SAST203/ANTH 266
State and Society in Afghanistan
Alessandro Monsutti
TTh 9.00-10.15
Historical, political and ethnographic examination of state and society in Afghanistan. Ecology and economy, social and political organization, ethnicity and transnational networks will be presented as a basis for understanding the causes and consequences of domestic political turmoil and foreign interventions over the last thirty years. Attention to contemporary reconstruction, and the country’s prospects for the future.
SAST 300/ANTH 419
Language and the Public Sphere
Bernard Bate
T 1.30-4.30
Exploration of the relationship between language and the public sphere. Consideration of the theoretical perspectives of Jürgen Habermas and Benedict Anderson. Ethnographic and historical examination of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America and Europe, nineteenth- and twentieth-century Arabia, and India from the third to the twentieth century.
SAST 476/ECON 478
Economic Development of India and South Asia
T.N. Srinivasan
W 2.30-4.20
Colonial antecedents of low levels of economic and social development in India and, more broadly, in other South Asian countries. Failings and achievements of the state-directed and inward-oriented development strategy of the first four decades after independence from colonial rule. Developments since India and the region initiated systemic economic reforms and reintegrated their economies with the world economy, allowing market forces to play a large role in economic decisions. Comparison of the performance of India and China since 1980.
SAST 310/FILM 317
Understanding Bollywood
Ashish Chadha
MW 4.00-5.00
T 7.00-9.00
This course is a critical introduction to the world’s largest film industry. It will investigate the social and political ideology embedded of this popular culture of South Asia in terms of gender, caste, class, and religious frameworks. Topics will also include - nationalism, partition, gender, secularism, development, globalization and diaspora in relation to Bollywood’s cinematic imagination.
SAST 221/HIST 310
History of Modern South Asia
Mridu Rai
TTh 1.00-2.15
Survey of the Indian subcontinent?s history from colonial rule, through nationalist resistance, to postcolonial history. Topics include the establishment of British dominion; colonial transformation of Indian politics, society, economy, and culture; nationalism before and after Gandhi; the partition of India; and recent developments in South Asia.
SAST323/HIST 395
India and Globalization
Marina Martin
T 2.30-4.30
India’s role in the world economy from the eighteenth through twentieth centuries. Global factors that influence economic change in India within that period. The part India has played in international transactions of goods, people, and money. South Asia’s contributions to economic change in the rest of the world.
SAST 256/HSAR 383
The Art of India, c. 300 BC-1650 AD
Tamara L. Sears
MW 2:30-3:45
Introduction to the art and architectural history of the Indian subcontinent between c. 300 BC and 1650 AD. The course traces the development of early Buddhist and Jain art, the development of Hindu temples and icons, and the efflorescence of Islamic visual culture under the Mughal Empire.
HUMS 418/RLST 130
Traditional Literature of India, China, and Japan
Phyllis Granoff, Koichi Shinahara
MW 2.30-3.45
Introduction to literary works that shaped the great civilizations of Asia. Focus on traditional literature from India, China, and Japan. Readings range from religious and philosophical texts to literature of the court, poetry, drama, and epics.
SAST 341/PLSC 442
Development in South Asia
Tariq Thachil
W 7.00-8.50p
Introduction to the complex issues surrounding questions of political and economic development in South Asia. The successes and failures of modernization in South Asia, including the influence of intellectual trends and their derivative policy prescriptions. Foundational perspectives on development and the policies they yielded; empirical treatments of the experiences of South Asian countries in the postcolonial era.
SAST340/PLSC 374
Violence in Modern South Asia
Shreeyash Palshikar
T 9.25-11.15
The history of political violence in South Asia from the colonial period to the present. Topics include non-violence and violence during the nationalist movement and the violence that accompanied the formation of India and Pakistan in 1947 and recent riots in Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra and Gujarat.
SAST 357/RLST 129/RLST 549
Buddhism and Hinduism in Gandhara
Osmund Bopearachchi
Th 9.25-11.15
This course explores the development of Buddhism and Hinduism through the archaeological record. In addition to well-known sculptures and structural remains, the course presents newly discovered material that challenges current reconstructions of the history of Buddhism and Hinduism in the region known as Gandhara.
RLST 579
Religious History of Central Asia
Osmund Bopearachchi
W 1.30-3.20
This course will be a study of the history of religions in Central Asia and North-West India taking into account literary evidence, archaeology, plastic art, epigraphy and numismatics. The focus is on the Indo-Greeks and Gandhara.
SAST376/SOCY 211
Health and Inequality in India
Vani Kulkarni
T 1.30-3.20
Study of the relationship between India’s inequalities in health and society. Inequalities in society and medicine, both natural and constructed, that influence health outcomes; health disparities that shape social and medical institutions and relationships; and research that evaluates and proposes health and social policy models.