This course will examine the major aspects of the constellation of distinct but interrelated religious traditions of South Asia generally entitled “Hinduism.” The course will have three foci. One will be the sacred texts as well as the intersecting ritual, philosophical, and devotional currents that laid the historical foundations of this tradition and form integral parts of it to this day. These texts and currents are also linked to aesthetic expressions that form a core of Hindu religious life. The second focus will be on Hindu social organization and issues of political identity. This will cover the Hindu social divisions of caste, gendered roles and rituals as well as issues related to Hindu nationalism. The third focus will be on practices followed by and negotiations made by diaspora Hindus, especially those settled in America. This area will focus especially on Hindu responses to diversity and interfaith dialogue.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: REL 20 6
Prerequisites:
Instructor: Shukla-Bhatt
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
South Asia is one of the most religiously diverse regions of the world where Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Christian, Jewish and native traditions have co-existed for centuries. The vibrancy of its cultural life derives greatly from artistic expressions of devotion in its multiple traditions. Yet, the sacred artistic expressions are not limited to the sphere of religion. This course explores visual as well as performative sacred art forms of South Asia including architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and dance from a historical perspective. The exploration focuses on symbolic vocabulary of various art forms, their significance as media of religious/spiritual knowledge, and their role as sites of social encounters.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: REL 281
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Shukla-Bhatt
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Hindu thinkers in all historical periods have interpreted the classics of Hindu spirituality and ethics within the tradition for their own times. Do these texts have contemporary relevance? Do they offer spiritual inspiration for individuals and ethical norms for a healthy society for our times? How have these been interpreted by modern thinkers? We will examine a few major Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita from ancient times, and the lives and lyrics of saintly poets from pre-modern times as primary texts as well as their modern interpretations. We will also look at uses and abuses of the texts in social and political arenas. Most of these texts are structured in a question-answer format, reflecting the spirit of questioning and dialog prevalent in the contexts of their composition. Our examination will follow suit.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: SAS 222
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Shukla-Bhatt
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy; LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
PEAC/SAS 225 is a combined fall/Wintersession course, focusing on Mohandas Gandhi as a figure of global significance, and also one deeply rooted in Indian history and cultures. During the fall at Wellesley, students will study the sprawling and diverse cultural/political history of India; the many cultural and religious currents that influenced Gandhi's thought; his model of nonviolent action (Satyagraha); various models of contemporary grassroots organizing in India; and the art/skills of travel journaling. Then, during the winter, students will travel to Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and Coimbatore, residing and studying for then days at FLAME University in Pune. The remaining ten days will be divided between Chennai and Coimbatore, where we will partner with Praxis- Institute for Participatory Practices- an organization working on social justice issues with a commitment to equity and participatory governance for poor and marginalized sectors of society. Students will keep an extensive travel journal during their time in India. This course will meet every other week. First day of the course will be Friday, September 14th.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 14
Crosslisted Courses: SAS 225
Prerequisites: PEAC 104
Instructor: Shukla-Bhatt, Confortini
Distribution Requirements: HS or REP - Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Fall; Winter
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
If any mention of South Asian culture conjures for you Bollywood films, Bharatanatyam dancers, and Google engineers, then this course will prompt you to reconsider. Adopting a sociological perspective that examines culture from the specific context of migration, we will study the histories of Punjabi-Mexican families in California, Gujarati motel owners across the United States, South African Indians at the end of apartheid, and Bangladeshi garment workers in London’s East End, among others. Through our study, we develop a nuanced understanding of race, culture, migration, and upward mobility in the United States and beyond, while also considering the power of mobile South Asian cultures, including movies, music, dance, and religion.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: SAS 232
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: S. Radhakrishnan
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
Anthropology has a fraught and complex history within South Asia. Many of its techniques of knowledge production were honed within the colonial context. In the postcolonial period, these techniques have been taken up by scholars within the region and beyond to update and challenge long-standing understandings of the region. Much historical and recent scholarship grapples with how one ought to understand the unique nature of the region's forms of culture and social organization, and to place them in relation to modernity and the West. South Asia proves an insistently fruitful case for assessing the universality or provincial nature of Western social theory and to consider the connections between knowledge and power. In this course, students will come to comprehend and assess the history of ethnography and anthropology in India, Pakistan, and other parts of South Asia. Through contemporary ethnographic texts, they will also gain insight into the major social and cultural categories and phenomena that have come to define South Asia today such as caste, kinship and gender, class, nationalism, and popular culture. Throughout, we will consider the politics of representation and knowledge production that are particularly fraught in this postcolonial context.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: SAS 237
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Walters
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course covers the visual culture of India from ancient Indus Valley civilization through Independence. It follows the stylistic, technological, and iconographical developments of painting, sculpture, architecture, and textiles as they were created for the subcontinent's major religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam. We will examine the relationship between works of art and the political, economic, and social conditions that shaped their production. It will emphasize such themes as religious and cultural diversity, mythology and tradition, and royal and popular art forms. Attention will also be paid to colonialism and the close relationship between collecting, patronage, and empire.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: SAS 239
Prerequisites: None. ARTH 100 or WRIT 107 recommended.
Instructor: Oliver
Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
Mystifying and complex, the figure of courtesan has appeared as the foil to the virtuous and docile wife in Sanskrit and Tamil classics of ancient India, early Urdu novels, and literary works of several South Asian languages. Since the mid-twentieth century, the courtesan has appeared in films produced in South Asia as a self-sacrificing character with a strong will. In this course, we will examine literary works in South Asian languages since the antiquity with courtesans as central characters and films based on them. For each work, we will first consider the figure of the courtesan in view of the cultural context of the time of its composition and various theories of literary criticism. We will then analyze the film based on the work in terms of how the interpretation of the character here compares with the literary work.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: REL 241
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Shukla-Bhatt
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Since the nineteenth century South Asians have migrated to different parts of the world as indentured laborers, merchants, professionals, and some as refugees. Some have suffered great financial difficulties, and some have enjoyed privilege. The writings that have emerged from South Asian diaspora communities reflect these differences; yet they also tell a shared story of negotiating the two worlds - the homeland left behind (even for the descendants of the immigrants) and the land of the new home far away from it. This course examines writings – memoirs, essays, narratives, and poetry (in English) – of South Asians in the diaspora (in the West Indies, Fiji, Africa, Europe, and the Americas) since the early twentieth century. It considers the common themes as well as differences in diaspora experiences as well as stylistic differences in the use of the shared language (English) among the writers.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Shukla-Bhatt
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course explores the treatment of various types of love – for the beloved, the family, the community, the motherland or the divine – in Indian cinema, the largest film industry in the world. We examine Indian cinema's early phase in the colonial milieu, its flourishing in popular and art films since the 1950s, and contributions of diaspora Indians. We will watch films by prominent directors of the postcolonial era who articulated India’s national identity as well as the socio-religious and political aspirations of its common people integrating indigenous sacred symbolism. We will consider how several films reflect a religious sensitivity in portraying the motherland almost as a divine entity worthy of worship. Paying particular attention to the distinctive grammar of song, dance and intense drama, we will analyze the ways in which the film-makers reworked long-prevailing South Asian conventions of narration and performance in a medium imported from Europe.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: REL 223,CAMS 243
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Shukla-Bhatt
Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall
Independent (half-credit) research project supervised by a faculty member.
Units: 0.5
Max Enrollment: 3
Prerequisites:
Instructor:
Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
This course examines the history of interaction of Africans, Arabs, Persians, and South Asians in the coastal regions of East Africa, the Arabian/Persian Gulf, and India, which together enclose the western Indian Ocean. In the period under study (1500 to the present), European imperial expansion and a globalizing economy played an increasingly transformative role. We will read about the port cities connecting these shores; the movements and networks of people; the objects and patterns of trade; the intensifying slave trade; shared environmental and health hazards, and the exchange of legal and commercial practices, and religious and political ideas.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: SAS 266
Prerequisites: Open to students with at least one course in either History or African, Middle Eastern, or South Asian studies.
Instructor: Kapteijns and Rao
Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as HIST 367/SAS 367 with additional assignments.
The form of a religion changes according to the social and historical contexts.. In the past century, a large number of South Asians of diverse religious backgrounds have migrated to the USA and have established their religious communities in its various regions. How have the Hindu, Muslim, Jain, and Buddhist South Asians contributed to the growing religious diversity in the US? What adjustments have they made to meet the expectations from religion in their new homeland where their children have grown? In this course we will explore these questions employing the case-study approach. We will begin with a review of the historical forms of religions in South Asia, followed by their study in the USA. Groups of students will pursue case-studies of various South Asian communities in New England. The final project will bring the findings of all groups in a collective study of South Asian religions in this part of the USA.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: SAS 280
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Shukla-Bhatt
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
As a world Region, South Asia provides an important locus to understand the dynamics of religion and modernity because of its long religious history and immense diversity. In many parts of South Asia, encounter with modernity (as broadly defined) occurred in the context of colonial rule. The nature of the early processes of modernization continues to impact the social and religious fabric of the region even today, often with deeply divisive implications. This seminar will examine processes related to religion in South Asia since the late 19th century to the present day. Along with the historical survey of events within South Asia, the implications of current world affairs and the processes of globalization for South Asia's religious landscape will also be examined.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Crosslisted Courses: REL 30 1
Prerequisites: Two units at the 200 level in South Asia studies, or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Shukla-Bhatt
Distribution Requirements: HS or REP - Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Narratives have long provided channels for shaping and reshaping of cultures around the world. South Asia has one of the largest collections of folktales, mythology, epics, and romances in the world. This course will explore traditional narratives from South Asia that have had significant cultural impact in the region. We will examine them in translations not only as channels for transmission of cultural values, but also as sites of debate through contested interpretations. Along with texts, performative traditions based on them and their use in identity politics will be discussed.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: REL 30 2
Prerequisites: Two units at the 200 level in South Asia studies, or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Shukla-Bhatt
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy; LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Turning religious diversity into vibrant pluralism is a challenge faced by many parts of the world today. This seminar will explore the development of pluralistic discourses, ideologies, and interactions in the history of South Asia and will consider lessons this history may have for other religiously diverse societies. Readings will include ancient texts; writings of Buddhist, Sufi, Sikh and Hindu saints of the medieval period; historical documents about policies of the Mogul emperor Akbar; and modern writings on pluralism by Gandhi and others. We will also discuss current scholarship on religious pluralism and visit interfaith organizations in the Boston area. Final projects will give students opportunities to interact with local South Asian religious communities and examine how engage with diversity in the diaspora.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: REL 30 3
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Shukla-Bhatt
Distribution Requirements: HS or REP - Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Units: 0.5
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Permission of the department.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall
Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.
This course examines the history of interaction of Africans, Arabs, Persians, and South Asians in the coastal regions of East Africa, the Arabian/Persian Gulf, and India, which together enclose the western Indian Ocean. In the period under study (1500 to the present), European imperial expansion and a globalizing economy played an increasingly transformative role. We will read about the port cities connecting these shores; the movements and networks of people; the objects and patterns of trade; the intensifying slave trade; shared environmental and health hazards, and the exchange of legal and commercial practices, and religious and political ideas.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: SAS 367
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken HIST 266/SAS 266.
Instructor: Kapteijns and Rao
Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes: This course is also offered at the 200 level as HIST 266/SAS 266. At the 300-level, student writing assignments will encompass a wider set of readings than at the 200-level of this course and include a short research paper.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: SAS 360 and permission of the department.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall
Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.