$1,500.00
None
In this course, the students will be able to
The current and mainstream narrative in western academia is that there are two kinds of Hinduism: traditional and neo and that there is a significant break or a fault line between them. The western narrative explicitly contends that neo-Hinduism has been shaped by the indigenous response of Hindus to the western construction of Hinduism during colonial times, and implicitly therefore states that the truth claims of Hindu sages like Swāmi Vivekānanda, Rāmakrishna, Paramahaṃsa Yogānanda, and Sri Aurobindo among others are suspect.
This course critically examines this dominant western narrative and shows that the “traditional” and “neo” Hinduism are on a continuum without the presence of any break between them.
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 are critically examined, which further lend insight into the agendas, motivations, and general ignorance of these writers who are behind the creation of the “neo-Hinduism” theory.
The course then veers into showing how contemporary Hinduism transcends the binary divide of traditional and neo, and that even when it has innovated and answered the contingencies and attacks of the colonial context, it has maintained its continuity with the past and that it has not made compromises with its core cosmology.
The class will meet every week on Saturdays from 11 AM to 2 PM PST/ 2 PM to 5 PM EST from [dates]. Every week there will be assigned readings which the students are required to study and come prepared to the class to hold discussions with the instructor and with one another in a self-reflective and engaging manner.
The readings will not take more than six hours of study and reflection, though the student is free to devote more than six hours if he or she feels inspired to engage in additional research and reflection. Students will be required to write a mid-semester paper and a final-term paper. The mid-semester paper should be 4-5 pages long, describing key learnings in the course.
In the final week of the class, the student is required to submit a final 15–20-page research paper (minus bibliography) on a topic which agrees with the theme of the course. Both the papers should be double spaced and written in Times New Roman.
$1,500.00
Sign-up for HUA communications
Main Campus:
Administrative Office:
Sign-up for our free webinars
"*" indicates required fields