ASN 2039 Contemporary South Asia
This is a survey course on South Asia from the late modern period to the early 21st Century, focused on Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Its aim is to explore the multiple and overlapping understandings of nationalism and citizenship as they manifest in the region's history, culture, and politics. The course will cover the anti-colonial movement, partition of India and Pakistan, and Bangladesh's 1971 war of secession. The region's rich cultural heritage will be explored through literature, film, and intellectual discourses surrounding the making of modern South Asia, particularly around the themes of nationalism, caste, religion, and gender. The course will include a component on the Indian film industry, with emphasis on the ways in which the above themes are represented in Bollywood films. On politics, it will address the post-colonial state, regime, and economy and society in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, and conflict and peace in Sri Lanka and Nepal.