South Asian Studies 199:
Modern India Through Narrative Forms
Instructor:
Shankar Ramaswami
Lecturer
Department of South Asian Studies
Email Address:
sramaswami@fas.harvard.edu
Meetings:
Fall 2014, Tuesdays, 1-4 pm
1 Bow Street, Room 330
Office Hours:
TBA, 1 Bow Street, Room 322
Course Description
This course will explore histories, politics, social relations, and subjectivities in modern India
through close readings of novels, short stories, and autobiographies. The course will consider the
depictions, understandings, and illuminations in these narrative forms of deprivation, conflicts, and
intimate relations in villages; nationalism, civil disobedience, and Gandhi; Hindu-Muslim relations
and experiences of Partition; and the workings of caste and gender relations in modern India.
Readings will include works (in English translation) by Bibhutibhushan Banerji, Munshi Premchand,
Saadat Hasan Manto, Rahi Masoom Reza, and U. R. Ananthamurthy.
Course Requirements and Grading:
1) Attendance, Participation, and Weekly Response Papers (50%)
Each week, by Monday, 3 pm, students will email a response paper to the instructor (2 single-spaced
pages maximum, 12 point font). In these papers, students should offer concise reflections on the
readings, closely discuss one or more passages, and raise questions for class discussion. Please avoid
descriptive summaries. In weeks four, eleven, and thirteen, students should include reflections on
the films in the response papers.
Note: Please do not use laptops, iPads, cell phones, or other electronic devices in class. Bring hard
copies of the readings for class discussions.
2) Paper (50%)
Students will write one paper on any of the readings in the course. The paper should present a
clearly stated thesis or question; provide close discussions of the reading(s); and offer insights into
what can be learned about and from India from the selected reading(s).
An abstract of the paper topic (one paragraph) is due in class on Friday, Oct.17.
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A first draft of the paper (7-8 double-spaced pages) will be due on Friday, Oct.31. (20%)
The final draft (10-12 double-spaced pages) will be due in class on Tuesday, Dec.2. (30%)
Books Ordered at the Coop:
Fakir Mohan Senapati, Six Acres and a Third: The Classic Nineteenth-Century Novel about Colonial India,
trans. Rabi Shankar Mishra, Satya P. Mohanty, Jatindra K. Nayak, and Paul St-Pierre. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2005.
Premchand, The Gift of a Cow: A Translation of the Classic Hindi Novel Godaan, trans. Gordon C.
Roadarmel. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.
Raja Rao, Kanthapura. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1974.
U. R. Ananthamurthy, Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man, trans. A. K. Ramanujan. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2012.
Bama, Karukku, Second Edition, trans. Lakshmi Holmstrom. New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2011.
Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, Third Edition.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Please note:
The following books are available for online purchase (e.g. Amazon, South Asia Books) and will also
be accessible as pdfs on the course iSite:
Bibhutibhushan Banerji, Pather Panchali (Song of the Road), trans. T. W. Clark and Tarapada Mukherji.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968.
Rahi Masoom Reza, A Village Divided, trans. Gillian Wright. New Delhi: Penguin, 2008.
Alterations to the syllabus may occur during the course.
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Schedule
Week 1 (T, Sep.2): Introduction
Week 2 (T, Sep.9): Colonialism and Auto-Critique
Fakir Mohan Senapati, Six Acres and a Third: The Classic Nineteenth-Century Novel about Colonial India,
trans. Rabi Shankar Mishra, Satya P. Mohanty, Jatindra K. Nayak, and Paul St-Pierre. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2005.
Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, Third Edition, pp.4491. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Week 3 (T, Sep.16): Worlds of the Village
Bibhutibhushan Banerji, Pather Panchali (Song of the Road), trans. T. W. Clark and Tarapada Mukherji,
pp.1-250. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968.
Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, Third Edition, pp.92122. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Week 4 (T, Sep.23): Worlds of the Village (cont.)
Bibhutibhushan Banerji, Pather Panchali (Song of the Road), trans. T. W. Clark and Tarapada Mukherji,
pp.251-304. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968.
Satyajit Ray, "A Long Time on the Little Road." In Our Films, Their Films, pp.30-37. New Delhi:
Orient Longman, 1976.
Satyajit Ray, "The Making of a Film: Structure, Language and Style." In Speaking of Films, trans.
Gopa Majumdar, pp.29-43. New Delhi: Penguin, 2005.
Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, Third Edition, pp.123166. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
View Film: (Lamont LRC): Pather Panchali. Dir. Satyajit Ray, 1955, 120 min.
Week 5 (T, Sep.30): Politics and Cosmology
Premchand, The Gift of a Cow: A Translation of the Classic Hindi Novel Godaan, trans. Gordon C.
Roadarmel, pp.v-193. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.
Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, Third Edition, pp.167202. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
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Week 6 (T, Oct.7): Politics and Cosmology (cont.)
Premchand, The Gift of a Cow: A Translation of the Classic Hindi Novel Godaan, trans. Gordon C.
Roadarmel, pp.194-437. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.
Week 7 (T, Oct.14): Nationalism and Subjectivity
Raja Rao, Kanthapura. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1974.
Shahid Amin, "Gandhi as Mahatma: Gorakhpur District, Eastern UP, 1921-2." In Subaltern Studies
III: Writings on South Asian History and Society, ed. Ranajit Guha, pp.1-61. Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 1984.
F, Oct.17: Abstract (one paragraph) of paper topic due.
Week 8 (T, Oct.21): Partition, Madness, and Violence
Saadat Hasan Manto, "Toba Tek Singh," "The Dog of Tithwal," "Khol Do," "Ram Khilavan." In
Manto: Selected Short Stories, trans. Aatish Taseer, pp.1-22, 51-54, 91-100. Noida: Random House
India, 2008.
Saadat Hasan Manto, "The Last Salute," "The Assignment," "Colder Than Ice," "Dutiful Daughter."
In Kingdom's End and Other Stories, trans. Khalid Hasan, pp.25-34, 113-129. New York: Verso, 1987.
Saadat Hasan Manto, "Black Margins." In Mushirul Hasan, ed. Inventing Boundaries: Gender, Politics and
the Partition of India, pp.287-299. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Urvashi Butalia, "Community, State, and Gender: Some Reflections on the Partition of India." In
Mushirul Hasan, ed. Inventing Boundaries: Gender, Politics and the Partition of India, pp.178-207. New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, Third Edition, pp.203230. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Week 9 (T, Oct.28): Interweaving and Vivisection
Rahi Masoom Reza, A Village Divided, trans. Gillian Wright, pp.xviii-156. New Delhi: Penguin,
2008.
Ashis Nandy, "The Invisible Holocaust and the Journey as an Exodus: The Poisoned Village and the
Stranger City." In An Ambiguous Journey to the City: The Village and Other Odd Ruins of the Self in the
Indian Imagination, pp.98-140. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001.
F, Oct.31: First draft of paper due (7-8 pages).
Week 10 (T, Nov.4): Interweaving and Vivisection (cont.)
Rahi Masoom Reza, A Village Divided, trans. Gillian Wright, pp.157-327. New Delhi: Penguin, 2008.
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Week 11 (T, Nov.11): Caste, Distortion, and Rebellion
U. R. Ananthamurthy, Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man, trans. A. K. Ramanujan. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2012.
D. L. Sheth, "Caste in Modern India." In Ramin Jahanbegloo, India Revisited: Conversations on
Continuity and Change, pp.82-105. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, Third Edition, pp.231264. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
View Film (Lamont LRC): Samskara. Dir. Pattabhirami Reddy, 1970, 113 min.
Week 12 (T, Nov.18): Caste, Gender, and Religion
Bama, Karukku, Second Edition, trans. Lakshmi Holmstrom. New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2011.
Ravikumar and R. Azhagarasan, "General Introduction." In Ravikumar and R. Azhagarasan, eds.
The Oxford India Anthology of Tamil Dalit Writing, pp.xv-xxxiii. New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2012.
Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, Third Edition, pp.265294. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Week 13 (T, Nov.25): Caste and Class in Contemporary India
Ajay Navaria, "Tattoo," "Hello Premchand," "Scream." In Unclaimed Terrain, trans. Laura Brueck,
pp.105-191. New Delhi: Navayana, 2013.
Uday Prakash, "Mohandas." In Walls of Delhi: Three Stories, trans. Jason Grunebaum, pp.43-131.
New York: Seven Stories Press, 2012.
View Film (Lamont LRC): Mohandas. Dir. Mazhar Kamran, 2008, 112 min.
Week 14 (T, Dec.2): Concluding Thoughts
T, Dec 2: Final draft of paper due (10-12 pages).