Much more than the economic exploitation of the colonized, the colonization process hovers around destroying their cultural fabric. This necessarily involves the production of literature on the colonized and the creation of institutions through which the understanding of the colonized within and without their culture is significantly altered. There have been influential writers during the colonial period who understood the impulse of power and domination behind the production of literature on the colonized “other,” and there have been others who have analyzed the psychological and sociological effects of colonization. Through the literature of writers such as Aime Cessaire, Albert Memmi, Franz Fannon, Edward Said, Ashish Nandy, and S. Balagangadhara, this course will give the students the theoretical tools to understand the impact of colonialism on the psyche and culture of the Hindu people.
Faculty: Dr. Kundan Singh
Contesting Neo-Hinduism
The course, in the beginning, introduces writings of the western authors who claim that there is something called “neo-Hinduism,” which is significantly and characteristically different from “traditional Hinduism.” Once those claims are situated, the evidence of those claims will be critically examined and will lead naturally to insight into the agendas, motivations, and general ignorance of these writers who are behind the creation of the “neo-Hinduism” theory. The course will then veer into showing how contemporary Hinduism transcends the binary divide of traditional and neo, and that even when it has innovated and answered the contingencies of the colonial context, it has always maintained its continuity with the past and that it has not compromised with its core cosmology.
In this course, the student will
- be able to learn about the coordinates on which the divide between traditional and neo-Hinduism has been created;
- be able to critically examine the evidence on which the divide has been created;
- be able to learn that binaries like traditional and neo do not apply to Hinduism, for Hinduism transcends and exceeds the traditional and contemporary divide.
Area of Study: Postcolonial Hindu Studies.
Required/Elective: Elective
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study
Instructor: Dr. Kundan Singh
Critical Issues in Hindu Studies
The European colonization of India was justified by the construction of a particular narrative, beginning in the nineteenth century centered on the “White Man’s Burden” of civilizing India and the Hindus. “Scholars” hired by the East India Company and European missionaries, sometimes in tandem and at others in isolation, created a certain narrative on the Hindus and India in order to justify their colonial rule and missionary activities respectively. With the growing influence of the Europeans over Indians, the narrative became a massive industry with more and more scholars joining the force adding more nuance and sophistication to the discourse. This narrative has acquired a life of its own and today can be considered as the “received knowledge” on India and Hindus. Whether this narrative squares with the self-understanding of pre-colonial Hindus is a matter which we will examine in subsequent courses; however in the current one, we will first educate ourselves with the various descriptors that the Europeans used to define the Hindus, critically examining the various agendas–which the fathers of the narrative were quite explicit about behind such scholarship. The aforementioned scholarship in many different ways informs the self-understanding of educated Hindus today, and if the current Hindus want to connect with the worldview of their ancestors as they move forward in time, it is important for them to become familiar with this European narrative and also with the motivations that shaped the discourse, to begin with. This discourse is a distortion and in order to correct it, it is important to become familiar with its nuances.
In this course, the student will
- study in detail the writings of some of the early European Indologists like James Mill and Abbe Dubois in order to understand their characterization of Hinduism and Hindus as oppressive and hierarchical;
- understand the explicit motivations due to which such characterizations were made;
- be able to see clearly that such characterizations have become “received knowledge” on Hinduism and Hindus, which gets replicated and reproduced in mainstream academia from grade school to graduate studies whereas the motivations for creating such a construct have been made invisible;
- be able to see the basis of Academic Hinduphobia that exists in the mainstream today;
- gradually begin developing the skills required to effectively counter the distorted narrative in academia and media.
Area of Study: Hindu Studies Foundations/Postcolonial Hindu Studies
Required/ Elective: Required
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study/ Must have completed Orientation to Hindu Studies or Concurrently enrolled in OTHS.
Instructor: Dr. Kundan Singh
Start Date: April 11, 2020
End Date: June 19, 2020
Day: Every Saturday
Time: 2:00 PM — 5:00 PM EST.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Decolonizing the Hindu Condition
Course Content:
Narratives influence the perception of reality and truth. A distorted narrative or a false narrative produces a distorted perception of reality or truth or “false consciousness.” One of the chief aims of the Postcolonial Hindu Studies concentration is to explore thoroughly how the British studies on India during the colonial era generated a false narrative which distorts the manner in which the Hindu reality is described in the texts of the Hindus. This false narrative, however, has had and continues to have cultural, social, and psychological consequences. Whereas the course Anticolonialism and Postcolonialism gives a theoretical framework to understand the psychological and sociological consequences of colonization and examines these issues from a universal perspective, this course gets into specifics regarding Hinduism and India. This course has a reciprocal relationship with the course Anticolonialism and Postcolonialism and each course dialectically enhances the understanding of the other. It is not necessary to take one before the other, and both may be taken in either sequence.
Course Learning Objectives:
In this course students will be able to
- learn about the consequences of colonization on Hindu psyche and being
- explore how language, self-image, culture, and politics of the Hindus have been impacted by colonization
- examine the myths and generalizations about the Hindus crafted and perpetuated during the colonial rule that continue to persist in the current day mainstream discourse
- investigate how Hindus themselves perpetuate colonial myths today, without critically examining them or investigating their veracity.
Class Structure
There will be a minimum of 3 contact hours with the faculty every week. The class is structured in a way that promotes discussion, dialogue, and debate based on the study of and reflection on study materials each week. The content discussed in each class and the discussions that follow will continue for about 180 minutes. The Faculty will distribute a detailed syllabus and give a bird’s eye view of the course at its very beginning.
Required/Elective: Elective
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study
Faculty/Instructor: Dr. Kundan Singh
Quarter Offered: Spring 2021
Day: Saturday
Time: 02:00 pm EST – 05:00 pm EST
Start Date: April 10, 2021
End Date: June 19, 2021
James Mill and the Rise of Liberal-Left in Britain
Course Content:
This course shows that the noxious discourse on Hindus and Hinduism which emerged through the writings of James Mill in the History of British India has a reciprocal and contextual dependence on the rise of liberal and left values in Britain, which also were inspired by his domestic and political writings.
Course Description:
The writings of James Mill not only disfigured the narrative on India and Hinduism but also influenced the transformation of the British culture, predominantly through the parliamentary reforms of 1832. The rise of the liberal values and culture in Britain occurred in the backdrop of the narrative that painted Hinduism and Hindus as hierarchical and oppressive. The desire for and imagination of liberal and democratic England, which began to become a reality with the advent of the 1832 parliamentary reforms, and the painting of Hindus as hierarchical and oppressive occurred in tandem and are interconnected. Though I reserve the exploration of the transformation of the Indian condition as hierarchical and oppressive post the emergence of James Mill’s History of British India in future courses, the current one will explore the aforementioned interconnection and reciprocal dependence in significant detail by examining the original writings of James Mill on India and for Britain.
In this course, the student will
- Learn about the political writings of James Mill, produced immediately after the publication of his History of British India in 1817.
- Explore the reciprocal dependence between his political writings for Britain and his narrative on India and Hinduism.
- Learn that Mill’s narrative on Hindus and Hinduism is deeply colored by his British social and religious experiences.
- Learn how the ideas of James Mill travelled through John Stuart Mill to Karl Marx.
Class Structure
There will be a minimum of 3 contact hours with the faculty every week. The class is structured in a way that promotes discussion, dialogue, and debate based on the study of and reflection on study materials each week. The content discussed in each class and the discussions that follow will continue for about 180 minutes.
Required/Elective: Elective
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study
Faculty/Instructor: Dr. Kundan Singh
Quarter Offered: Fall 2021
Day: Saturday
Time: 02:00 pm EST – 05:00 pm EST
Start Date: October 9, 2021
End Date: December 18, 2021
Orientalism and Hinduism
This course covers in nuanced detail what Edward Said means by “Orientalism”–what its characteristics and descriptors are. Said holds that “Orient” or the “East” did not exist out there that was objectively captured by the Europeans; rather it was created and constructed through the handiwork of writings generated by colonialists and missionaries, and by “scholars” hired by them. This construction, with its coordinates in power and domination, has had lasting sociological, political, psychological, and economic consequences, both for people with European ancestry and for people with non-European ancestry. Said’s “Orientalism” is thus an important tool to analyze first the imagination of India and Hindu society in European consciousness, and then the efforts that were undertaken by the British colonial power to translate the imagination into concrete sociological reality through what Gramsci calls as civil society (schools, colleges, and universities) and political society (the bureaucracy and the police). To put it succinctly, this course will revolve around critically understanding Said’s theory of Orientalism and how the European imagination of India and Hinduism significantly altered their discourse and consequently their understanding in the colonial and postcolonial contexts.
In this course, the student will
- gain a complete understanding of what Edward Said meant by the term “Orientalism”;
- be able to see for himself or herself the evidence for “Orientalism” in the colonial context of India;
- be able to appreciate how the Orientalist discourse is still alive in representations of India and Hinduism even today.
Area of Study: Postcolonial Hindu Studies
Required/Elective: Required
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study
Instructor: Dr. Kundan Singh
Orientation to Hindu Studies
Course Content:
This course will offer a preliminary reflection on the central themes and ideas of Hinduism leading to an understanding of the common foundations of the great variety of traditions and practices within the umbrella of Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism. It will survey the central ideas of Hinduism – covering an Ontology of key Sanskrit terms and the principal ideas that are central to the cosmology, practice, and expressions of Sanatana Dharma. It will include reflections and perspectives on these core concepts, using selected readings from source texts such as the Vedas, Upanishads, Itihaasa, Bhagavad-Gita and Puranas. But it is not a Hinduism 101 course!
The course will also review the complex challenges that arise at the confluence of Hindu and western thought. The Hindu worldview based on Dharma with its emphasis on duties and responsibilities and sustainability of life will be contrasted with contemporary ideologies and their focus on rights and privileges, competition, exploiter-exploited binary, and survival of the fittest. The distinction between a discourse of knowledge and a discourse of power will be drawn out, as two alternate paradigms. Through this, the course will develop an overview and insight into the design of the curriculum offered by the Hindu University of America i.e., the context, and the paradigm that informs that design. It will examine the impact of colonial
discourse on postcolonial Hindu experience and leave students with the pressing urgency of intellectual decolonization. And as it distinguishes between colonial perspectives that constitute the received knowledge on Hinduism, from the lived reality of Hindus, it will present the significance and importance of Hindu studies today, in a deeply moving, inspiring and transformative way.
Course Learning Objectives:
In this course students will be able to:
a) Explore alternate paradigms, various options and trajectories available within the Hindu Studies Program
b) Distinguish the central ideas and concepts that constitute the Foundations of Hindu Dharma
c) Evaluate different elective areas of study and Courses offered: Sanskrit Studies, Texts and Traditions, Yoga Studies, History and Method, Post-Colonial Hindu studies and Conflict and Peace studies.
d) Distinguish between pathways towards a deep study of Hindu thought, or towards deep engagement with western thought from a Hindu perspective
e) Discover and Create pathways for engagement with the Hindu Studies curricula
Class Structure:
There will be a minimum of 1.5 contact hours with one or more faculty every week. The class is structured in a way that promotes discussion and debate based on self-study and reflection each week. While the content being discussed in each class will be concluded within 90 minutes, the discussion time will be free format, and can continue for an additional 30 minutes. During the course, students will be required to submit one short essay. They need not be academic quality papers – but should be based on students' self-reflection on what they have learnt and assimilated so far, and what has touched and inspired them deeply.
Area of Study: Hindu Studies Foundation
Program: Certificate Program in Hindu Studies (C.P.H.S), Community Education Program (C.E.P), Doctor of Philosophy in Hindu Studies, Master of Arts in Hindu Studies (M.A.H.S)
Required/ Elective: This course is a prerequisite for admission into Masters’ and Doctoral program in Hindu Studies. It is also a required Core course for the Certificate Program in Hindu Studies.
Prerequisites: None.
Faculty: Mr. Kalyan Viswanathan(along with others)
Time: 09:00 pm EST – 10:30 pm EST
Start Date: July 15, 2022
End Date: September 23, 2022
Day: Friday
Quarter Offered: Summer 2022
Philosophical Foundations of Orientalism
For an analysis to be sound, poignant, and pointed, it is important to understand the philosophical base and container within which the analysis is conducted. One of the techniques that postcolonial discourse uses is deconstruction. Deconstruction essentially means examining the sociological-political-historical-economic contexts within which a given reality or “truth” comes into existence, which over a period of time become eternal, timeless, and context-independent. Though there are many philosophers who have used the technique of deconstruction for various enunciations, this course will introduce the philosophical underpinnings of deconstruction through the writings of Nietzsche and Foucault. There has been a decisive impact of Foucault on Said’s Orientalism and Foucault was widely influenced by Nietzsche. This philosophical container will give a wide base to students to deconstruct the European writings on India and Hinduism.
In this course, the student will
- learn what the technical term widely used in academia today, deconstruction, actually means;
- appreciate the philosophical and historical underpinnings of deconstruction;
- be able to apply the technique of deconstruction in critically examining the colonial and orientalist writings on India and Hinduism.
Area of Study: Post Colonial Hindu Studies, History and Method
Required/Elective: Elective
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study
Instructor: Dr. Kundan Singh
Philosophy of Science and Hinduism
Science is a human activity, which has a certain philosophy behind it. In order to gain an in-depth understanding of science, one needs to know at least the enunciation of some important philosophers of science like Francis Bacon, Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, and Imre Lakatos. In the backdrop of this understanding, this course will discuss if Hinduism and Yoga are science or they far exceed the construction of science as currently understood by philosophers and layman alike.
In this course, the student will
- understand science, not from a commonsensical or ideational standpoint, but from a philosophical and practical viewpoint–the way science has been understood and practiced in the western world;
- develop the capacity to discuss in a nuanced way whether Hinduism and Yoga qualify as science as currently understood and practiced within the western world;
- develop an understanding of the “science” of Hinduism and Yoga from their own philosophical and cosmological standpoints and not from the perspective of western philosophy of science.
Area of Study: Postcolonial Hindu Studies
Required/Elective: Elective
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study
Instructor: Dr. Kundan Singh
Postcolonial Theory
Course Content:
This course provides a full spectrum on thinkers, writers, and theorists who have commented on the colonial occupation of non-European nations and its aftermath. It places the evolution of postcolonial theory in a historical context and gives the learner the tools to apply it in evaluating the postcolonial Hindu condition. Simultaneously, it also unfolds the limitations of postcolonial theory in fully addressing the postcolonial Hindu condition, identifying the need for Hindus to have their own postcolonial theories.
Course Description:
Though a large part of the world today exists independent of the direct political domination of the European imperial nations, it still suffers from the consequences. The civilizational, sociological, and psychological consequences of colonization are numerous, and they do not go away just because the political dominance or domination has ended. These consequences must be studied deeply if a civilization, like the one of Hindus, must advance without carrying the baggage or shadows of the colonial past. Colonial intervention creates a civilizational and cultural trauma, which the erstwhile colonized and their progenies try to forget or shove under the carpet. The trauma, however, is like a festering wound which must be tended to and healed, which can only happen if it is examined comprehensively and treated. Given that the European colonization was a world-wide phenomenon, thinkers from around the world have studied its consequences. Their insights or theories are extremely helpful in analyzing the current postcolonial Hindu condition, which will be in the future extremely beneficial in connecting the Hindu civilization and society to its yogic paradigm.
This course provides an overview of anticolonial and postcolonial theorists from around the world, which sets the stage for studying some of them in a greater detail in subsequent courses, like Anticolonialism and Postcolonialism and Orientalism. These courses, as outlined in the Postcolonial Hindu Studies concentration, further help in the analysis and discussion of the postcolonial Hindu condition, specifically addressed in courses like Decolonizing the Hindu Condition, Orientalism and Hinduism, and Critical Issues in Hindu Studies.
Note about the title photo: The title photo of the course description is from the back panel (called the “Altar of Kings”) of the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, which was built over the temple of the Aztecs and from the materials engendered from ruining it. The gold that you see on the panel was looted from the Aztecs, who were described to the hilt as savages by the Spanish conquistadors.
Course Learning Objectives:
In this course, the students will
- comprehensively learn about and explore the ideas and theories of the major figures who have shaped the postcolonial theory as we understand today.
- learn about and examine the postcolonial theory in historical and current perspectives.
- gain a comprehensive understanding on how to apply postcolonial theory to the Hindu context.
- critically examine postcolonial theory to understand where it falls short in addressing the postcolonial Hindu condition.
Class Structure
There will be a minimum of 3 contact hours with the faculty every week. The class is structured in a way that promotes discussion, dialogue, and debate based on the study of and reflection on study materials each week. The content discussed in each class and the discussions that follow will continue for about 180 minutes.
Required/Elective: Elective
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study
Faculty/Instructor: Dr. Kundan Singh
Quarter Offered: Spring 2022
Day: Saturday
Time: 02:00 pm EST – 05:00 pm EST
Start Date: April 16, 2022
End Date: June 25, 2022
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Course content:
This course will revolve around interrogating the following questions:
- What is the Yoga as enunciated by the sage Patañjali?
- What is the role that bahiranga yoga (practices like āsana, prāṇāyāma, yama and niyama) have in the scheme of Yoga?
- How does the Yoga sutra look at the processes of the mind? How does it approach the practice of mastery over one’s mind?
- What is the thread of systematic psycho-spiritual evolution that runs through all the eight limbs of Yoga as enunciated in the Yoga Sutra?
This course will give an authentic understanding of the world of Yoga as described by the sage Patañjali. Since Patañjali’s Yoga Sutra are built on the darśana of Sankhya, this course will start by exploring the worldview of Sankhya. Given that the Bhagavad Gita is a synthesis of Sankhya and Yoga, it will prepare the students for a deeper philosophical understanding of the Bhagavad Gita.
In this course, the student will be able to:
- Gain a traditional understanding of Patañjali’s Yoga Sutra as enunciated by the great master Yogacharya Krishnamacharya.
- Develop an understanding of the key practices that enable understanding and mastery of one’s mind and self.
- Understand the nuances of psycho-spiritual evolutionary growth that Yoga entails.
- Learn about the philosophical foundations on which Yoga is predicated.
Area of Study: Hindu Studies Foundations
Required/Elective: Required
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study
Faculty/Instructor: Dr. Anand Paranjape; Raghu Ananthanarayanan, Dr. Kundan Singh; & Dr. Anita Balasubramanian
Time: 10.00 am EST to 11.30 am – EST.
Day: Monday and Friday
Start Date: January 15th, 2021
End Date: March 26th, 2021
Quarter Offered: Winter 2021