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Ashoka University’s undergraduate course curriculum is taught across three semesters: Spring, Summer and Monsoon (Fall). Courses are broadly divided into three categories – Foundation Courses (core curriculum), Major & Minor Courses and Co-Curricular Courses.
You may search courses offered at Ashoka here. Please use the drop down menu to choose the specific semester and subject to see the full list of courses under each department. Foundation courses are offered in all semesters and do not have prerequisites. Offerings in other categories differ in each semester. Some higher level major/minor courses may have prerequisites.
To view Summer Semester Courses-2024: Click here
This course takes an intellectual history approach to the study of Indian civilizations. It considers civilization as an actor category. It explores how different conceptualizations of civilization have shaped India, and how India has shaped the concept of civilization. We will focus mainly but not exclusively on British/Western colonialists and thinkers on one hand and South Asian intellectuals on the other to embark on a journey that will begin from the middle of the eighteenth century and go right up to the present. The course will give students a fresh perspective on and a critical re-introduction to Indian history, how historical knowledge (including the kind of history that is taught in schools) is produced, and the many consequences of such knowledge in the making of our past, present, and future.
The following themes will be covered in the course (Note: this is subject to change on the instructors' discretion).
Week 1
1. Introduction: Course Policies
2. Introduction: Overall
Week 2
3. Civilization: Concept and History I
4. Civilization: Concept and History II
Week 3
5. Culture: Concept and History
6. Tradition: History and Invention
Week 4
7. Examples of Traditions and Inventions I
8: Examples of Traditions and Inventions II
Week 5
9. Colonial Construction of Indian Civilization and Culture I
10. Colonial Construction of Indian Civilization and Culture II
Week 6:
11 Civilization and Culture of the colonized I
12. Civilization and Culture of the colonized II
Week 7:
13. The Many meaning of Hindustan I
14. The Many meaning of Hindustan II
Week 8:
15. Historical Imaginations in Early India I
16. Historical Imagination in Early India II
Week 9:
17. Spatial Imagination in Pre-Modern India
18. Spatial Imagination and cartography in Modern India
Week 10:
19. Elements of Indian Civilization: Gender
20: Elements of Indian Civilization: Caste
Week 11:
21. Civilization, Culture and Indian Under-development I
22. Civilization, Culture and Indian Under-development II
Week 12:
23. Clash of Civilization I: Samuel Huntington and Said's Critique
24. Clash of Civilization II: India and China,
Week 13:
25. Limits of Civilizational thinking: Break up of Pakistan
26. Recap
