ABOUT THE COURSE:This course “Power and Politics in Contemporary India: Issues and Approaches” explores the complex interplay of caste, class, gender, ethnicity and the state to understand the contemporary Indian society. It introduces students to theoretical approaches, namely, functionalism, Weber, post- structuralism, and subaltern studies, among others, to equip them for undertaking multi-dimensional analysis of the modern Indian society. These theories are then operationalised to analyse case studies ranging from Dalit politics, backward class politics, social movements, to agrarian distress, and work. In a nutshell, this course intends to provide an understanding of various issues related to power and politics in contemporary India.INTENDED AUDIENCE: Students of Sociology, Political Science, Development Studies, Gender Studies, Civil Service AspirantsINDUSTRY SUPPORT: Corporate Social Responsibility divisions of all corporate houses, including the Public Sector Units like NTPC, ONGC, Coal India, Civil Servants, Development sector (NGOs and INGOs)

Syllabus

Week 1: Introducing Political Sociology
1. What is Political Sociology? Scope and Key Concerns
2. Politics Beyond the State: Everyday Power and Informality
3. Political Sociology vs. Political Science: Sociological Orientations
4. Historical Development of the Field: Europe and India
5. Case Study
Week 2:Power, Authority, and Legitimacy
6. Classical Notions: Weber, Marx, and Durkheim on Power
7. Domination, Legitimacy, and Resistance (Weberian Perspectives)
8. Foucault: Power/Knowledge and the Dispersal of Power
9. Bourdieu: Symbolic Power and Political Capital
10. Case Study
Week 3:State Formation and the Postcolonial State
11. Theoretical Approaches to the State in Sociology
12. State and Society in Postcolonial India
13. Bureaucracy and Political Mediation
14. The ‘Everyday State’ and Negotiated Rule
15. Case Study
Week 4:Political Subjectivity and Citizenship
16. Becoming a Political Subject: Identity, Recognition, Rights
17. Citizenship, Belonging, and Marginalisation
18. Subalternity and the Political: Can the Subaltern Speak?
19. Gendered Political Subjectivities
20. Case Study
Week 5:Kinship, Caste, and Community
21. Kinship and Political Authority in South Asia
22. Political Articulations of Caste: From Hierarchy to Mobilisation
23. Intersections of Caste and Democracy
24. Community, Identity, and Moral Economies
25. Case Study
Week 6:Class, Inequality, and Political Economy
26. Class, Hegemony, and Political Mobilisation
27. Political Sociology of Agrarian Change and Land
28. Urban Informality and Class Politics
29. Labor, Precarity, and Informal Workers' Movements
30. Case Study
Week 7:Religion, Ethnicity, and the Politics of Difference
31. Ethnicity, Community, and State Recognition
32. Sociology of Secularism and Communalism
33. Religion, Morality, and the Political Field
34. Political Rituals and Symbolism
35. Case Study
Week 8:Social Movements and Collective Action
36. Classical and New Social Movement Theories
37. Political Process Model and Resource Mobilisation
38. Subaltern Movements: Adivasi, Dalit, Women
39. Urban Protests and Anti-State Mobilisations
40. Case Study
Week 9:Governance, Development, and the NGO State
41. Sociology of Development and Post-development Critique
42. From Government to Governance: Neoliberal Transitions
43. The Role of NGOs and Donor-Driven Agendas
44. The State, Welfare, and Targeted Governance
45. Case Study
Week 10:Law, Justice, and Political Legitimacy
46. Legal Pluralism and the Sociology of Law
47. Rights-based Mobilisation and Judicial Politics
48. Courts as Sites of Negotiation and Performance
49. Customary Law, Gender, and the State
50. Case Study
Week 11:Media, Representation, and Political Culture
51. Political Communication and Public Discourse
52. Visual Politics: Symbols, Posters, and Performances
53. Popular Culture and the Construction of the Political
54. Media, Surveillance, and the Manufacturing of Consent
55. Case Study
Week 12:Rethinking the Political
56. Politics of the Margins and Hidden Transcripts (James Scott)
57. Gender and Political Sociology: Beyond Representation
58. The Political in the Everyday: Affect, Emotion, and Intimacy
59. Decolonising Political Sociology: Southern and Indigenous Epistemologies
60. Final Synthesis: What is the Political Today?