RPOS 399: The Politics of South Asia Professor: Niloufer Siddiqui Location: BA212 Time: TTh 8:45-10:05am Office hours: Tuesdays 10:15-12:15pm (Uptown Campus, Humanities B-16 Contact Office) By appointment (Downtown Campus, Milne 210) Email address: nasiddiqui@albany.edu This seminar course explores contemporary politics in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. While these countries have much in common, including a shared history of British colonial involvement, they have followed divergent political trajectories since independence. Today, India is the world s largest democracy and has emerged into a global economic powerhouse. Pakistan has oscillated between military rule and democracy, and, over the last decade, has fallen victim to alarming rates of internal violence. After 15 years of U.S. presence, Afghanistan remains war-torn and its population vulnerable. Bangladesh, which appeared to be a democratic success story, has recently seen an increase in politically-motivated killings and brazen attacks against minorities. We cover such issues as the management of ethnic and religious conflicts, secularism versus Islamism and Hindu nationalism, secessionist movements, the tension between economic growth and equity, and problems of governance. In addition, we explore the place of these countries in the international system: India as a growing world power; Pakistan and Afghanistan as the focal points of foreign aid and foreign intervention; and Bangladesh as the nation most vulnerable to climate change. Finally, this course encourages students to tackle difficult policy questions pertaining to the region and take an informed stand. Are drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan an ethical and/or effective way of protecting U.S. borders? What should India do to confront rampant poverty within its borders? How can these countries tackle terrorism while simultaneously protecting the rights of political opponents? Assignments and Grading: Participation & Weekly Discussion Points: 25% As a discussion-based course, active participation is a crucial component of the grade. This includes regular attendance in class, contribution to class discussion, and the submission of weekly discussion points. The discussion point must be submitted to me via email on the evening before either the Tuesday class (Monday at 8pm) or the Thursday class (Wednesday at 8pm). It must raise a question about the assigned reading, or analyze an issue or theme that you found to be particularly interesting, and should be a short paragraph (2-3 sentences). Your participation grade will be determined both by classroom contribution and the quality of the discussion points. Quizzes: 30% There will be six 15-minute in-class quizzes which will test your understanding of the material covered in class. If you have done the readings and paid attention in class, you will be fine. The quiz with the lowest grade will be dropped, so only 5 quizzes will count towards your final grade. 1
Research Proposal: 10% This 1-page proposal should outline the research question you will be answering in your final paper and the resources that you intend to use to do so. Research Paper: 35% This 10-15 page research paper can be on any topic related to the politics of South Asia. The papers must include (1) a brief literature review, (2) a clearly stated argument or hypothesis (derived from the readings, another source, or an original argument), (3) a description of how the argument/hypothesis will be evaluated empirically, and (4) an evaluation of the argument using evidence from at least one historical case. Examples of possible research topics are: Which factors explain the BJP and Modi s victory in the 2014 national elections in India? What explains the divergent political trajectories of India and Pakistan? What factors caused the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan? Accommodations: Reasonable accommodations will be provided for students with documented physical, sensory, systemic, cognitive, learning, and psychiatric disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring accommodation in this class, please go here http://www.albany.edu/disability/current.shtml and arrange for an academic accommodation letter to be sent to me. If you wish to discuss academic accommodations for this course, please also inform me as soon as possible. Plagiarism: Please familiarize yourself with the description in the undergraduate bulletin http://www.albany.edu/undergraduate_bulletin/regulations.html. If you are involved in plagiarism the penalty will be failure in the course and you will be reported to judicial affairs. If you are not sure if something violates standards: ask. If you are not sure whether to cite or not to cite: cite. Every student is expected to go through the following tutorial: http://library.albany.edu/usered/plagiarism/index.html Late Policy: For every day that an assignment is late, you will be penalized one letter grade. For example, if you turn in an A- paper 1 day late, you will receive a B+. There will be no extra credit to make up for late or missing assignments. Class attendance: You will be expected to attend class. Each student is permitted to miss two days of class per term with no questions asked and no penalties or reductions in his or her class participation grade. Any classes missed beyond those two will be taken into account in determining your class participation grade, regardless of the reason. Re-grading of materials: You may request re-grading of materials. If you wish to make such a request, contact the professor for a copy of the re-grading policy. You will be asked to provide a written explanation of why you wish to have the assignment re-graded. 2
Course Schedule: Jan 24 Overview of course, readings, assignments, and introductions No assigned readings Jan 26 What is South Asia? Why should we care? Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 1-12, 165-190. Jan 31 Partition Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi. The Logic of Division, pp. 41-51. Ayesha Jalal, Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia: A Comparative and Historical Perspective (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), Introduction & Chapter 1: The Colonial Legacy in India and Pakistan, 1-28. Feb 2 Pakistan s Early Years: Identity and Nationhood Stephen P. Cohen, The Idea of Pakistan (Washington, DC: Brookings, 2005), 39-96. Feb 7 Pakistan s Army and Civil-Military Relations Christine Fair, Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army s Way of War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), chapter 4: The Army s Defense of Pakistan s Ideological Frontiers. Stephen P. Cohen, The Pakistan Army (1984 or later edition), chapter 5, 105-126. Feb 9 Pakistan s Ethnicity and Party Politics I Anatol Lieven, Pakistan: A Hard Country (New York: Public Affairs, 2011), chapter 6: Politics, 204-255. Rasul B. Rais, ed., State, Society and Democratic Change in Pakistan (Oxford University Press, 1997), chapter 5: S. Vali Reza Nasr, State, Society and the Crisis of National Identity, 103-127. Feb 14 Pakistan s Ethnicity and Party Politics II Laurent Gayer. Karachi: Ordered Disorder and the Struggle for the City (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 17-52. Introduction: Nationalism without a Nation, Pakistan Searching for Its Identity, in Pakistan: Nationalism without a Nation, ed. Christophe Jaffrelot (New York: Zed Books, 2002), pp. 15-42 3
Feb 16 Pakistan s Islamism & Sectarianism S. V. R. Nasr, Islam, the State, and the Rise of Sectarian Militancy in Pakistan, in Pakistan Nationalism Without a Nation, 85-128. Feb 21 Pakistan After 9/11 Hassan Abbas, Pakistan s Drift into Extremism (2005), chapter 9, 201-216. Ayesha Siddiqa, Pakistan s Counterterrorism Strategy: Separating Friends from Enemies, Washington Quarterly, 34, no.1 (2011): 149-162. Feb 23 Feb 28 NO CLASS India: The World s Largest Democracy Sunil Khilnani, The Idea of India (Penguin Books India, 1999), 1-13. Steven Wilkinson India chapter in David Samuels, Comparative Politics (Prentice Hall 2013), 194-234. March 2 Identity in India: Caste, Religion, and Regional Politics Steven Wilkinson, Caste and communal politics, in Paul R. Brass, ed., Routledge Handbook of South Asian Politics (London: Routledge, 2010), 262-73. Dipankar Gupta, The indispensable centre: Ethnicity and politics in the Indian nation state, Journal of Contemporary Asia 20, no. 4 (1990). March 7 Party Politics in India Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi, Rulers, 651-681 Rajni Kothari, The Congress System in India, Asian Survey 4, no. 12 (1964), 1161-1173. March 9 Modi s India E. Sridharan, Behind Modi s Victory, Journal of Democracy, Volume 25, Number 4, October 2014, pp. 20-33. Vinod K. Jose, The Emperor Uncrowned: The Rise of Narendra Modi, Caravan, March 1 2012. Available at: http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/emperoruncrowned-narendra-modi-profile Spring Break!! 4
March 21 Secularism and Hindu Nationalism in India T. N. Madan, Secularism in its Place, in Rajeev Bhargava (ed.), Secularism and its Critics, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998. Ashis Nandy, The Politics of Secularism and the Recovery of Religious Tolerance, in Rajeev Bhargava (ed.), Secularism and its Critics, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998. Tariq Thachil, Embedded Mobilization: Nonstate Service Provision as Electoral Strategy in India, World Politics 63, no. 3 (2011): 434-469. March 23 India: Development, Governance, and Economy Katherine Boo, Beyond the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (New York: Random House, 2012), 50-98, 247-256. Jean Dreze & Amartya Sen, Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, Chapter 3: India s Achievements in Comparative Perspective, pp. 45-80. March 28 India-Pakistan: Nuclear Warfare Guest lecture: Prof. Christopher Clary Narang, Vipin. Posturing for Peace? Pakistan s Nuclear Postures and South Asian Stability. International Security 34, no. 3 (2010): 38 78. March 30 India-Pakistan: the Kashmir Conflict Pankaj Mishra, Death in Kashmir, The New York Review of Books; New York; Sep 21, 2000. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2000/09/21/death-in-kashmir/ Pankaj Mishra, The Birth of a Nation, The New York Review of Books; New York; Oct 5, 2000. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2000/10/05/the-birth-of-a-nation/ Pankaj Mishra, Kashmir: The Unending War, The New York Review of Books; New York; Oct 19, 2000. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2000/10/19/kashmir-the-unending-war/ April 4 Bangladesh and Democracy Steven Wilkinson, Democratic Consolidation and Failure: Lessons from Bangladesh and Pakistan, Democratization 7, no. 3 (2000): 203-226. Inge Amundsen, Democratic Dynasties? Internal Party Democracy in Bangladesh, Party Politics (November 27, 2013): 1-10. 5
April 6 Islamism, Extremism, and Political Conflict Elora Shehabuddin, Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh: Women, Democracy and the Transformation of Islamist Politics, Modern Asian Studies (2011). International Crisis Group, Political Conflict, Extremism and Criminal Justice in Bangladesh, 11 April 2016. April 11 April 13 NO CLASS Bangladesh s Present-Day Challenges Gardiner Harris, Borrowed Time on Disappearing Lands, New York Times, March 28, 2014. Human Rights Watch, Bangladesh: Disappearances, Clampdown on Critics. January 12, 2017. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/01/12/bangladeshdisappearances-clampdown-critics Alyssa Ayers, Blogger Attacks: Murdering The Idea Of Bangladesh, March 4, 2015, Huffington Post. Joshua Kurlantzick, A look at Bangladesh s steady descent into chaos, August 20, 2015, The National http://www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle/the-review/a-look-at-bangladeshs-steadydescent-into-chaos#full http://www.huffingtonpost.in/alyssa-ayres-/blogger-attacksmurdering_b_6993490.html April 18 Afghanistan: A Brief History Barnett Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan, Part II: The PDPA in Power: From the Second Cold War to the Collapse of the USSR, pp. 107-177. April 20 The Rise of the Taliban Ahmed Rashid, Taliban, Part 1: History of the Taliban Movement, pp. 17-41; 67-82. April 25 International Involvement in Afghanistan Ahmed Rashid. Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, pp 3-44. April 27 Explaining Radicalization Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among the Living, Chapters 1, 2, and Epilogue 6
May 2 Policy Towards South Asia I Special Topics: Drones Steve Coll, The Unblinking Stare, The New Yorker, November 24, 2014 Scott Shane, The Moral Case for Drones, New York Times, July 14, 2012. Daniel Brunstetter, Can We Wage a Just Drone War? The Atlantic, July 19, 2012. Peter Singer, Do Drones Undermine Democracy? New York Times, January 21, 2012. May 4 Policy Towards South Asia II Special Topics: Development Aid Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart, Fixing Failed States, chapter 5: The Promises and Perils of Aid, 85-115. William Easterly and Tobias Pfutze, Where Does the Money Go? Best and Worst Practices in Foreign Aid Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22, no. 2, Spring 2008 May 9 Conclusion, wrap-up No assigned readings 7