South Asia means the Indian subcontinent. It contains, at present, the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Burma, Bhutan, and Sikkim.  In some respects, Afghanistan, Tibet, Thailand and Cambodia also are included.  An inevitable theme in such courses is "unity and diversity" -- or alternatively diversity  in unity.  It is an area of distinctive culture and to some extent also distinctive climate and topography, but within a broad south asian pattern there is enormous diversity.

 The course has two main goals. The first is to give you enough background so that if you should go to any country in the region you will understand what you see and hear: a sense of the basic history and key historical figures, religion, political system, family and kinship system, economy, and technology.  Also the food, sights, and smells you might expect, and how people deal with one another.  The second is to introduce you the issues in some of the literatures that try to capture and analyze this region — anthropology, political science, literature, cinema, and philosophy/religion — and to strengthen your abilities to read and assess such material critically, without being misled by prejudice and preconception (ours or theirs).

 The course uses four sets of readings: a selection of translated political, religious, and literary works along with some primary data (maps and charts) and a couple of articles I have written available from Off Campus Books,  E. M. Forster's A Passage to India, a village study by M. N. Srinivas, and a survey and source book by James K. Norton.  One of the main reasons for trying a once-a-week format is so that we can also see the movie Gandhi, which is by far the most accurate rendering I know of the ideals and strategies of modern Indian politics and its grounding in traditional social and religious ideas -- which Gandhi invented.

Grade: There will be two  in-class, one hour, short-answer examinations  (each 30% of the final grade), one take-home examination, essay type, on Passage to India (10% of the final grade), and one paper (30% of the final grade).  

Paper: The paper should be a critical research paper on any topic that the course has touched upon, based on an additional monograph (other than the required readings) that you have selected.  An extended description of the paper assignment should be in the duplicated readings from Off Campus Books and can be found by clicking here . A monograph is a long description, but you can also use a work of fiction if you can treat is as a kind of fact – as we will treat A Passage to India.  Twelve pages, double spaced.

Links to additional South Asia source material are available in a links page if you click here.

Everything but the additional (duplicated) readings should also be available in the UTD bookstore.

Generally, each day should start with me asking you if you have questions, but sometimes I forget.  Nevertheless, as you read you should note down terms you can't find an explanation for or other things that don't make sense, and bring them up at this time.  The study guide is meant to call your attention to the main ones.  Also, something might pop up in the news.  It is not out of bounds to bring it up in class.

Attendance is important.  A good class is a working group, not just a pack of ears. Since one class session is one full week of material, I would rather have you come in late or leave early, if you must, than miss the whole session.

Topics and Assignments.

Introduction.

Week 1 part 1. General overview of the course.

Physical Background: South Asia as a geographical region.

Week 1 part 2 (second half):  Geography, Ecology and Climate. Slides and overheads in class.

By the first exam should have memorized the map on page 2 of  India and South Asia,  so that you know the names, shapes, capitals, and major boundaries of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. You should also, by then, know  the locations of the Indian states of Kashmir, Punjab, and Tamilnadu which we will pay particular attention to.   Practice drawing it. You don’t have to have this done by the class time, but you should make a start and complete it afterwards.  It is one of the most important things you can do in a class like this, and most lasting.  The major features will be the first part of the first exam.
Web:
Political Map of South Asia
Physical Map of South Asia
 

The Evolution of Modern South Asia.

Week 2 Read the article titled  Images of South Asia in South Asia (Norton text).  Also start reading Forster, Passage to India. Forster is divided into three major sections. If you want to read ahead and finish it, do so. It would help.  The book is sent in about the 1920's.  Forster gives you the British colonial view of what the movie is portraying, and in a quiet way also a very good analysis of why the British eventually failed and Gandhi won.

In class, we will begin watching the movie Gandhi, which will take two sessions and possibly a little more to complete

Week 3.  Continue with movie Gandhi, after a little discussion in class..
 Read: Finish Forster.
 Readings on the Web. All of these are about the main characters in the moview. The purpose is to give you more of a sense of what these people were like personally to let you check the impression conveyed by the film.:

Nice site with writings of Tagore, Gandhi, and Nehru.    Read Gandhi's "Hindu Muslim Unity" and "On Religion". Read
   Tagore's "The Supreme Man" and the one piece from Nehru. Other Gandhi writings are good.
Small blurb on a film on M. A. Jinnah planned to answer to the portrait of Jinnah in the movie Gandhi.
Very nice very pro-Jinnah site for the official view of Jinnah in Pakistan.
Review of book about Jinnah and his legacy by an Indian, giving pretty mainstream view.
Nehru's Awake to Freedom Speech (statement of his vision for India.)
 

Week 4. Movie finishes. General class discussion, focussing mainly on the way
Gandhi changed the character of the independence movement and set the style for modern Indian politics.
Some questions to consider are: why did he dress that way? What is the significance of a hunger strike?  What is Gandhi's attitude toward the "lower classes" and rural Indians compared, for example, to Jinnah's?
 

Week 5 part 1. Discuss Forster .  Where was the "real India"?  What was the British view? Why did the British get angry with the schoolmaster?  Why did the Indians think so highly of Mrs. Moore? (Does this ring true?)  What are the major contrasts between the style of the native states and that of the British administered area? (Does this ring true?)

I will hand out the take-home exam on Passage to India in class, due next week.
For a copy of the exam for Fall 2002, Click here.

South Asian Religious Traditions.

Week 5 part 2. Start with south asian religious traditions (this is a bit of a mind-bender). First we consider the Vedas and Vedic thought:
 Read:  Agni, Heaven and Earth, Dawn, The Primeval Sacrifice.
 As you read, try to picture what is being described. Then try to figure out what the author expects you to ask and to assume.  It is not a lot of words, but if you go slowly and discuss it with yourself, as you should it will take a lot of thinking.

Week 6 part 1. Vedant.  What kind of system of thought is it?  What is its purpose?  God in vedant?
 Read:  The Brahmachari, Isa  Upanishad, Chandogya Upanishad.

Week 6 part 2. Jain and Buddhist thought.  Are the assumptions here different from Vedant? (The answer is no, but can you see it?). Since the assumptions are not different, what is?
 Read for Jainism: Of Human Bondage, Creatures Great and Small
 Read for Buddhism: The Four Noble Truths, The Nature of Consciousness...,The process of rebirth, Karma.

Week 7 part 1. Hinduism.  Same questions as for Jain and Buddhist thought.
  Read: You Have to Fight, Why Karma-Yoga?, The ideal Man, The Lord's Incarnation, The Lord's Names, Kabir. Article #25 in India and South Asia.

Week 7 part 2. Islam. Islam is a descendant of Judaism and Christianity and fundamentally unlike Vedant. In South Asia, it has been given both tolerant and intolerant interpretations.  The readings represent both sides. Which is which?
  Read: The Bases of Jurisprudence, Guidance in the Holy Law, The Morals of the Heart.

Villages and Village life.

Week 8 part 1 and 2. Introduction to Village Life : Discussion of Srinivas and slides.

Week 9 part 1. Village agriculture and social life.
Read  Article # 17 in India and South Asia. Srinivas Chs 1-4. Can you see the evidence against Srinivas' claim that caste controls occupation? What does Srinivas mean by "bias?"

Week 9 part 2. Kinship. Read Srinivas chs 5-6.
What is a family?  Is property a kinship concept?

Week 10 part 1. Politics, read Srinivas chs 7-9. Politics in South Asian villages means factions. What is a faction?

Week 10 part 2.  Village Religion, read Srinivas chs 10-11. Does Srinivas actually describe religion, in the sense of any of the major traditions we discussed previously?  If not, what is he describing?  That is, what do we have in America that is the counterpart of what Srinivas calls "religion" in this village?  Why does he get it mixed up?
We will end with a review.

Week 11 part 1. Midterm Examination.
 For a sample of the exam questions from past years, click here.
 

Post-Colonial South Asia,  old civilizations and new nations.

Week 11 part 2: Overview: Slides and discussion in class.
In general, the articles in South Asia are snippets that do not present a systematic picture. We will concentrate on two things: the different political systems and the ways they affect the general conditions of life and standard of living. What is like to liver there are why? What we will see is that the different national governmental systems make great differences in the general conditions of life, and generally the less complete the democracy is the worse the conditions are.

Week 12, parts 1 and 2. India. Slides in class.
Read: India Country Report in South Asia, and Articles  #2, 6, 8,  9, 13. Also read the article by me in the packet from Off Campus Books.

Week 13 part 1.  Pakistan.
 Read: Pakistan country report in South Asia and articles #3, 31.
Constitution of Pakistan. Read Preamble.

Week 13 part 2. Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Slides in class.
Read: Afghanistan Country Report and # 26, 27.
Read: Bangladesh country report,  article # 28.
Link to site of the Federation of American Scientists with an article on al Qaida and bin Laden .

Week 14: part 1.  Sri Lanka: Slides in class.
Read: Sri Lanka country report and article # 33.

Week 14 part 2. Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, etc. Discussion will focus on Indian hegemony and minority problems.
 Readings: Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Country Reports and #29, 30.

Week 15 part 1. Finish with Politics if there is anything left over.

Week 15 part 2. Review. For a sample of the final exam questions, click here.

Final exam will be on the exam day in the schedule.

Papers will be due at the time of the final unless the date has to be moved up a couple of days to allow me time to get them read.