India, which will soon be the world's most populous nation, is almost invisible in the American media. Indeed, to the casual observer, what little is reported about India is frequently bewildering: students using self-immolation to protest affirmative action policy; bride-burning as a solution to inter-familial financial disagreements; separatist movements that provoke mob violence and massacres on an incomprehensible scale; tens of thousands arrested in a mass march on a medieval mosque. This course analyzes the intricate social structure of India as a background to make sense of the cultural meanings of such actions. After a brief examination of the historical emergence of India as a single nation, the course focuses on the key social patterns and contradictions that give texture to Indian social life: religious philosophy and sanctioned rules of behavior; the caste system and untouchability; arranged marriages and purdah; emerging secularism and democratic politics; economic development and the symbolic meaning of wealth in a still vastly poor society. Requirements: several short papers and one long paper.
BACON