POL 515
Graduate Seminar: Political Thought in Modern India
Prof. Rahul Sagar
238 Corwin Hall
258-2369
rsagar@princeton.edu
As India’s economic, military, and cultural power expands, it becomes
increasingly important for observers to understand the ideas that have shaped and
continue to shape its political trajectory. This is especially so because India’s experiment
with constitutional democracy constitutes the most significant attempt to date to establish
this form of government in the midst of an impoverished, post-colonial, and highly
divided society. In this seminar we will examine these ideas in depth. We will study the
theories fashioned by the leading Indian intellectuals and statesmen, including Swami
Vivekanda, Aurobindo Ghosh, Gopal Gokhale, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak,
Mohandas Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Vinayak Savarkar, M. N. Roy, B. R.
Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Jayaprakash Narayan, and Ram Manohar Lohia. We will
also examine the Debates of the Constituent Assembly, which explicated the principles
and institutions underpinning the Indian Constitution. By the end of the semester, we will
be in a position to compare and contrast some of the central themes of Indian political
thought since the turn of the twentieth century.
Assignments: Term Paper (25-30 pages in length)
Meetings: Tuesdays 4:30 pm – 7.20 pm in Bendheim 317
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POL 515: Syllabus
Week 1: Vivekananda (Feb 7)
Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekanda, Calcutta: Advaita
Ashrama, 1970
Vol. 1: “Privilege”
Vol. 3: “The Future of India” and “The Work Before Us,”
Vol. 4: “India’s Message to the World,” “Our Duty to the Masses”, “Modern
India,” and “Reply to the Address of the Maharaja of Khetri,”
Vol. 5: “The East and The West” (read only “Introduction” and “The Progress of
Civilization”)
Vol. 6: “The Historical Evolution of India”
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda
Week 2: Aurobindo (Feb 14)
Aurobindo Ghosh, Bande Mataram: Early Political Writings, in The Complete Works of
Sri Aurobindo, vol. 1, Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1962 (read “The Morality of
the Boycott”, “Shall India Be Free?”, “Nationalism not Extremism”, “Europe and Asia”,
“The Foundations of Nationality,” “The Unhindu Spirit of Caste Rigidity,” “Caste and
Democracy,” “Caste and Representation,” “The Life of Nationalism”, “Asiatic
Democracy”, “Spirituality and Nationalism,” “India and the Mongolian”, “The Asiatic
Role,” “Indian Resurgence and Europe,” “Ideals Face to Face”)
http://www.aurobindo.ru/workings/sa/01/index_e.htm
Aurobindo Ghosh, "A Defense of Indian Culture" in The Complete Works of Sri
Aurobindo, vol. 20, Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1962 (only read the essay
entitled “Indian Polity”)
http://www.aurobindo.ru/workings/sa/14/the_renaissance_in_india_20a_e.pdf
Week 3: Moderates (Feb 21)
Dadabhai Naroji, Essays, Speeches, Addresses, and Writings, ed. C. L. Parekh, Bombay:
Caxton Printing, 1887 (“England’s Duties to India” and “The Moral Poverty of India”)
http://www.archive.org/stream/essaysspeechesa00paregoog#page/n52/mode/2up
http://www.archive.org/stream/essaysspeechesa00paregoog#page/n482/mode/2up
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Pherozeshah M. Mehta, India’s True Representatives, Adyar: Madras, 1895
http://www.archive.org/stream/indiastruerepres00mehtiala#page/n3/mode/2up
Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Speeches of the Gopal K. Gokhale, Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1916
(“Benares Congress Presidential Address”, “Indian Affairs”, “England’s Duty to India”,
“Elevation of the Depressed Classes”, “Our Political Situation”, “The Swadeshi
Movement”, and “East and West in India”)
http://www.archive.org/stream/speeches00gokh#page/n11/mode/2up
Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Speeches of the Honorable Mr. G. K. Gokhale, Madras: G. A.
Natesan, 1908 (“An Indian View of Indian Affairs”, “Self-Government”)
http://www.archive.org/details/speechesofhonour00gokh
Week 4: Nationalists (Feb 28)
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Writings and Speeches, Madras: Ganesh & Co, 1919 (“The Bharat
Dharma,” “Our Political Situation”, “Is Shivaji Not a National Hero?”, “The Tenets of
the New Party”, “The Shivaji Festival”, “National Education,” “Gita Rahasya”, “Karma
Yoga”)
http://www.archive.org/stream/balgangadhartil00ghosgoog#page/n6/mode/2up
D. Mackenzie Brown, “The Philosophy of Bal Gangadhar Tilak: Karma vs. Jnana in the
Gita Rahasya”, The Journal of Asian Studies , Vol. 17, No. 2., 1958
Lala Lajpat Rai, The Man in His Word, Madras: Ganesh & Co, 1907 (“A Study of Hindu
Nationalism”, “The Social Genius of Hinduism,” “Reform or Revival”)
http://www.archive.org/details/lalalajpatraima00raigoog
Lala Lajpat Rai, The Political Future of India, New York: Huebsch, 1919 (read
“Democracy in India”)
http://www.archive.org/details/politicalfuture00raigoog
Bipin Chandra Pal, Speeches of Bepin Chandra Pal, Madras: Ganesh & Co, 1907
(“Lecture V: Contribution of Islam to Indian Nationality”)
Week 5: Tagore (Mar 6)
Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism, New York: Macmillan, 1917
http://www.archive.org/stream/nationalism00tagogoog#page/n9/mode/2up
Rabindranath Tagore and Yone Noguchi, “Poet to Poet,” in Visva Bharati Quarterly, Vol.
4, No. 3, 1938 (on e-Reserves)
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Rabindranath Tagore, Creative Unity, London: Macmillan, 1922, (read “The Modern
Age” and “Spirit of Freedom”)
http://www.archive.org/stream/creativeunity00tagoiala
Ramachandra Guha, “What Gandhi Owed to Tagore” The Hindu, September 28, 2008
Week 6: Gandhi (Mar 13)
Mohandas Gandhi, Hind Swaraj and Other Writings, ed. Anthony Parel, New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1997
http://www.archive.org/details/hindswarajorindi00ganduoft
Mohandas Gandhi, Speeches and Writings, Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1922 (“Ahimsa”,
“Economic vs. Moral Progress,” and “The Doctrine of the Sword”, )
http://www.archive.org/stream/speechesandwriti032213mbp#page/n877/mode/2up
Mohandas Gandhi, The Gandhi Reader: A Sourcebook of his Life and Writings, ed.
Homer A. Jack, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1956, Chap 14-15.
Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, ed., The Mahatma and the Poet: Letters and Debates between
Gandhi and Tagore, 1915-1941, Delhi: National Book Trust, 1997 (on e-Reserves)
Week 7: Hindu Nationalism (Mar 27)
Vinayak D. Savarkar, Essentials of Hindutva, Delhi: Bharati Sahitya Sadan, 2003
http://www.savarkar.org/content/pdfs/en/essentials_of_hindutva.v001.pdf
Vinayak D. Savarkar, Hindu Rashtra Darshan, Bombay: Veer Savarkar Prakashan, 1984
(read the Address of 1940)
http://www.savarkar.org/content/pdfs/en/hindu-rashtra-darshan-en-v002.pdf
Nathuram Godse, May It Please Your Honor, Delhi: Surya Bharti Prakashan, 1994, 37149
Week 8: Caste and Class (Apr 3)
B. R. Ambedkar, The Annihilation of Caste (With a Reply to Mahatma Gandhi), Writings
and Speeches, vol. 1, Bombay: Education Department, 1944, 37-96
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/web/readings/aoc_print_orig.pdf
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B. R. Ambedkar, What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables, Bombay:
Thacker & Co, 1946, Chap. 11.
http://www.ambedkar.org/ambcd/41L.What%20Congress%20and%20Gandhi%20CHAP
TER%20XI.htm
M. N. Roy, India’s Message, Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1950, Chap. 4-5.
http://www.archive.org/details/indiasmessage031443mbp
J. B. Kripalani, The Gandhian Way, Bombay: Vora & Co, 1938 (read “Congress and
Class War” and “Left and Right-Wing”)
Week 9: Constituent Assembly Debates (Apr 10)
B. Shiva Rao, The Framing of India’s Constitution: Select Documents, New Delhi: IIPA,
1960 (on e-Reserves)
Vol. 1: Sections 1-70
Vol. 2: Sections 1, 2(I-II), 4(II)[a] [b] [d]
Vol. 4: Section 2, 19
Granville Austin, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2012, Chap. 1-2.
Subhash C. Kashyap, Our Constitution: An Introduction, New Delhi: National Book
Trust, 2001, Chap. 2
Sunil Khilnani, “The Indian Constitution and Democracy” in Zoya Hasan, E. Sridharan
and R. Sudarshan, eds., India’s Living Constitution, New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2004
Uday Mehta, “Constitutionalism” in Niraja Gopal Jayal and Pratap Mehta, eds., The
Oxford Companion to Politics in India, New Delhi: OUP, 2010
Week 10: Constituent Assembly Debates II (Apr 17)
Assignment: Please identify a topic of interest and then search through the debates to
identify 4-5 relevant speeches. It will be particularly useful to see where there was
conflict on principles grounds. The idea is to gain a better understanding of variations in
Indian thought at the time.
Constituent Assembly Debates: Official Report, New Delhi: Lok Sabha Secretariat, 2002
(text version available at Firestone)
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A text-searchable version of the CAD
http://viveks.info/search-engine-for-constituent-assembly-debates-in-india
A text-searchable version of the CAD (organized by day/session)
http://164.100.24.207/LssNew/constituent/debates.html
Week 11: Post-Independence (Apr 24)
Jayaprakash Narayan, Revolutionary’s Quest, ed. Bimal Prasad, New Delhi: OUP, 1980,
Chap 18-19 ( “From Socialism to Sarvodaya” and “A Plea for Reconstruction of the
Indian Polity”)
Rammanohar Lohia, Marx, Gandhi and Socialism, Hyderabad: Rammanohar Lohia
Samatha, 1963 (“Class and Caste” and “Toward the Destruction of Castes and Classes”)
Deendayal Upadhyaya, Integral Humanism, New Delhi: Deendayal Research Institute,
2002 (read “Lecture 3” and “Lecture 4”)
http://www.deendayalupadhyaya.org/images/book/Booklet%20on%20IntegralHumanism
.pdf
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, Rajaji Reader: Selected Writings, Madras: Vyasa, 1980
(“Gandhiji’s Answer to Marxism” and “Stifling Economic Enterprise”)
Week 12: A Look Back (May 1)
V. S. Naipaul, Area of Darkness, Chaps. 3 and 8
V. S. Naipaul, India: A Wounded Civilization, New York: Picador, 2002, Chaps. 6-8
V. S. Naipaul, India: A Million Mutinies Now, New York: Vintage, 2011 (some vignettes:
1-9, 69-75, 144-49, 161-71, 187-93, 216-35, 267-73, 406-12, 516-18)
Pratap Mehta, Burden of Democracy, New Delhi: Penguin, 2003, 1-57, 84-130
Sunil Khilnani, The Idea of India, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997, Chap. 1
and Epilogue
Ram Guha, “The Absent Liberal: An Essay on Politics and Intellectual Life,” Economic
and Political Weekly, December 15, 2001
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