Course Description

American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr opined that ‘a social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution’. For Karl Marx these transformative ‘revolutions are the locomotives of history’, which herald both social change and state transformation.

This elective is a standalone course which complements other core and elective courses on history, political science, social movements and social transformation. The aim is to delve in-depth on the theories, genesis, episodes and lessons from both historical revolutions and contemporary social movements in terms of their impact on the contours of the state and social transformation, especially in the South Asian region. This course will be suitable for law, social science and public policy students to grasp the trajectories of social change, political and institutional formations and justiciable legislative entitlements for economic, political and social rights. This is an interdisciplinary course which will draw heavily on history, political science, sociology and other social sciences with a global lens but a heavy focus on the Indian experience.

In the last three centuries, successful revolutions have marked turning points in history, while social movements have often cemented human rights-based legislative changes. In the last three decades, from the colour revolutions in the former Soviet bloc to the Arab Spring in the Middle East revolutions and street protests have been fulcrum of pro-democracy regime changes. More recently, in the South Asian region Gen Z uprisings in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka have heralded the departure of authoritarian regimes. However, the region also has a long tradition of non-violent anti-colonial movements and single-issue social movements which have in Nancy Fraser’s typology encompassed the typology of the politics of representation, recognition and redistribution.

The emphasis of this course will largely be on identifying the difference of old and new social movements and understanding their impact on state systems and institutions. Inter-sectional analysis of class, caste, race, gender and other  multi-dimensional inequalities will be embedded throughout the course.

This is an expansive course with a panoptic perspective. Therefore, it will focus only on selected revolutions and social movements of historical and contemporary relevance which an emphasis on those which have heralded significant political and legal changes. However, there is a paucity of time and inability to include study of other important movements for environmental change.

The readings primarily consist of academic and research articles which analyse historical and contemporary debates which have been published in academic journals. Since, this is an expansive course, the readings have been supplemented with popular readings, videos and class activities. The preparation and mutual sharing of short reflection presentations should aid students who are unable to complete all the readings.

The interactive lectures will follow the format of 45 minutes of lectures which will include video clips and other visual aids. This will be followed by 15 minutes of open-ended questions. The second half of every session will consist of 2 presentations of 10 minutes each followed by a group class activity for 30 minutes. Students have to complete the readings and presentation for the class activity before each class. The activities will include pre-assigned debates, role plays and other interactive activities to critically analyse the readings.