Colonialism and the Formation
of South Asian Religions
Mark Elmore
Sample Syllabus
Logic
From our earliest textual evidence, intellectuals have been fascinated
and appalled at the vast diversity of social and theistic practices
in South Asia. In this course, we will examine the processes
by which colonial administrators and South Asian elites began
to formulate these divergent streams of practices, histories and
beliefs into coherent Religions that could stand on the stage
with other World Religions and help colonial administrators understand
and control the populations they were administering. In this
course we will examine the macro-historical process of Empire
formation and the manner in which the command of knowledge (in
this case of Religions) buttressed English claims to political
and economic control.
The course will begin with an examination of Colonialism and
its forms of knowledge. Subsequently, it will look at the colonial
construction of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Sikhism. The basic
goal of this course is to understand how colonialism and the futures
that it shaped have provided the bedrock on which the modern states
of South Asia were built, within which its conflicts take place
and through which these religions are discussed in academic tombs
and policy meetings. In short, we will deconstruct the concept
of Religion and Religions as products of the colonial state, liberal
capitalism and the pressures of Modernization.
Requirements
This class will be demanding, as it will ask students to draw
some of their most fundamental assumptions about religion, secularism,
poltics, and science into question. The readings are not easy
and students will be expected to read all assigned reading. Grading
will be broken into three components:
20% of your grade will be based on class participation.
50% of your grade will be based on one-page summaries of one
article per week. You will be expected to write six of these
during the quarter. In each of these assignments, you will be
expected to respond to one of the class readings. 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. Responses should be between
280-350 words.
Additionally, you will be asked to write a final paper (5-7 pages)
in which you assess the legacy of colonialism by examining one
of three topics: The Hindu-Muslim conflict in South Asia, Sikh
demands for a separate state, or violence in Sri Lanka. This assignment
will account for 30% of your grade.
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week One: Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge
Readings
-
Cohn, Bernard S. Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge:
The British in India. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1996. 1-75.
-
Loomba, Ania. Colonialism-Postcolonialism. London;
New York: Routledge, 1998. 1-94.
-
Said, Edward W., Sut Jhally, Sanjay Talreja, Edward W. Said,
and Media Education Foundation. Edward Said on Orientalism.
Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation, 2002. Videorecording.
Week Two: Discovering Hinduism
Readings
-
King, Richard. Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial
Theory, India and 'the Mystic East'.
London; New York: Routledge, 1999. 1-118.
-
Thapar, Romila. Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian
History. New Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Ch 43, 46.
-
Selections of Primary Documents: Sir William
Jones and James Mill.
Week Three: Religion and the Nation
Readings
-
Dalmia, Vasudha. The Nationalization of Hindu Traditions:
Bhāratendu Hariśchandra and Nineteenth-Century Banaras.
Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 150, 338-429.
-
Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial
and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1993. 1-76, 135-158.
-
Viswanathan, Gauri. Masks of Conquest: Literary Study
and British Rule in India. Delhi; New York: Oxford
University Press, 1998. 1-44.
Week Four: “Native” Discoveries of Hinduism
Readings
-
Nehru, Jawaharlal. The Discovery of India.
Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1966. Ch 4-8.
-
Joshi, Sanjay. Fractured Modernity: Making of a Middle
Class in Colonial North India. New Delhi; New York:
Oxford University Press, 2001. 1-59, 96-131.
Week Five: Discovering Buddhism
Readings
-
Cohen, Richard. “Why Study Indian Buddhism?”
in Peterson, Derek R., and Darren R. Walhof. The Invention
of Religion: Rethinking Belief in Politics and History.
New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2002.
-
Scott, David. Formations of Ritual: Colonial and Anthropological
Discourse on the Sinhala Yaktovil. Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press, 1994. 1-67, 137-172, 241-245.
-
King, Richard. Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial
Theory, India and 'the Mystic East'.
London; New York: Routledge, 1999. 143-160.
Week Six: Taking Care of the Buddha
Readings
-
Lopez, Donald S. Curators of the Buddha: The Study of
Buddhism under Colonialism. Chicago, Ill.: University of
Chicago Press, 1995. Introduction, Ch 2, 5, 6.
Week Seven: Nationalizing Islam
Readings
-
Barbara
D. Metcalf, “Nationalism, Modernity and Muslim Identity
in India before 1947”, in: Peter van der Veer, Hartmut
Lehmann (eds.), Nation and Religion: Perspectives on Europe
and Asia, Princeton 1999. 129-143.
-
Asad, Talal. Formations of the Secular: Christianity,
Islam, Modernity. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University
Press, 2003. 1-21, 181-205.
Week Eight: From Many, One: the formation of the Sikh Tradition
Readings:
-
Oberoi, Harjot. The Construction of Religious Boundaries:
Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1994. 1-201.
Week Nine: From Many, One: the formation of the Sikh Tradition
Readings:
-
Oberoi, Harjot. The Construction of Religious Boundaries:
Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1994. 207-426.
Week Ten: So What? Postcolonial Formations and the Possibility
of Open Futures
Readings
-
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. Provincializing Europe:
Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2000. 1-47, 149-180, 237-257.
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