COURSE CANCELLED
Enrolled students will be informed a.s.a.p. about alternatives.
Admission requirements
The following categories of students can register for this course:
Students enrolled for BA “Culturele antropologie en ontwikkelingssociologie” at Leiden University
Students enrolled for BA programmes of the Faculty of Humanities of Leiden University
Erasmus Exchange students and Study Abroad students
A la carte students
Please see the registration procedure below.
Description
South Asia includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maledives. These countries share a common cultural realm and a common history, which goes back far beyond the erstwhile British colonial state. South Asia is a region of sharp contrasts, in which tradition and modernity combine. South Asian societies are characterized as much by unity, as by hierarchy and difference. Home to a growing and increasingly wealthy urban middle class, South Asia continues to harbour some of the world’s most abject poverty. While influential movements demand equality and social justice, perceptions of essential inequality between various groups of people, as well as between men and women, remain pervasive. In South Asia markers of belonging are many. These vary from caste, class, religion, education and ethnicity to regionality and nationality. While in the public debate often presented as immutable, notions of belonging have always been, and continue to be, deeply fashioned by political and social contexts. So, how does the amazing cultural diversity of South Asia sustain and renew itself, as traditions gain new significances? How are conceptualisations of and practices relating to caste changing in recent decades? In what ways is class gaining new relevances, and how does that transform the kind of relationships that tie people to one another? What are new importances attributed to indigeneity? How is religion redefined in contexts where modernity and secularism are gaining ground? Combining an anthropological and a sociological perspective, this course analyses the changing meanings of distinct notions of belonging in modern South Asia.
Course objectives
This course provides an introduction to current perspectives from anthropology and sociology on South Asia. These perspectives are analysed with reference to particular cases that are discussed in the literature that is read, and in the lectures.
Mode of instruction
Total 2×5 ECTS = 280 study hours (sbu)
lectures and discussions: 12 × 3 hours (54 sbu)
literature: 1116 pages (186 sbu)
written assignments, 3000 words (40 sbu)
Assesment method
Written assignments and presentations in class (50% of the final grade).
Take home exam (50% of the final grade).
Written assignments have to be submitted in hard copy. Email submissions are only accepted in exceptional cases, if this has been previously agreed upon. Re-submissions should be submitted in the class following the one in which the particular assignment was returned to the student. No re-submissions after the final lecture.
Blackboard
Blackboard module will be active from the mid January and wil be used to make available the course programme and a list of additional literature.
Students who have been granted admission must register for this course on Blackboard.
Study material
To be announced through Blackboard.
Registration
COURSE CANCELLED