MAP-UA 503 Cultures and Contexts: South Asia Insrtuctor: Arvind Rajagopal FALL 2013 Class Period: T, Th 9:30 am- 10.45 am Place: Cantor 102 Instructor: Arvind Rajagopal Office: East Bldg 820, 239 Greene St. Office hrs: by appt Tel: 212-998-9032 Email: ar67 @nyu.edu South Asian Media Cultures The South Asian subcontinent is in many ways at the heart of contemporary globalization. Few regions contain a higher density of population experiencing massive social transformation ranging from new modes of consumption and aspiration, to accelerated urbanization, rising social inequality, and violent inter and intra-state conflict. A little analyzed, yet central catalyst for these transformations is represented by practices of cultural mediation, and increasingly, through print and other communication technologies. The latter, understood as media and entertainment industries more broadly, have grown at a rate greater than that of the economy as a whole for several years now. This course takes the current centrality of media to social life as neither entirely new, nor unprecedented. Rather, we will use both technological media and practices of mediation - from rumor and cultural symbols (the cow, khadi cloth, Mother India), print and chromolithography, to cinema, television, internet (including social media such as You tube), and cellphones as a point of entry for understanding the relationship between culture and technology; South Asian diaspora; mediated religion, and a range of inter-related topics in media history. Required texts: Perry Anderson, The Indian Ideology Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers Arvind Rajagopal, Politics After Television And additional readings as noted. Recommended text: Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi. In addition to required readings, some weeks will include suggestions for recommended readings. All additional readings will be communicated to the students and made available to them via Blackboard/email. Note: Attendance at lecture is not graded but is advisable if you want to do well in this class. Attendance at recitation sections is required, and will be graded. Class Code of Conduct: 1
Laptops, recording devices, SMS messaging/ email devices, or other portable communication devices are not to be used during the class. Late arrivals are disruptive to the classroom environment, and prevents you from fully participating and assimilating the information and materials discussed in class. Repeated tardiness will lower your participation grade in section. Plagiarism is the unauthorized and/or uncited use of the words or ideas of another person. It is a serious academic offense that can result in referral to the Committee on Academic Misconduct and failure for the course. Such offenses will be taken with the utmost seriousness. When students submit papers that are at a significantly higher standard than their previous demonstrated work, they can expect to be asked to produce evidence that in fact it is their own work that they have submitted. Such evidence would include preparatory notes taken during research, both in paper and on computer, and earlier draft versions of the submitted work. In order to generate informed discussion, it is essential that the reading for each week be done before the class meets. * Students are required to attend every session. Anybody unable to attend a particular session will have to provide an adequately documented explanation and write an analytical report on that week s reading/viewing by the next meeting, to be presented to the TA. This is a writing intensive course. Papers will be assessed on the basis of: structure, mechanics, comprehension of the material read and finally, ability to evaluate and critically assess sources and synthesize ideas and information from multiple sources into a coherent whole. You are also required to substantiate your statements with citations, using either footnotes or in-text bracketed references in a consistent way. Students must complete all assignments and exams to pass this course. Course Requirements and composition of grade: Attendance and participation in Recitation Section: 20% Writing assessments: 1 pagers (200-300 words; best five out of six): 15% In-class midterm: 25% Research Paper: 20% Final exam (exclusive of paper): 25% Total: 100% While the distribution of letter grades will be broadly as usual, the following qualitative guidelines will be used to determine borderline cases: A = Artful, ambitious, astute B = Basic to borderline C = Careless, clumsy, (in)competent 2
D = Dismal, dreadful F = Fouled up, Forget it An A will be awarded only to students who not only follow basic class guidelines but demonstrate ambition by performing artful and astute work. For those who do basic work, fulfilling the minimal expectations of reading, writing, and participation in the class, can expect anywhere from a B + to a B-, the latter bordering on careless, but just short of it. C indicates negligent work, omitting to fulfill basic class requirements, and may include a record of unexcused absences, and of failure to write weekly reports, etc. D indicates the characteristics of C on a more extensive scale. Schedule of Classes Week One a) Tues Sept 3: Introduction Screening: Gandhi (dir. Richard Attenborough, 1983) b) Thurs Sept 5: Anti-colonialism and non-violence Gandhi continued and discussion. Hind Swaraj by MK Gandhi (Chapters 5-10, Ch 14, & Ch 20). Link below: http://www.mkgandhi.org/swarajya/coverpage.htm Week Two Anti-colonialism and violence contd. a) Tues Sept 10 Perry Anderson, The Indian Ideology, Chapter on Gandhi. What Was Colonialism? And, the Emergence of An Indian Public Sphere. b) Thurs Sept 12 Screening tba. The East India Company Raj, 1772-1850, in Barbara and Thomas Metcalf, A Concise History of India (Cambridge, 2002). Week Three What Was Colonialism? And, the Emergence of An Indian Public Sphere (contd.) a) Tues Sept 17 3
Ranajit Guha, Transmission and C.A. Bayly, The Indian Ecumene: An Indigenous Public Sphere; from Arvind Rajagopal ed. The Indian Public Sphere. b) Thurs Sept 19 Radhika Singha, Settle, mobilize, verify: identification practices in colonial India. Week Four Violence, Vision and the Colonial State a) Tues Sept 24 Screening: Mangal Pandey: The Rising Satan Let Loose upon Earth : The Kanpur Massacres in India in the Revolt of 1857 by Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Past & Present no. 128, Aug 1990, pp 92-116. b) Thursday, Sept. 26 Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, History of the Bijnor Rebellion (excerpt). Screening: Junoon. (dir. Shyam Benegal) Week Five Image and Artifact in Indian Nationalism a) Tues Oct 1 Christopher Pinney, The Politics of Popular Images, in Rajagopal ed. The Indian Public Sphere. Sumathi Ramaswamy, The Goddess and the Nation: Mapping Mother India (excerpt) b) Thurs Oct 4 Sumit Sarkar, The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal (excerpt). Emma Tarlo, Clothing Matters (excerpt). Screening: The Home and the World (Satyajit Ray, 1984). Week Six Independence and Partition a) Tues Oct 8 4
Perry Anderson, The Indian Ideology. Chapter on Partition. Screening: Earth (dir. Deepa Mehta) b) Thurs Oct 10 Midterm Review Week Seven a) Tues Oct 15 FALL RECESS b) Thurs Oct 17: Midterm Week Eight Democracy and under-development a) Tues Oct 22 Guest lecture by Christophe Jaffrelot, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Sciences Po, Paris. Reading tba. b) Thurs Oct 24 B.R. Ambedkar, The Annihilation of Caste Week Nine Democracy and under-development contd. a) Tues Oct 29 Guest lecture: Paromita Vohra, Documentary film-maker. Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, ix-83; 247-254. b) Thurs Oct 31 Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, tba. Screening: Slum Dog Millionaire. Week Ten Democracy and under-development contd. a) Tues Nov 5 Perry Anderson, Indian Ideology. Chapter on Nehru. Screening: Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1957). The Politics of Mediation and the Mediation of Politics 5
b) Thurs Nov 7 Arvind Rajagopal ed. Politics After Television Appendix (pp 284-291) and Chapter 1. Screening: In the Name of God Week Eleven The Politics of Media and the Mediation of Politics contd. a) Tues Nov 12 Rajagopal, Politics After Television. Chap 2 and 3. b) Thurs Nov 14 Rajagopal, Politics After Television, Chap 4 (pp150-186). Week Twelve Democratization and its Discontents a) Tues Nov 19 Cities, in Sunil Khilnani, The Idea of India Screening: tba b) Thurs Nov 21 from the Sarai Reader and tba Screening: tba Week Thirteen Breaking the Mold a) Tues Nov 26: b) Tejaswini Ganti, Bollywood, 2d ed. pp. 1-55. Screening: Love, Sex aur Dhoka [Love, Sex and Treachery] c) Thurs Nov 28: ***THANKSGIVING*** Emergent Representational Orders a) Tues Dec 3 Tom Waugh, Words of Command On the Aesthetics and Ideology of the Indian Documentary Film: A Conversation, (with Paromita Vohra), Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, 2012, pp. 7-20. Screening: Jai Bhim Comrade b) Thurs Dec 5 6
Round up and review. Week Fourteen Tues Dec 10 Round-up and Review. Final take-home exam papers are due via email to your TA Dec 20, 5 pm. 7