kancha Ilaiah, Why I am not a Hindu; Sarmila Rega, A Dalit Feminist Standpoint; Uma Chakravarti, Reconceptualizing Gender: Phule, Brahmanism, and Brahmanical Patriarchy, In, Gender and Caste, ed. Anupama Rao, Delhi: Kali for Women, 2003.; [on chalk] Week 4: Periyar, Untouchability, The Genesis of my Self-Respect Movement, Periyar on Family Planning, and The Ramayana (the last is optional) in Collected Works of Thantai Periyar E.V. Ramasami. Articles by Gopal Guru Dalit Women Talk Differently pp. 80-85; V. Geetha, Periyar, Women, and an Ethic of Citizenship, pp. 180-203; S. Anandhi, The Womens Question in the Dravidian Movement, pp. 141- 163 in Gender

and Caste, ed. Anupama Rao, Delhi: Kali for Women, 2003. [The articles from Gender and Caste will probably be on chalk, the rest will be part of a course packet]. Week 5: M.K. Gandhi, None High None Low (on reserve, and in course packet), B. R. Ambedkar, Who were the Shudras? and Origin of Untouchability, In Valerian Rodrigues, ed., The Essential Writings of B R Ambedkar, Delhi: OUP, 2002; Dipesh Chakrabarty, Governmental Roots of Modern Ethnicity, in Habitations of Modernity: Essays in the Wake of Subaltern studies, pp. 80-97. [on chalk] Week 6: Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste, A Reply to the Mahatma, Does the Buddha Have a Social Message?; Debjani Ganguly, Caste Colonialism and CounterModernity, London: Routledge, 2005, Chs 6, 7. [chalk] Week 7: Om Prakash Valmiki, Joothan: An Untouchables Life / translated by Arun Prava Mukherjee, NY: Columbia University Press, 2009; Debjani Ganguly, Caste Colonialism and Counter-Modernity, London: Routledge, 2005, ch. 8. Week 8: Tanika Sarkar, Words to Win: The making of Amar Jiban, New Delhi: Kali for Women, 2005. Week 9: Godaan, The Gift of a Cow, translated by G. Roadarmel, with an introduction by Vasudha Dalmia, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. Week 10: Badri Narayan, Documenting Dissent, Simla: Institute of Advanced Studies, 2001, chs. 2, 3, 4.