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WHY TEACH INDIA?

WHY TEACH INDIA?. Designing an Upper Level Course on Indian History or Indian Literature. WHY YOUR SCHOOL SHOULD HAVE THIS COURSE. Enhance the depth and breadth of your school’s curriculum.

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WHY TEACH INDIA?

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  1. WHY TEACH INDIA? Designing an Upper Level Course on Indian History or Indian Literature

  2. WHY YOUR SCHOOL SHOULD HAVE THIS COURSE • Enhance the depth and breadth of your school’s curriculum. • Help your students become more knowledgeable about a country crucial to The United States and to their world. • Increasing numbers of American students want to learn about India. • Help make your school’s curriculum more reflective of the increasing contributions and influence of Indian-Americans and Indian culture. • Indian-American students are an increasingly large and important segment of the US school population.

  3. Improve your school’s commitment to “global education”, academic excellence, and diversity. • This course builds significantly upon existing courses such as World History in which aspects of Indian (Indic) civilization are taught. • India and South Asia are rapidly emerging areas of study at the collegiate level in The United States. • There are many related opportunities for Service Learning and other types of supplemental programs. • India’s prowess with technology allows for collaboration

  4. India and South Asia are rapidly emerging as a country and a region crucial to the United States and the world. • India is projected to surpass China by 2050 as the world’s most populous country, and for the past fifty years has been the world’s most populous democracy. • India’s economy is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing. • The United States has been very involved in South Asia, especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan, for many decades, and has deepened its political and economic ties with India.

  5. The richness, uniqueness, and relevance of Indian history, literature, and culture. • Well documented, interesting, and instructive. • Important contributions to world society – math, science, literature, philosophy, and religion. • Complexity of Indic civilization and Indian society; the Caste system • Issues that mirror the human condition (if not American society) – religious strife, social and economic justice, the environment, etc.

  6. Does your school offer a course on China? • If yes, then why not India? • The arguments already made here were made almost three decades ago about China. • Courses about China are ready-made models for courses about India. • Yet Indian history and literature are in many important ways more accessible to American students than Chinese history and literature. • Less of a language barrier; the rich tradition of Anglo-Indian literature. • Less politically charged.

  7. WHAT TO TEACH ABOUT INDIA India’s past?

  8. WHAT TO TEACH ABOUT INDIA India’s present?

  9. DESIGNING A COURSE ABOUT INDIA • One year vs one semester or term? • Separate or combine Indian history and literature? • Depth vs breadth? • Resources? • books • Media • people

  10. Ancient vs modern • India or South Asia? • Approach 1: history or social science? • Approach 2: thematic or chronological? • Approach 3: “great men” or “ordinary people”? • The historiographical issues: i.e. the role of Mahatma Gandhi.

  11. WHAT WORKS FOR YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS? • What do you want to teach and how? • What do your students want to learn and how? • What does your school expect you to teach?

  12. MY COURSE ON MODERN INDIAN HISTORY • Goal – to give students an understanding and appreciation of the complexity of modern Indian history. • Method – Socratic approach • Resources – textbook, supplementary readings, films & documentaries, guest speakers, etc.

  13. Unit 1: circa 1700-1857. The weaknesses of the Mughal empire and the arrival of Europeans, with special attention given to assessing the impact of the British East India Company.

  14. Unit 2: circa 1857-1947, The British “Raj” and the development of the Indian independence movement, with special attention given to Gandhi and the Indian National Congress.

  15. Unit 3: circa 1947-1990. The challenges of independence (the constitution, politics, the economy, communalism, and foreign relations), and an assessment of India’s post-independence leaders.

  16. Finishing the course: Students research and present on aspects of India since roughly 1990 such as politics, the economy, the environment, foreign relations, social issues, culture, etc. .

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