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Material Culture and the Discourse of Hindu-Muslim Communalism
ARHA286 SP

One of the central figures of contemporary India is the ideology of communalism, which emphasized the religious community as a social, political, and economic unit in antagonistic distinction from other such groups. Not only has Hindu-Muslim communalism been a fundamental engine of change in modern India, but it is also popularly understood to have been a constant force in Indian history ever since the eleventh century, when Islam first arrived as a political presence in the subcontinent. Recent historiographic trends, however, have questioned the presumed antiquity of this ideology and have suggested that communalism is, in fact, a more recent phenomenon that derives directly from British colonial policies and intellectual projects. This cours e offers a critical examination of the ideology of communalism, focusing in particular on the varied connections between communal identity and material culture. We will be concerned with three distinct questions: How have objects of material culture -- including, especially, architecture, religious images, dress, and pictorial representations -- been used to construct and maintain communal identities in colonial and contemporary India? How have the object-based disciplines of ethnography, art history, and archaeology been used to advance communal agendas in this century by essentializing communal identities and projecting them back upon the Indian past? Can a more critical analysis of the material culture record yield alternative, noncommunalist visio ns of how ethnic identities were constructed in premodern India?

MAJOR READINGS

R. Thapar et al, COMMUNALISM AND THE WRITING OF INDIAN ANCESTRY P. van der Veer, RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM: HINDUS AND MUSLIMS IN INDIA S. Gopal, ANATOMY OF A CONFRONTATION: THE BABRI MASJID-RAMJANMABHUMI ISSUE D. Mandal, AYODHYA: ARCHAEOLOGY AFTER DEMOLITION S. Pollock, "Ramayana and Political Imagination in India" R. Davis, LIVES OF INDIAN IMAGES R. Eaton, "Indo-Muslim State Formation, Temple Desecration, and the Historiography of the Holy Warrior" T. S. Metcalf, AN IMPERIAL VISION: INDIAN ARCHITECTURE AND BRITAIN'S RAJ S.C. Welch, ROOM FOR WONDER: INDIAN PAINTING DURING THE BRITISH PERIOD J. Eicher, ed., DRESS AND ETHNICITY P. Wagoner, "'Sultan among Hindu Kings': Dress, Titles, and the Islamicization of Hindu Culture at Vijayanagar a"

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Regular attendance and reading of all assigned materials. Quizzes, midterm and final. Three short essays.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ART    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE

Last Updated on MAR-24-2000

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