Seminar in South Asia
Spring 2013
This research colloquium will introduce advanced undergraduate students to the most pressing issues on the subject of education in India. We will discuss the priorities of the colonial state with regard to education; debates on the ideal national language and various language formulae immediately after independence; access to education along lines of caste and gender both in colonial and post-colonial India; perceptions of the humanities, social sciences, and engineering in higher education; rival emphases on primary versus higher education among those committed to planning; student protests; debates around the question of “academic freedom” and the role of education in the making of a new Indian citizenry.
There are no text books for this course. About two hundred pages of reading consisting of chapters from books and journal articles will be placed on collab every week. We will read the works of a wide range of historians and theorists such as David Lelyveld, Krishna Kumar, Philip Altbach, Vasudha Dalmia, Amartya Sen, Partha Chatterjee, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Nita Kumar. Students are expected to have taken prior coursework in the larger field of South Asian Studies. Films, novels and short stories will also be used in the course.
Course requirements include active participation in discussions (20%); weekly one-page position papers (20%); a short essay of 10 pages (20%) and a final essay of 20 pages (40%). This course fulfils the second writing requirement.
