This course provides an in-depth knowledge on the course design aspect for which a teacher is required to have such skills for his/her effective engagement in the teaching learning process with harnessing support using available technologies and on-line resources.

Science and technology play important roles in our lives. However, understanding how science, technology, and society work together in shaping the world we inhabit is not easy. The attempt here is not only to disentangle the multiple relationships between science, technology, and society, but also to understand how human beings perceive, relate, receive and experience the world around them through scientific knowledge and technological artefacts. Instead of treating science and technology as a matter of impact and implementation, this course will introduce a ‘new sociology’ which assumes that scientific knowledge and technological artefacts are socially shaped, not just in their usage, but also in their design and technical content. Science and technology is contested and constructed by societies, collectivity and institutions. The course will debate, whether the production and consumption of scientific knowledge is the prerogative and proprietary of a privileged few, or else society, culture and lived experiences of people play a significant role in the process? Why do we happily retreat into the world of machines? Is the modern world so taxing that human beings sometimes prefer to reconstitute it through technology? This course will attempt to unravel the multiple ways in which science and technology, individuals and institutions mutually shape one another to the benefit and sometimes detriment of society.

Among the more fascinating themes in contemporary south Asia, has been the ‘success’ of democracy in India and its ‘failure’ in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh. Yet, studies on politico-economic development of ‘democratic’ India and military dominated ‘not so democratic’ Pakistan and Bangladesh have rarely addressed, far less explained, why a common British colonial legacy led to so different politico-economic outcomes in the contemporary South Asia. This course is an attempt at introducing some such political and economic questions with relevance to broader development issues concerning mainly Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. Given the vastness of issues including different countries this course tries to introduce a thematic approach to discuss comparative performances. Not all countries will be taken up in every case. In most of the cases the regional economy of India, and not the national economy, has been considered as this can provide a more meaningful comparison.

 Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

State formation, Industrialization and development experiences in South Asia: cases of Pakistan, and Bangladesh in the context of India: import substitution vs. export promotion

Agrarian questions: reforms and technological intervention in agriculture: experiences in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Indian states of West Bengal and Kerala

Migration , development and gender: International migration: the experiences of Sri Lanka and the Indian state of Kerala; Internal migration : Cases of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Bangladesh 

The endemic poverty and the dismal state of the social sector in South Asia despite growth: A case of primary education in Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

DOLLAR APP

This course follows Social Theory I taught in the first semester. While the earlier course deals with the classical sociologists, the present one goes beyond the confines of classical theory. The course focuses largely on contemporary theorists, but it also looks at some of the theorists of early capitalism and modernity whose rich and nuanced ideas have often been swept under much homogenizing perspectives such as functionalism or structuralism etc. However the course deems it mandatory to first familiarize the students with various theoretical perspectives before it sets out to focus on individual theorists and shows how their unique ideas help us address some of the broader issues at stake in social theory. Hence the first two modules have been devoted to theoretical perspectives.

This course discusses the historical evolution and contemporary situation of a variety of issues arising in the process of the attempted transformation of India’s low-income agriculture-dominated economy after independence. Problems of industrial development and the role of services, the agrarian situation, employment, poverty and inequality, etc. are discussed with reference to the changing economic policy context. The aim is to equip students to analyse the current challenges facing the Indian economy, conduct in-depth research into particular areas of concern in the Indian economy and critique development policy in India.

This is a survey course designed to introduce students to the configuration and dynamics of social policy in countries that represent different welfare models. While aimed at identifying trends and patterns, the course is intended to help students understand the distinctiveness of social policies in different contexts and the forces- both historical and cultural- shaping them. The course adopts a political economy perspective to make sense of comparative social policy. By comparing what counts as social policy (and what does not) in different contexts- both temporally and geographically, the course problematizes the concept of social policy to discern any possible 'politics of social policy'. The overarching theme that cuts across the course is exploring role of ideas, institutions, and processes in determining the shape of social policy. Country and region-specific case studies will be used to compare select social policies.

What is money, why do we use it, and is it essential? Which objects will (or should) play this role in equilibrium (or optimal) arrangements? How is intrinsically worthless currency valued, or more generally, how can asset prices differ from “fundamental” values? How does credit work absent commitment? How can credit and money coexist? What is the role of assets in credit arrangements? What are the roles of intermediation, and of inside and outside money? What are the effects of inflation, or monetary policy, more broadly? What is optimal policy? These are some of the classic questions in monetary theory and focus of this course is to explore answers to such questions. At a deeper level, the course envisages to understand the process of exchange in the presence of frictions, and how this process might be facilitated by institutions, including money, but also credit, intermediation, and the use of assets as payment instruments or as collateral. Topics like money creation in modern economics, informal credit markets, and cryptocurrencies will also be touched upon.

The course seeks to examine the key issues engendered by as well as informing the discourse on politics of indigeneity, underlined by the intersection between the “Indigenous” and the law/legal order. This attempt calls for an understanding of the historical context of the emergence of the problem of the “tribe/tribal” manifested brazenly in the ways how the anthropological imagery about people known as “tribes” is conceived/staged. Concurrently, the engagement also entails a reflection on how the discoursing of the “tribe/tribal” and the policies/strategies of the colonial power/state as well as post-colonial state about the “tribe/tribal” inform one another.

While the major focus of the course will be on Indian context, attempt will be made to draw and engage with the relevant examples from the other contexts such as Australia, Canada and others in order to broaden and enrich the understanding of the issues at hand.

Reading/Decoding Performance is an important component of the Performance Studies Programme. Its primary focus is to critically and creatively investigate performances and enable students to represent these investigations in writing. The course will involve two significant activities: (i.) watching performances, and (ii.) reading analogous critical texts which will provide lenses
and methods through which these performances can be read/decoded.

The course will work with the assumption that methodologies to study performance might be as numerous as the kinds of performances themselves. Given this, the readings prescribed for the course will be selective rather than comprehensive. The readings will engage with a wide variety of disciplinary methods with an emphasis on careful study.

Student participation in class will take four key forms: Presence, Reading, Discussion, Writing. Through class discussions, one presentation, two response papers, a curated performance diary, and a term paper, students will be encouraged to hone their skills in
performance analysis which brings together attentive scrutiny of the materiality of performance with sophisticated critique.

Through a focus on the discourses, location and phenomenology of marginality, the course ‘Life at the Margins’ attempts to enable students to move beyond the mainstream psychology of the ‘neuter individual’ to a critical understanding of the self-in-process-in-context, including contexts of life within real and imagined marginalities. Through ethnographic encounters with the margins and a close reading of narratives from the margins, the course will trace the shifting interstices of the psyche-in-class, -gender, -caste, -race, -displacement and other markers of otherness.

via GIPHY

ECM 2 (Archival Investigations) is a second semester core course for M.A. Visual Art which introduces students to the idea of practice based research into the processes of knowledge production and canonisation through archives. The course makes a radical move in introducing students to the idea of an archive-in-making in contrast to an archive that is already made available by establishments such as the state, institutions and other such repositories/bodies of knowledge and power. By linking research methodology to artistic practice the School of Culture and Creative Expressions hopes to reinvigorate contemporary art practice and to dislodge it from being geared solely toward a market economy and to reorient it toward critical and emancipatory practices. These concerns are seen as intimately linked with the rationale of the program and the vision of the University as a whole which lay a great emphasis on critical self reflection and contextualization of the self within larger structures and practices.

This course aims to further familiarise students with methods and results of contemporary Macroeconomics. For the current semester, focus will be on Growth Theory with the objective of introducing three (broadly classified) departures from the neo-classical growth model (already covered in Macroeconomics I).

This course aims to impart in depth understanding to the students regarding assessment of young children’s development and learning. The students will be able to understand ‘what’ is assessment, ‘why’ do we need to ‘assess’ young children’s development and ‘what’ are the various procedures used for assessing young children appropriately. They will examine philosophical, sociological and psychological perspectives on assessment of young children in western as well as in the Indian context. The cross-cultural variations in assessment and the ethical considerations in assessing young children will be addressed. This course equips students with knowledge and skills to assess young children in a comprehensive manner using various techniques. The students will be able to appreciate as how assessment and curriculum are interrelated. They will also learn about the reforms done in the examination system in our country in recent times and critique these reforms.

This course is especially designed to introduce students to the discipline of Film Studies. The course will revolve around basic questions regarding: what is cinema and how is cinema different from other art forms. The course will analyse selected clips and will undertake detailed discussions regarding the use of specific techniques by the directors. It will introduce students to some of the significant pioneers in the field of cinema, movements in cinema, a few cinematic forms as well as to the specificities of cinema as a language. Modules on various movements in cinema will be included and key cinematic concepts regarding the film form and film language will be introduced to the students.  Film shots will be screened throughout and will be discussed in detail to answer the basic questions related to film as a language. Discussions will revolve around the role of editing in cinema, the different ways in which a frame can be composed, the ways in which light can be used, the role of the camera, and the ways in which sound can be used in cinema.

Besides screening several film clips, a number of articles related to cinema will be analysed in detail. The course will also focus on how ideology gets constructed in cinema.  As the course is an introductory course, the focus will be on the pioneers in the field of cinema.  For this reason the course will mainly focus on films produced in the early half of the twentieth century. 

 The objective of the course is to inculcate the basics of film appreciation in the students, and the ability to analyse cinema.It is to help students understand the special tools required to understand the ‘double language’ of cinema. It is also to facilitate the understanding that cinema is an extremely significant art form as well as an ideological apparatus.  Therefore the aim is also to create the course participants into alert spectators who can develop the ability to question the power of the cinematic apparatus. 

Module 1: Origins of Cinema

This module will begin with a brief history of the origins of cinema.  It will introduce the following pioneers in the field of Cinema: Lumiere Brothers, Georges Melies, Edwin S. Porter, D. W. Griffith, G. D. Palke, Robert Flaherty,Charlie Chaplin, Alan Crosland, Sergei Eisenstein (Eisenstein will be discussed in the next module along with the concept of the Soviet Montage). 

Selected shots from films of the pioneers: LumiereBrothers, First Films; Georges Melies, Viaje a La Luna, Martin Scorsese, Hugo; Edwin S. Porter, The Great Train Robbery; Griffith, Birth of a Nation; D. G. Phalke, Raja Harishchandar, Paresh Mokashi, Harishchandrachi Factory; Robert Flaherty, Nanook of the North;Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times; Alan Crosland, The Jazz Singer will be screened in this section,

Readings to be discussed in the class:

Chris Dashiell, “The Oldest Movies”. Web. 28 March. 2012.<http://www.cinescene.com/dash/lumiere.html>

Dwyer, Rachel and Divia Patel. “Indian Cinema: Origins and Beginnings”.Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Films. London : Reaktion ; New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, 2002.

Kracauer, Siegfried. “Basic Concepts” in Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1997.

Additional Readings for reference:

Altman, Rich.  "Dickens, Griffith and Film Theory Today," The South Atlantic Quarterly, 88, 2 (Spring 1989), 321-359.

Bazin, Andre “Charlie Chaplin”. What is Cinema Vol.1, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California press: 1967.

Chabria, Suresh. “D.G. Phalke and the Melies Tradition in Early Indian Cinema”, Kintop 2. Frankfurt and Main, 1993.

Gunning, Tom. “The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant Garde”.  Thomas Elsaesser (ed). Early Cinema Space, Frame, Narrative. London: British Film Institute, 1990.

Module II:

Film Language: Key concepts: This module will discuss the evolution of the language of cinema.  It will discussdebates around significant principles of film language such as the Soviet Montage (editing), Deep Focus (camera), Mise-en-scene (staging shots), 180-degree rule, Eyeline matching, Lighting, Close-up, Sound, Music and Jump cut.  It will also discuss key cinematic concepts such as Spectatorship, Suture, Scopophilia, Voyeurism, the cinematic apparatus and counter-cinema.

To illustrate the above stated: Clips from Eisenstein’sBattleship Potemkin, Orson Welles’Citizen Kane, Dreyer’sThe Passion of Joan of Arc, Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,Ritwik Ghatak’sKomal Gandhar,Godard’s Pierrot Le Fouand A bout de souffleand Guru Datt’sPayasa will be screened in this section.

Readings to be discussed in the class:

Balzacs, Bela. “The Close-Up”, in Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen & Leo Braudy Eds. Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Bazin, Andre. “The Evolution of the Language of Cinema.”What is Cinema Vol.1, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California press: 1967.

Eisenstein, Pudovkin and Alexandrov.  “Statemet on Sound”. Braudy and Cohen (ed). Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings.  New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.

Eisenstein, Sergei. “A Dialectic Approach to Film Form” in Film Form: Essays in Film Theory, Edited and Translated by Jay Leyda, San Diego, New York, London: A harvest/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers: 1977.

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”.  Film and Theory: An Anthology, Robert Stam Toby Miller, (ed.) Blaeckwell Pubishers, Oxford, 2000.

Selections from:Hayward, Susan.Key Concepts in Cinema Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 2004.

Additional readings for reference:

Burch, Noel.  Theory of Film Practice.  New York: Braeger, 1973.

David Bordwell, “Classical Hollywood Cinema: Narrational Principles and Procedures”. Philip Rosen (ed). Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Dyer, R. White. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.

Eisenstein, Sergei. “Beyond the Shot (The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram)”. The Film Form. Harcourt: Brace & World, 1949.

Eisenstein,Sergei. “Methods of Montage” in Film Form: Essays in Film Theory, Edited and Translated by Jay Leyda, San Diego, New York, London: A harvest/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers: 1977.

Ghatak, Ritwik.  “Sound in Cinema”.  Cinema and I.  Calcutta: Ritwik Memorial Trust, 1989.

Heath, Stephen.  "Notes on Suture."  Screen.  Vol. 18, No. 4 (Winter 1977), 48-76.

Kuntzel, J.  "The Treatement of Ideology in the Textual Analysis of Film."  Screen.  Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 1973).

Metz, Christian. Film Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.

Module III

Movements in Cinema: This module will focus on some of the movements in cinema such as German Expressionism, Surrealism, Italian neo-realism, French New Wave Cinema/Nouvelle Vague, Indian New Wave Cinema, New German Cinema, Cinema Nova, Third Cinema and new cinema from Iran. It will also focus on the concept of the auteur in cinema.

Clips from Murnau’s Nosferatu, Bunuel and Dali’s Un Chien Andalou,De Sica’sBicycle Thieves,Agnes Varda’s La Pointe Courte, Resnais’s Hiroshima Mon Amour,Fassbinder’s In the year of Thirteen Moons, Satyajit Ray’sPather Panchali, M.S. Sathyu’s Garam Hawa,Aparna Sen’s 36 Chowringhee Lane, Glauber Rocha, Terra em Transe, Sembene’s Xala,Martha Mesoraz’sNine Months,Majid Majidi’s The Colour of Paradise, will be screened in this section.

Readings to be discussed in the class:

Graham, (ed).  “The New Wave”, first published in Ecran Francais, No. 144, 1948, 17-23.

Simona Monticelli, “Italian Post war Cinema and Neo Realism”. John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson, (eds). Oxford Guide to Film Studies. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press: 1998.

Selections from: Hayward, Susan. Key concepts in Cinema Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 2004.

Solanas, F. and Getino,O. “Towards a Third Cinema”. Chanan, M. (ed). Twenty Five Years of the New Latin American Cinema, London, British Film Institute publishing. 1983.

Willman, Paul and Pines, Jim., (eds).  Questions of Third Cinema.  London: British Film Institute, 1989.

Additional Readings for reference:

Bazin, Andre.  "De la politique des auteurs."  Cahiers du Cinema, No. 70 (April 57), 2-11.

Coates, P. The Gorgon’s Gaze: German Cinema, Expressionism and the Image of Horror.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1991.

Corporation, National Films Division. “The Indian New Wave and Beyond 1969-95”.Indian Cinema: A Visual Voyage. 1998.

Ponzanesi, Sandra and Marguerite Waller. Ed. Postcolonial Cinema Studies. London and

New York: Routledge, 2012.

Ray, Satyajit.  Our Films Their Films.  New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1976.

Sarris, Andrew.  Interviews with Film Directors.  New york: Avon, 1967.

Module IV:  (For paucity of time, the fourth module will be transacted through group presentations by students)

Forms in Cinema:  Musical, Melodrama, Film Noir, Horror Movies, Westerns, Science Fiction, The Classic Hollywood Cinema, Gangster/Criminal/ Detective Thriller.

Students for their presentations will be encouraged to discuss clips from Mehboob Khan’sMother India,Mizoguchi’sOrizuru Osen, Hitchcock’sPsycho; Joseph Stein’sFiddler on the Roof, James Cameron’sAvatar,Fleming’sThe Virginian, Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly,Fleming’s Gone With the Wind,Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay and Coppola's The Godfather, besides any other film clips that they would like to include for their presentations.

Background Readings for presentations:

A. Freeland, Cynthia. “Feminist Frameworks for Horror Films”. Braudy and Cohen (ed). Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings.  New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.

Gledhill, C. (ed)Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and the Women’s Film, London,British Institute Publishing. 1987.

Schartz, Thomas. “Film Genre and the Genre Film”. Braudy and Cohen (ed). Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings.  New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.

Selections from: Hayward, Susan. Key concepts in Cinema Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 2004.

Thompson, Kristin.  The Classical Hollywood Cinema:  Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960.  London: Routledge, 1985.

Warshow, Robert. “Movie Chronicle: The Westerner”. Braudy and Cohen (ed). Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings.  New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.

 AdditionalGeneral readings on Cinema Studies:

Benjamin, Walter, and J. A. Underwood. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical   Reproduction”. London: Penguin, 2008.

Bresson, Robert.  Notes on the Cinematographer.  London: Quaret, 1986.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement Image. Athlone Press: London, 1986.

---. Cinema 2: Time Image. London: Athlone Press, 1989.

Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. New York: Routledge, 2012.

Ryan, Michael and Melissa Lenos. Film Analysis: Technique and Meaning in Narrative Film. New York, London: 2012.

Wollen, Peter. Readings & Writings: Semiotic Counter Strategies. London: Verso Publishing, 1982.

---. Signs and Meaning in the Cinema. Blumington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1972.

Vasudevan, Ravi. Making Meaning in Indian Cinema. Oxford University Press: 2000.

The course seeks to introduce some of the important themes and concepts which are indispensable to the study of politics. The orientation of the course is such that it aims to escape a certain conundrum where a strict adherence to either variant of political theory -normative and critical kinds- invariably leads to a disabling engagement with the other. The course, therefore, plans to undertake a study of politics through a creative blend of both the normative and the critical aspects. The course consists of 6 modules. It starts by describing the connection between politics and political theory followed by the engagement with wide ranging themes broadly schematized under the rubrics of political ideologies, normative values, and democracy. 

This course is designed to introduce students to the concepts of culture and identity within societies. What shapes notions in societies about “culture”? How are individual and collective identities shaped by culture and what do we understand about their interactions in societies? What are the assumptions embedded in these categories of culture and identities about people, communities, and histories? This course engages with sociological and anthropological perspectives to these notions and aims to enable students to question and de-stabilise fixed notions about culture and identity that take shape and get complicated through categories of age, race, ethnicity, gender, class, caste, nationality, diaspora, and globalisation. Since youth are often the key sites where anxieties of cultures and identities play out in societies, this course will engage with youth cultures and identities to unpack how global movements offer new meanings to notions of belonging and difference.

This course is compulsory for students of BA Hons. History and is elective for other SUS students. The course is designed to help students understand structures and dynamics of the 'medieval' and 'early modern' world (c. 500 - 1700 C.E.) by focusing on relations among societies and civilizations rather than on the evidently 'separated' aspects of those societies across time.  Attention is drawn towards phenomena such as human migration, cultural (including religious) movements, disease experiences, technological diffusions and patterns of economic activity that spanned regions or several parts of the globe.  The course focuses on the collapse of the Roman empire 300 - 500 C.E. (and its neighbor the Sasanian empire), the emergence and expansion of Christian and Islamic polities to c. 1200 C.E., environmental conditions and human environmental impacts in Eurasia between c. 800 and 1500 CE, the European colonizations of the Americas 1500 - 1700 C.E. and changing interactions between Eurasia and Africa consequent upon 'New World' colonization.  The course acquaints students with world or global history not as a sum of regional or national histories but rather as 'connected histories'.

If Enlightenment, French Revolution, and Industrial Revolution are considered as three crucial phenomena that led to the rise and advancement of Sociology as a discipline, social change may be considered as the primordial Sociological theme! With the rise of modern state and discourses around its significance in influencing the wellbeing of its citizens, development has evolved as a critical avenue for understanding transformation. Sociologists have tried to understand transformation by reflecting on its diverse components including perceived roots, patterns, processes, agents, aims, and consequences. The aspiration of this course is to orient the students towards developing an understanding of social transformation specifically focusing on the meanings and manifestations of social change and development. The course is meant for beginners in social transformation. One aim of this course is to familiarize the students with the development of significant theoretical ideas in this field. The other aim is to situate these theoretical propositions in the context of contemporary socio-economic and political setting. Upon completion of this course the students should be able to comprehend the diverse meanings of social transformation and understand their significance.

Neural development during the infancy period indicates the need for planning for early stimulation —especially for this age. Infants and toddlers have abilities to learn and develop across domains, thus pointing to the need for day care supervisors to approach activities for young children in a holistic manner. In addition, linguistic, cultural and social diversity with which families approach caregiving needs to be taken into consideration by the facilitators in a day care centre. This course will focus on organizing programmes for infants and toddlers and planning for developmentally and contextually appropriate activities for older children as well. 

EPC is a compulsory course within the General Education Component of vocational programme offered in the first and second semester of B.Voc programme in AUD. This course aims to equip students to develop their English langauge skills so that they can engage in everyday conversations and share their views and ideas in a vocational or training setting as per their vocational cohort. The course primarilly focusses on improving the proficiency and specific langauge needs of students.  

By the end of this course the students will be able to :

·       Exchange information by forming and responding to simple

        questions

·       Understand basic everyday expressions and short, simple 

        texts

·       Engage in simple oral and written communication in order to

        provide and obtain information

·       Initiate conversation in group, negotiate views and work in

        collaboration

·       Critically engage with basic readings like newspaper articles,

        summarise  and paraphrase to support arguments

·       Make presentations

.       Write opinion paragraphs highlighting differences ,

        compare and contrast, add preferences using connectors and

        discourse markers

This course is an exploration of the attempt by some of the important thinkers/figures of the colonized world and society to imagine and fashion forms of decolonization. To engage in this mode of inquiry entails not only an understanding of the larger milieu in which a thinker is situated but also an investigation into why and how a particular form of future came be to be envisaged and conceived. In undertaking this venture, the concern of the course is less about whether the attempts of the thinkers remained realized or unrealized than about foregrounding a range of political futures which could conflict or complement one another. Such exploration also points us towards the direction of the possible worlds that can be aspired for and inhabited.

Much of the engagement of the course will pertain to the diverse thinkers/figures from the Indian context. In addition to the popular figures such as Gandhi, Savarkar, Aurobindo, Tagore, Ambedkar, Nehru, the course will introduce Jaipal Singh, the Adivasi leader from the present-day Jharkhand, who is popularly known for his participation in Constituent Assembly debates. The assembling of these figures within a synchronous frame is less an act of merely putting them together than to underscore the tension, conflict, or equivalence between the wide-ranging positions or ‘standpoints’ on the discursively related questions of nation and nationalism, west and east, colonialism, violence and marginalization, freedom, humanism, etc. In this engagement, the course will also draw from critical voices dealing with the similar questions from African-Caribbean context in the form of negritude and Fanon