Colonialism, Representation, and Power: Themes From South Asian History

POLS 710: Seminar
2008 Rama Watumull Distinguished Visiting Scholar
M.S.S. Pandian

Time: 10am to 12:30pm
Day: Mondays
Place: BUSAD E203
CRN Number: 86948
Course Description:
This graduate seminar focuses on the history of colonial encounter in South Asia from a new historiographical perspective. Often the history of colonialism gets written as a story of monolithic opposition between the subject nation and its colonizers. This mode of narrativizing history gives both colonialism and nationalism a univocal meaning and a fictive internal coherence. The proposed course would problematize the so-called internal coherence of colonialism and nationalism in the context of how they mediate and are mediated by relations of power. While this exploration could be done by drawing on themes from different domains of colonial/national practices such as political economy, culture and politics, the course focuses primarily on the domain of culture. Through the readings, the course will engage with at least four overarching conceptual issues � Europe, hybridity, identity, and agency.
Course Requirements:
The course relies on engaged readings of texts and active participation in class discussion. Every student will be responsible for at least one class presentation based on the weekly readings. The actual number of presentations will be decided on the basis of the class size and in consultation with the students. Presentations are meant to function as a springboard for classroom discussion. The presentations and classroom discussions will be evaluated for 40% of the grade.
A final paper of 4,000 to 5, 000 words is due at the end of the semester. Papers may critically engage with a cluster of course readings or on specific themes with additional readings. A one-page note on the paper is due during week 8. The final paper will be evaluated for 60% of the grade.
Assigned Books:
Partha Chatterjee, Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).
M.S.S. Pandian, Brahmin and Non-Brahmin: Genealogies of Tamil Political Present (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2007).
Ashish Nandy, The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983).
Tentative Schedule:

Week 1 (January 14): Introduction
Week 2 (January 28): Rules of Colonial Difference
Week 3 (February 4): Hybridities
Week 4 (February 25): Making and Managing Identities
Week 5 (March 3): Modes of Speaking
Week 6 (March 10): What Counts as Politics
Week 7 (March 5): New Religiosities
Week 8 (March 17): Encoding Architecture
Week 9 (March 31): Taming the Popular
Week 10 (April 7): Gendering the Colony and the Nation
Week 11 (April 14): Taming the Popular
Week 12 (April 21): History as the Sign of the Nation
Week 13 (April 28): Intimate Enemy
Week 14 (May 5): Extended Office Hours

Colonialism, Representation, and Power: Themes From South Asian History

POLS 710: Seminar
2008 Rama Watumull Distinguished Visiting Scholar
M.S.S. Pandian

Time: 10am to 12:30pm
Day: Mondays
Place: BUSAD E203
CRN Number: 86948
Course Description:
This graduate seminar focuses on the history of colonial encounter in South Asia from a new historiographical perspective. Often the history of colonialism gets written as a story of monolithic opposition between the subject nation and its colonizers. This mode of narrativizing history gives both colonialism and nationalism a univocal meaning and a fictive internal coherence. The proposed course would problematize the so-called internal coherence of colonialism and nationalism in the context of how they mediate and are mediated by relations of power. While this exploration could be done by drawing on themes from different domains of colonial/national practices such as political economy, culture and politics, the course focuses primarily on the domain of culture. Through the readings, the course will engage with at least four overarching conceptual issues � Europe, hybridity, identity, and agency.
Course Requirements:
The course relies on engaged readings of texts and active participation in class discussion. Every student will be responsible for at least one class presentation based on the weekly readings. The actual number of presentations will be decided on the basis of the class size and in consultation with the students. Presentations are meant to function as a springboard for classroom discussion. The presentations and classroom discussions will be evaluated for 40% of the grade.
A final paper of 4,000 to 5, 000 words is due at the end of the semester. Papers may critically engage with a cluster of course readings or on specific themes with additional readings. A one-page note on the paper is due during week 8. The final paper will be evaluated for 60% of the grade.
Assigned Books:
Partha Chatterjee, Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).
M.S.S. Pandian, Brahmin and Non-Brahmin: Genealogies of Tamil Political Present (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2007).
Ashish Nandy, The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983).
Tentative Schedule:

Week 1 (January 14): Introduction
Week 2 (January 28): Rules of Colonial Difference
Week 3 (February 4): Hybridities
Week 4 (February 25): Making and Managing Identities
Week 5 (March 3): Modes of Speaking
Week 6 (March 10): What Counts as Politics
Week 7 (March 5): New Religiosities
Week 8 (March 17): Encoding Architecture
Week 9 (March 31): Taming the Popular
Week 10 (April 7): Gendering the Colony and the Nation
Week 11 (April 14): Taming the Popular
Week 12 (April 21): History as the Sign of the Nation
Week 13 (April 28): Intimate Enemy
Week 14 (May 5): Extended Office Hours

Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Hawai'i, Manoa
1890 East-West Road, Moore Hall 416, Honolulu, Hawai'i 96822
Phone: (808) 956-5652, Fax: (808) 956-6345, Email: csas@hawaii.edu