The Politics of Identity in South Asia (P00669)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : SPS-P-POISASIA

This course has two aims: to introduce students to recent critical work on the 'politics of identity' - ie. The role of ethnicity, religion, caste and language - in contemporary South Asia; and to assess the specific contribution anthropology can make to understanding these problems. This necessarily requires considerable crossing of disciplinary boundaries, with the use of arguments from political theory, history, cultural studies, law as well as anthropology. Nevertheless, the course will concentrate above all on recent ethnographic work which claims to throw light on the real or imagined crisis of the nation-state in South Asia. We have included a range of works which, will provide a broad introduction to not only Indian and Pakistan, but also Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Postgraduate (School of Social and Political Studies), (School of Social and Political Studies, Schedule J)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : To be arranged/Unknown

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

The course seeks to develop:
- a knowledge and understanding of the recent political history in India and Pakistan, and neighbouring states
- an advanced understanding of the main themes in the anthropology of caste, ethnicity, gender, migration and politics in the region
- a knowledge and understanding of the main theoretical issues in the relationship between anthropological and other theoretical approaches to the material covered in the course
- An ability to apply anthropological and other theoretical perspectives to an understanding in key themes in the politics of identity in South Asia