AANB11066U Contemporary South Asia: Reason and Religion

Volume 2021/2022
Content

This course introduces students to recent anthropological debates about contemporary identity politics that define the study of society, religion and politics in modern South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives). It begins with an investigation into what constitutes anthropological knowledge and ethnographic fieldwork in representing cultural realities in the region. The course will then critically explore traditional caste depictions and discriminations through the lens of changing social hierarchies in South Asia. It will move on to consider various manifestations of identity politics in the region, including gender and kinship, queer sexualities and homosociality, colonial and post-colonial masculinities, minority religious identities, love, kinship, marriage and childhoods, and show how they are shaped by current nationalist movements, communal violence, migration, globalisation, tourism and ‘westoxification’, visual cultures of commercial cinema, material consumption and religious traditions. The course unit will finally highlight the power negotiations, problems and possibilities of aging in the context of modernity in South Asia. The module will also consider how ethnographic representations of social transformations will equip students to review assumptions about hierarchy, cohesion and oppression in non-western societies. Course materials will include documentaries, ‘Bollywood’ films, web-based resources, literature, and newspaper articles in addition to scholarly books and research-based articles.

Learning Outcome

By the end of the course, a student should be able to:

Knowledge

  • Demonstrate a critical awareness of key themes/debates on social, economic and political relations in post-colonial South Asia.
  • Display deeper understanding of society and politics in South Asia through the use of both theoretical and empirical models.
  • Locate the key areas where anthropological research can contribute towards quelling myths and assumptions about South Asian societies.

Skills

  • Communicate anthropological knowledge through critical reading, writing and oral presentations.

  • Learn research methods used by anthropologists in studying communities in a specific region, examine ethnographic cases of social life in different geographic locations, and learn about the changing constructions of religion and rationality in South Asia.

  • Foster societal knowledge and responsibility by understanding the problems related to social hierarchies, political violence and economic inequalities in the region.

Competencies

  • Recognize how local socio-religious practices are created and impacted by globalization and global politics.

  • Understand the effects of class, gender, nationalisms and power differentials in community development.

  • Develop a commitment towards different understandings of social and economic justice.

BSc students and MSc students: 500 pages obligatory literature.

The teacher will publish 200-300 pages of supplementary literature.

Course literature will be available through Absalon.

  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 42
  • Preparation
  • 100
  • Exam
  • 64
  • Total
  • 206
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Portfolio
Length: Portfolio exam can be written individually or in groups of Max. 4 students. Portfolio exams consist of 2-7 submissions. For MA students, there is a submission more than for BA students, i.e. if the BA student has to submit five submissions, the MA students must submit six submissions. The number of submissions is set by the lecturer. The total length of all of the submissions must be max. 30,000 keystrokes for one student. For groups of two students, Max. 40,000 keystrokes. For groups of three students, Max. 45,000 keystrokes and for groups of four students, Max. 50,000 keystrokes. In the case of group assignments, the contribution of each individual student must be clearly marked in the assignment. For groups with both BA and MA students, the same number of submissions is required as for MA students. The assignments are assessed jointly with a single grade.
Aid
All aids allowed
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Re-exam

1st re-exam: An essay must be submitted. The new assignment must be submitted by the deadline for the re-exam.

 

2nd re-exam: A new essay must be submitted. The new assignment must be submitted by the deadline for the re-exam.

 

Essay length: 21,600–26,400 keystrokes for an individual submission. 6,750–8,250 keystrokes per extra member for group submissions. The maximum number of students who can write an essay in a group is four.

For groups writing together it must be clearly indicated which parts of the assignment each of the students has written.

Criteria for exam assesment

See description of learning outcome. Formalities for Written Works must be fulfilled, read more: MSc Students/ BA students (in Danish)/ exchange and credit students