Religions of South Asia
Sample Syllabus
Mark Elmore
elmorem@hotmail.com
Course Logic
The goal of this course is
to introduce students to the vibrant religious traditions of South Asia. The course will address Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic,
Sikh and Jain traditions as well as the ancient and modern contexts
in which they are situated. As we approach these traditions, we
will be particularly attuned to the interrelations between them.
Indeed, the course, as a whole, will argue that the communalisms
currently defining South Asia's religious landscape are notinherent
products of insufficient development, primitive militaristic ideologies,
or even world-denying spiritualism.
The historical and practical
complexities of these traditions are enormous. As we examine these
traditions we will be particularly attuned to a specific set of
issues: conceptions—or lack thereof—of divinity, disease
and healing, goals of ritual practice, and approaches to death.
The course addresses these issues in three different ways. We
will read and analyze primary textual materials that address these
issues. Lecture and historical readings will provide descriptive
context and finally, each week will be accompanied by a film.
In addition to the weekly lectures and discussions, attendance
at a film lab is required. We will screen from 1-3 hours of films
each week. In accordance with this approach, we seek not simply
to gain a deeper understanding of these religious traditions,
but to learn how to more critically and creatively engage primary
written and visual texts.
Course Requirements
Let there be no mistake: this
class is intense. For most of the people taking this course the
vocabularies, the concepts, and the historical landscape will
be completely foreign. But, fear not. If you do all the readings
before lecture and come prepared to the film screenings this class
can be one of the most reward in your undergraduate education.
In addition to completing all
the reading, you will be expected to write single page review
essays (double spaced, 12 pt. Times, 1 inch margins) each week
in response to one of texts or films assigned for that week. The
specific topics are given in the reading outline below. In each
of these assignments, you will be expected to respond in depth
to either a primary text or the film shown that week. You will
be expected to clearly articulate what you understand as the main
point of the text and to offer a critique or comment on this position.
In this assignment, you must be concise. Response should be between
280-350 words. You will be expected to turn in seven of these
over the quarter. They will account for 70% of your grade.
Final Project
The remaining 30% of your grade
is a final project. This project asks you to do something you
may have never done before. It will ask you to represent your
thoughts in a medium other than simply words. As we go through
the quarter, we will pay particular attention to the problem of
definitions, of essentializing, of the
proper or true name. We will come to see all of these traditions
as having innumerable dimensions and historic-geographic variations.
After all of this, your final assignment will ask the impossible.
It asks you to define one of these five traditions and to justify
your definition. However, you cannot simply do this in print.
This assignment will push you to think the relationship between
words and images, between films and texts. Your final project
can take one of several forms. It can be a web site that integrates
images and texts. It can be a set of photographs with captions
and explanations. It can be a short film with description. It
can be a slide show with narration. It can be a diorama inscribed
with your answer to the question. The medium is open to you. The
only requirement is that it include both
words and images. This assignment will be due on the day the final
is scheduled, but your approach must be approved by me by the
end of the seventh week. Projects will be judged as much on creativity
as the quality of your words.
Required Texts:
-
Embree, Ainslie Thomas, Stephen N. Hay, and William Theodore De Bary. Sources of Indian Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.
-
Lopez, Donald
S. Asian Religions in Practic : An Introduction. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999.
-
Fenton,
John Y. Religions of Asia. 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin's
Press, 1993.
-
Course Reader
Weekly Schedule
Week 1: Introduction to South Asia
READINGS:
-
Bryant,
Edwin. In Quest of the Origins of Vedic Culture
: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 3-45.
-
Thapar, Romila. “Imagined
Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search
for Hindu Identity” Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early
Indian History. New Delhi ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
FILMS:
Spiritual
India: a guide to Jainism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism (50 minutes). This program provides an overview of
Jainism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.
ASSIGNMENT: None
Week 2: Vedic and Classical “Hindu Traditions”
READINGS:
-
Religions
of India. 21-38, 53-65.
-
Michaels,
Axel “Historical foundations” 31-71.
-
Davis, Richard,
“Religions of India" Lopez, Donald S. Asian Religions in Practice:
An Introduction. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
-
Sources
of Indian Tradition. 7-40, 274-340.
FILMS:
330 Million
Gods, (55 Minutes) Introduction to Hinduism.
ASSIGNMENT: Review essay of one of the primary readings from Sources.
Week 3: Practiced Hinduism
READINGS:
-
Berreman, Gerald D. “Brahmins and Shamans in Pahari Religion.” In Religion in
South Asia Ed. Edward Harper, 53-69. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964.
-
Mandelbaum, David. "Transcendental and
Pragmatic Aspects of Religion." American
Anthropologist 68, no. October (1966): 1175-91.
-
Nabokov, Isabelle. Religion against the Self: An Ethnography of Tamil Rituals. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 3-17, 100-125
-
Babb, Lawrence A. Redemptive Encounters: Three Modern Styles
in the Hindu Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986. 1-15
-
Sources, 342-378.
FILMS:
Hinduism:
faith, festivals and ritual
(51 minutes) Explores Hindu Practice in Kerala.
Forest of Bliss (90 Minutes).
ASSIGNMENT: Review essay of Robert Gardner's Forest of Bliss.
Week 4: Early Buddhism
READINGS:
-
Religions
of Asia.
103-131.
-
Sources
of Indian Tradition. 93-124.
-
Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha.
Toronto ; New York: Bantam Books, 1971.
FILMS:
Walking
with the Buddha (29 Minutes) This program,
filmed in Thailand, looks at the life of Buddha and traces the development
of Buddhism in various countries.
Ladakh (86 Minutes) The practice
of Buddhism in the upper Western
Himalayas.
ASSIGNMENT: Review essay of Siddhartha
Week 5: Buddhism II
READINGS:
- Lopez, Donald S. “Buddhism
in Practice” in Asian Religions in Practice
: An Introduction. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
-
Sources
of Indian Tradition.
153-200.
-
Religions
of Asia.
132-160.
FILMS:
Buddhism:
The Great Wheel of Being
(51 Minutes). Buddhism as practiced in Sikkim, Northwest
India.
ASSIGNMENT: Review essay of one of the primary readings from
Sources.
Week 6: Jainism
READINGS:
-
Religions
of Asia.
89-93,
-
Sources
of the Indian Tradition. 49-92.
-
Cort, John E. Jains
in the World : Religious Values and
Ideology in India. Oxford: New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Introduction.
FILMS:
Jainism:
ascetics and warriors
(51 minutes). Explores the practice of Jain communities in
Rajasthan
ASSIGNMENT: Review essay of Jainism: Ascetics and Warriors.
Week 7: Sikhism
READINGS:
-
Religions
of Asia.
94-99.
-
Sources
of the Indian Tradition. 493-509.
-
Mann, Gurinder
Singh. Sikhism. Prentice
Hall, 2003.
FILMS:
Frontiers
of faith: World Sikhism Today.
(49 Minutes) Describes Sikh principles and lifestyle in India, Europe, and North America. Interviews with Sikh leaders and families, scholars,
and human rights activists reveal a people subjected to varied
levels of racial discrimination and, in India, harsh suppression and even massacres.
Sikhism:
The Golden Temple.(15 Minutes). Traces the roots
of Sikhism and its central place of worship, the Golden Temple in Punjab, from its founder Guru Nanak in
1469 through today.
ASSIGNMENT : Review essay of Frontiers of faith
Week 8: Introduction to Islam
READINGS :
-
Denny,
Frederick M.
An Introduction to Islam. New York: Macmillan, 1985. 65-124
-
Sources
of the Indian Tradition,
381-416, 430-446.
FILMS:
Islam:
Empire of Faith. (180 Minutes) An introduction
to the history of Islam.
ASSIGNMENT: Review of Islam: Empire of Faith.
Week 9: Islam in South Asia
READINGS:
-
Ernst,
Carl W., and Bruce B. Lawrence.
Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti
Order in South Asia and Beyond. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. 1-46.
-
Nizamuddin, Auliy a, Bruce B. Lawrence,
and Dihlav i
Hasan. Nizam Ad-Din Awliya: Morals
for the Heart: Conversations of Shaykh
Nizam Ad-Din Awliya. New York: Paulist Press, 1992. Selections.
FILM:
A
Voice from Heaven. (75 Minutes) A film about
the great Qawwalli singer Nusrat
Fateh Ali Khan.
Islam:
The Five Pillars of Faith.
(52 Minutes) Islam in contemporary Kashmir.
ASSIGNMENT : Review of readings from Nizam
Ad-Din Awliya
Week 10: Issues of Modernity
READINGS:
-
Mankekar, Purnima. Screening
Culture, Viewing Politics: An Ethnography
of Television, Womanhood and Nation in Postcolonial India. Durham: Duke University Press, 1999.165-223.
-
Hansen,
Thomas Blom. The Saffron Wave : Democracy
and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. 3-15, 60-90.
-
Gandhi, and Anthony Parel. Hind Swaraj and Other Writings.
New Delhi: Foundation Books, 1997.26-39, 51-58, 66-75,112-120.
FILMS:
Father,
Son, Holy War. (120 Minutes) Religion,
Violence and Masculinity.
Earth, (101 Minutes). A powerful film
about Partition.
ASSIGNMENT : Review of either film
Final project
due on the day of scheduled final exam.
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