Spring 2009

ANS 384 • State, Capital, and Indigeneity in Modern India

Course Description

This course is an anthropological examination of the nature of the State and of Capital in modern India, looked at from the perspective of indigenous societies or adivasis in India. We'll first examine the colonial history of the formation of the modern State and of capitalism in India, as they developed in relation to adivasi societies. This should take us through a history of colonial political economy, migration, revolts, governmentality and adivasi histories of religious conversion. This will be followed by the history of nationalism and the nation-state in relation to such populations. How did such populations relate to the nationalist critique of colonialism - Gandhian or otherwise - especially in relation to questions of modernity, race, gender, class and the State? How did "Indian nationalism" relate to adivasi questions about modernity? This should lead us to examining post-independence India and the history of national development, where adivasi experience has been an overwhelming one of displacement and of new movements for self-determination. What are the implications of these shifts for understanding neoliberalism in India today? How does this anthropological examination of State and Capital in relation to Indigeneity in India reshape contemporary theories of governmentality, citizenship, violence, identity and the political?

The course will extensively use archival material and political literature in addition to books and articles. Relevant for students of: Anthropology, History, Geography, Political Science, Literature and Asian Studies.

Texts

Banerjee, Prathama. The Politics of Time Baviskar, Amita. In the Belly of the River Skaria, Ajay. Hybrid Histories. Devi, Mahasweta. Chotti Munda and His Arrow. Taussig, Michael. Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wildman Agamben, Giorgio. States of Exception. Tsing, Anna. Friction.

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