Peace and conflict

resolution
a two-credit add-on
course by
DEPTARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, SOPHIA
COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), IN COLLABORATION
WITH CENTER FOR STUDY OF SOCIETY AND
SECULARISM (CSSS)

Course Details
Platform: Via Zoom & Google Classroom
Duration: 3 days a week, 29th January to 29th
February, 2024
Course Fees: ₹3000/-
Register here: https://forms.gle/PDNrTej9
VZhUX3aA6

Registration Deadline : 28th January

P.S: All Students must register via their institutional Id's.
Open to Sophia College students of all streams.
Limited seats available.

Contact: Course coordinator Dr. T.C. Roy - 9920210333

Email - [email protected]
 COURSE DESCRIPTION

- Defines and describes social conflict

- Analyzes processes of development & implementation of peace-building
programs
- Sensitizes learners about the impact of conflicts on marginalized groups
- Builds focus on principles of social justice

COURSE OBJECTIVES
- Defining conflict and identifying the conceptual framework of conflict
- Understanding the social milieu of violence and the need for peace-building
- Analyzing the New World Order, “Identity politics” and conflicts in India
- Rethinking conflicts in the context of emerging human rights debate
- Understanding secularism, nationalism, the issue of social exclusion (with
reference to the marginalized, minorities, dalits and the tribals)
- Distinguishing dialogue from other conflict resolution processes
- Exploring significance of mediation in conflict resolution

COURSE SYLLABUS PER SESSIONS

01
“Understanding conflicts and violence”
Conceptual framework: differing approaches to conflict
– Management of conflict, settlement of conflict, resolution of conflict &
transformation of conflict; theories about causes of conflict
– Tools of conflict analysis
- Understanding violence as more than behaviour , includes context and
attitudes
- Violence and non-violence as ways of bringing about change and
transformation of conflict

02 “Understanding Peace & Peace building”

- Understanding peace as a process, what is peace building?
- Tools for conflict analysis, stages of conflict – conflict mapping
-Understanding culture, power, identity, gender, human right

03 "Globalization, New World Order and Conflicts"

- Capitalism and drive for profits, search for raw materials like oil & energy and
new markets
- UN and the world order, domination of US and wars, UN and conflict
resolution
- New World Order and conflicts in Palestine, Iraq, Bosnia, Ruwanda,
Afghanistan, Iran, Korean Peninsula, Somalia
- Conflicts in South Asia, India-Pakistan
- War on terrorism and conflicts within Pakistan, conflicts in Nepal
- Conflicts in Kashmir and North East India
- Indian Foreign Policy and its impact on conflicts

Peace and conflict

resolution
a two-credit add-on
course
04 “Identity politics and conflicts in India”
- Nature and history of identity politics , misuse of religion in identity politics
- Nature of state and society that identity politics wants to construct
- Concept of human rights in identity politics
- Identity politics and marginalization of women
- Mobilization of women in identity politics
- Identity politics and emphasis on singular identity of people leading to
homogenization of population
- Creating hatred against “other” and fear of “other” to homogenize society
- Identity politics and violent conflicts
- Identity politics and marginalization of the “other”
- Identity politics and the role of state

5+6 “Understanding Human rights and Conflicts”

- Different approaches to the concept of human rights

- Human rights theories
- International charters, covenants and treatise on human rights
- Minority rights and its different approaches
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Civic and political rights and socioeconomic rights
- International law on genocide
- International Criminal Court
- Fundamental rights in the Indian Constitution

07 “Understanding Social Exclusion and Social Justice”

- Understanding social exclusion and social justice: their philosophical and

theoretical foundations
- Liberal, Marxist, communitarian, and radical theories; and their inter-
disciplinary perspectives
- Socioeconomic implications to socially excluded groups

08 “Nationalism and conflicts”

- Nationalism and memories of the past
- Nationalism as an imagined community
- Various concepts of Nationalism
- Role of nationalism in establishing nationalist states
- Different types of nationalism, territorial and ethnic nationalism, inclusive and
exclusive nationalism
- Diaspora and the role of diaspora in nationalism
- Religious Nationalism
- Nationalism and the question of minorities

Peace and conflict

resolution
a two-credit add-on
course
 09 “Secularism, and Conflicts based on religion”
- Understanding Indian histories, Indian polity and Indian society
- Indian Constitution and freedom of religion
- Anti-conversion laws
- Gender discrimination and privileging upper caste male Hindus in family laws
& in affirmative action for SC
- Indian Penal Code and hate crimes
- Representation of People’s Act
- Corrupt electoral practices promoting enmity or ill will or hatred during
election campaigns
- Criminal justice system and communal violence
- General environment of impunity complicity of State in communal violence
- Role of law enforcement agencies during communal violence
- Role of education in promoting communal stereo-types / secularism
- Regulation of media and prejudices / biases and minorities
- Necessity of law to deal genocides and communal violence
- Reports of Inquiry Commissions to investigate communal violence
- Discrimination against minorities, dalits and gender biases in day to day
policing and administration
- Violations of human rights of minorities
- Encounter killings and response of police to terrorism

10 “Dalits and Conflict”

- Conceptualizing caste, different caste groups’ collective social identities
- Positionalities embedded in the caste structure, religion, class and gender
- Caste as an institution of marginalization, discrimination and exclusion
- Inclusion or social justice- Caste in colonial, nationalist, Marxist, and Subaltern
historiographies
- Views of Vivekananda, Gandhi, Nehru and Hindu nationalists, and Jotiba Phule,
Narayan Guru, Periyar, Ambedkar, and Dalit Panthers and others
- Epistemological and ontological foundations of Dalit world views on
theirreligions, literature, language, arts, culture
- Traditional institutions, community living and healing practices and their plight;
Dalits’ socioeconomic deprivations and exclusion in terms of access to land, labor,
capital, livelihood, in rural and urban contexts
- Constitutional safeguards and planned State interventions through special
protective and developmental policies and programmes – education, employment,
food, housing, health care services since independence
- Politics of affirmative action; globalization and State; market and civil society
responses to addressing social exclusion
- Dalit movements in the local global context and social justice; Communal
organisations and dalits, co-option of dalits within Hindu fold to misuse them
against religious minorities

Peace and conflict

resolution
a two-credit add-on
course
 11 “Tribals and Development”
- Tribes as ethnic minority and nationalities in India
- Marginalization and exclusion of Tribes due to the process of industrialization,
urbanization, westernization and migration; marginalization of the Tribes as an
outcome of Nation-State formation
- Takeover of territorial control and rights over natural resources, and rights to
self-determination
- State affirmative policies, development projects and displacement issues and
social justice
- Globalization, media encroachment and cultural marginalization
- International instruments, ethnic and Tribal assertions in the global and
national context
- Civil society organization and tribal empowerment and development
- Communal organisations and adivasis, co-option of adivasis within Hindu fold to
misuse them against religious minorities

12 "Addressing conflicts and Consequences of conflicts”

- Addressing consequences of a conflict
- Post conflict reconstruction
- Combining physical and social aspects, psychological reconstruction, helping
individuals to deal with the past, social reconstruction
- Building relationships
- Strategies for conflict resolution with special reference to Dialogue and
mediation

13-15 Sessions on project topics (by the participants)

Peace and conflict

resolution
a two-credit add-on
course
 Assessment: Project Work & Presentation | 100 Marks
(on any one theme of the sessions)

Passing Criteria: 40% attendance + 40% marks

Technical requirement: Access to a laptop or computer desktop
or internet-capable mobile device with stable access to the
internet to view and/or download the course material.

Resource persons that will be joining:

Irfan Engineer, Indra Munshi, Ranu Jain, Adv. Mihir Desai,
Kamala Ganesh, Neha Dabhade, Ram Puniyani, Ramesh
Kamble, and Shiraz Balsara.

Contact: Course coordinator Dr. T.C. Roy - 9920210333

Email - [email protected]

Peace and conflict

resolution
a two-credit add-on
course