2004 NEH Institute
Religion & Politics in India: Culture,
History & the Contemporary Experience

Institute Description

The Asian Studies Development Program, a collaborative effort of the University of Hawai`i and the East-West Center, conducted an NEH-funded summer institute on Religion and Politics in India: Culture, History and the Contemporary Experience over five weeks (June 7-July 9, 2004). The Institute began from the premise that the study of contemporary worlds must be grounded in a historically rich appreciation and understanding of culture and the humanities. Because of the broad ambitions and interdisciplinary nature of the program, critical attention was given to primary texts (in the broadest sense, including classical literatures and scriptures, oral narratives, artworks, rituals, films and novels) drawn from both the core cultural canons of India and their many, often subaltern, folk and marginalized, alternatives. The central concerns during the Institute included:

 

·        Demonstrating that the relationship between the political and the religious has been deeply pacific and constructive, as well as conflicted or martial;

·        Developing insight into the diverse ways in which religious sensibilities have infused the political realm with both ethical boundaries and a moral aesthetic;

·        Examining the ways in which political power has been deployed in extending and refining the reach of religious traditions, most notably in the case of Buddhism and Islam;

·        Unpacking the importance of religion in framing the political ethics of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar;

·        Understanding the extraordinary importance of caste as an institution and practice both for religious traditions of India and, increasingly, for the evolution of its electoral democracy today; and

·        Considering the implications of a rising tide of Hindu fundamentalism for the survival of a pluralist ethos in this part of the world.

 

Prior to the workshop, participants were asked to read three texts that provided them with shared perspectives on Indian history, culture, politics and sensibilities. They were:

 

·        The Bhagavad Gita: Krishna’s Counsel in Times of War, ed. and trans. Barbara Stoler Miller, New York, Bantam, 1986.

·        Shashi Tharoor, India: from midnight to the millennium, Penguin, 1997.

·        Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children, New York, Avon, 1982.

 

In addition to these texts, on arrival participants received a collection of readings selected by the presenting faculty to provide: pertinent background for individual program lectures and discussions; scholarly resources useful for further research; and textual materials useful in building India-focused course modules, syllabi and curricula.

 

Religion and Politics in India: History, Culture and the Contemporary Experience was designed to meet the needs of faculty from the humanities and social sciences interested in deepening the role of comparative cultural studies through the infusion of Indian materials into their teaching. The lectures, films, readings and discussions were oriented towards helping Institute participants construct engaging, well-informed, and critically robust course modules and syllabi that will meaningfully integrate India into existing and planned curricula.

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