HIST153 CM - Caste and Class in India and South Asia

Why is “caste” the single most important topic in South Asian study that interests both laypeople and specialists? This course is a lecture plus discussion course that looks at the history, politics, sociology, and meanings of caste over the course of Indian history and the present. We will ask whether all its changing formations refer to the same reality. We will study its relations to religion, both Hinduism and other religions, to gender, to the family and society, and to economic exchange and profit. Most of all we look at alternative divisions of society and question how “caste” may be differentiated from “class.”

Offered: Occasionally

Credit: 1

Course Number: HIST153 CM