rbarua@yorku.ca

This course examines the histories of gender and sexuality in India from the late19^th century to the present, with a particular focus on how wider social, political and economic developments have impacted and in turn, been shaped by the changing dynamics of gender. It traces transformations in gender norms and experiences and concurrent shifts in intimate life and sexual politics in colonial and postcolonial India.

Students will learn about the significance of gender and sexuality in the histories of colonialism, anti-colonial mobilizations and postcolonial developments. In particular, the course considers how questions of gender have been historically grounded in caste, class, religious and racial politics. Some of the themes covered include, social reform, law and colonialism; the relationship between nationalism, conjugality and domesticity; racialization, gendered respectability and Empire; criminalization of same-sex intimacy; and the regulation of and tensions around romantic love. These themes will be examined through a number of theoretical and empirical texts, in addition to popular fiction, films and documentaries.

Through this course, students will not only gain an understanding of the shifts in gender discourses, norms, and practices but will also acquire a grasp of Indian history, society and politics in the colonial and postcolonial period.

*TENTATIVE*

Sangari, Kumkum, and Sudesh Vaid, eds. Recasting women: Essays in Indian colonial history. Delhi: Kali for Women, 1989.

Sarkar, Sumit, and Tanika Sarkar, eds. Women and social reform in modern India: a reader. Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2008.

*TENTATIVE Grade Breakdown*

Class Participation and Attendance: 20%

Source analysis: 20%

Film review: 10%

Group presentation: 20%

Research essay: 30%

This is a weekly in-person seminar. Students are expected to come to class with the assigned readings completed and prepared to engage in class discussions. Each session will consist of a brief lecture, smaller group activities and in-depth discussion of the assigned texts.

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

• Critically analyze the politics of gender and sexuality in India from the 19^th to the 21^st
• Assess secondary literature, key concepts and historiographical debates around South Asian gender history.
• Evaluate and interpret a range of primary sources.
• Research and write an analytical essay on a specific historical question and develop a historically grounded argument using primary and secondary sources.