Lehrende/r: Dr. Beatrice Renzi
Veranstaltungsart: Proseminar
Anzeige im Stundenplan: Indien
Semesterwochenstunden: 2
Unterrichtssprache: Deutsch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 40
Voraussetzungen / Organisatorisches: Lehrveranstaltung im Rahmen von: 1. BA Ethnologie und Afrikastudien: - im Kernfach/beide SR und Beifach: Modul Regionale Studien 2. Magister Ethnologie: Studienordnungsnummer E 16 Das Proseminar findet auf Englisch statt; schriftliche Arbeiten können wahlweise auf Englisch oder Deutsch abgegeben werden.
Inhalt: The aim of this seminar is to explore the relation between the state and society in contemporary India. In particular, taking caste as a key interface between the state and society in India, we will examine its role in processes of socio-political aggregation and mobilization. This analytical perspective will help us to unveil how caste hierarchies and their underlying value systems and identities are highly contested battle grounds of powerful and often violent social and political forces. In this context, our understanding of politics goes beyond electoral contests to mean the struggle over socially constructed systems of values and identities. Various case studies of upper, middle and low-ranking castes across North India will shed light on how different groups use religious repertoires and the value systems in which they are embedded as means of collective identity construction and political performance. These case studies also highlight the rising tension between a Brahminical system of social structuring and the religious and political assertiveness of the lower castes. Lower-ranking castes have realized that in the democratic power game their aspirations for social change depend upon their ability to consolidate often heterogeneous caste-clusters into large vote blocks. By offering insights into a governance system which has been termed the largest democracy in the world, this exploration is relevant for those interested in qualifying the meaning of democracy in highly stratified societies and in understanding public policy that aims to deepen the way citizens are enabled to realize their constitutional and human rights.
Empfohlene Literatur: Zur Einführung in die Geschichte und Politik des postkolonialen Indiens: Corbridge, S. and J. Harriss. 2000. Reinventing India: Liberalization, Hindu Nationalism and Popular Democracy. Cambridge: Polity Press. Zur Einführung in den Hinduismus: Shattuck, C. 2000. Hinduismus. Freiburg: Herder. Zum Kastensystem und seiner Entwicklung im modernen Indien: Dirks, N.B. 2001. Castes of Mind. Colonialism and the Making of India. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. Zum Verständnis der Konzepte von Klasse und Kaste in der heutigen indischen Gesellschaft: Varma, P. K. 2007. The Great Indian Middle Class. New Delhi: Penguin Books India.
