Document Type
Syllabus
Publication Date
Fall 2024
Course Description
The underlying theme of the course is to analyze and develop an in-depth understanding of the endurance of the Communist Party rule in China and its emergence as a great power in the 21st century and the success of liberal democracy in India and the challenges it is facing from majoritarianism and the ideology of Hindutva. Short Description Since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, China has pursued an ambitious program of economic reform which has resulted in enormous economic growth--quadrupling its GDP between 1981-2000 and it continued to grow at a high rate (11 percent between 2006 and 2010) until 2011. This growth has transformed the society and made China a global economic and military power. Having replaced Japan as the second largest economy in 2010, China is an economic superpower, and experts predict that it will attain military superpower status in this decade. Yet, politically, China has not changed much. The Chinese Communist Party continues to monopolize power; in fact, China has turned more authoritarian under the leadership of Xi Jinping than it has been in the last two decades. India, on the other hand, has been a stable democracy for seven decades, which is an anomaly in the Third World. In this period India has held 18 parliamentary elections (most recent in 2024) and undergone eight political alterations emerging from general elections. It has maintained its geographical boundaries and political unity despite caste, class, ethnic, religious, linguistic, regional, and cultural diversity. India’s economy grew at a modest rate in the first four decades of its independence, but there has been a marked improvement in its growth rate since the introduction of economic reform in 1991, especially in the 2000s. China and India thus present to the world opposing models of development. The two nuclear-armed Asian giants have transformed the geopolitical landscape with their robust economic growth, their expanding military capabilities, their great populations. The course will survey major developments in government and politics in India and China in the last seven-and-a-half decades. Though discussion of the two countries will be sequential, we will compare political processes, institutions and the developmental experience in India and China, and the role of ideology, leadership, party, the constitution, interest groups, political culture and socialization in the two systems. The two models of development will be clarified and their consequences for the masses evaluated. In the Indian case we shall examine the demise of the 'Congress System' and the emergence of non- Congress government at the national level; the end of a 'dynasty rule’; the rise, fall and reemergence of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to power; the Ayodhya and Godhra incidents; the decline in the authority of the central government and the emergence of caste-based parties and a new pattern of federalism; finally, political conflicts stemming from issues of secularism, reservation policy, the quota system, and rights of minorities. We will discuss India's effort to maintain its fragile democracy under the leadership of its recent prime ministers and the impact globalization and demographic change have had on society and polity in India. In particular, we will analyze the authoritarian leadership of Narendra Modi. In the case of China, we will discuss events leading to the Tiananmen Square confrontation in Beijing in June 1989 and the political developments following it, and the importance of China's drive toward modernization and its emergence as a great power and a rival of the US in recent years. We will make a comparative study of the opening of the Chinese economy to the West in the last four decades and the liberalization of the Indian economy since 1991. Finally, we will carefully analyze the future of liberal democracy and secularism in India and the prospects of democracy in China.
Recommended Citation
Sahu, Sunil K., "POLS 253A China and India in the 21st Century Sahu Fall 2024" (2024). All Course Syllabi. 855, Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University.
https://scholarship.depauw.edu/records_syllabi/855
Student Outcomes
After taking this course students will be able to 1. Identify key state institutions and their functioning in China and India. 2. Compare the political processes and their outcomes in China and India. 3. Explain (a) the endurance of the Communist Party rule in China and its emergence as a challenger to the US hegemony in world politics and (b) the success of liberal democracy in India and the challenges it is facing from majoritarianism and the ideology of Hindutva.