January in India: Course Information Course Title: Religion and Society in Modern India (Religion 3360)

Course Description: This class is a January study tour, in which we will encounter three contemporary Indian religious communities--, Muslims, and Sikhs. India is a strong example of a religiously plural nation, which brings both benefits and problems. During our travels we will examine the life and interactions of these three groups, as well as how these have been (and still are) shaped by historical and cultural context.

During our travels, we will visit five different north Indian cities:  Delhi: the national capital, and our point of entry and departure,  Agra: The historical capital of the Moghul empire, and home to the Taj Mahal,  : The most sacred site for the Sikhs, and home of the ),  Haridwar: a Hindu pilgrimage city on the Ganges River, AND  Pushkar/Ajmer: Contiguous cities that have an important Hindu pilgrimage site, and the most important Sufi tomb in India.

These cities are all within a day's travel of each other, so most of our time will be spent being IN places, rather than going to places. Except for Agra, all intercity travel will be by air-conditioned trains. These travel days will also supply some time for rest, reflection, and informal discussion.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Students will display culturally appropriate behavior for visiting Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim religious sites. 2. Students will be able to articulate the foundational worldviews of Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim communities in India 3. Students will be able to describe how these worldviews are revealed and reinforced in material culture (architecture, food, clothing, accoutrements, etc.) 4. Students will be able to describe the history and (sometimes troubled) relationships between the Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim communities. 5. Students will reflect comparatively on how the religious values undergirding these three communities illuminate, challenge, and/or reinforce their own values.

Note: The instructor further hopes that this class can help students to cultivate the larger sense of identity, purpose and perspective historically associated with travel. Personal transformation through experience--the Holy Grail of J-term study tour hopes--is certainly possible but cannot be guaranteed.

Required Texts: The readings required to complete the pre-trip assignment on the three religious communities we are studying are available online at http://personal.carthage.edu/jlochtefeld/indiajterm/readingassignments.html.

Other useful documents for the trip (including an itinerary, description of food, helpful words, and descriptions of the places we will visit) can be found at http://personal.carthage.edu/jlochtefeld/indiajterm/tripdocuments.html.

Course Grading—This is a graded course. Anyone wishing to take this class for the S (Satisfactory) or NS (Not Satisfactory) must make prior arrangements with the Registrar. Please note that a course taken for S/NS cannot fill distribution requirements for graduation.

Course Requirements: All students on the trip MUST attend all required trips and events, respect people of different religious faiths, AND be cheerful and adaptable. This is about keeping everyone happy while we travel. Formal grading will be based on requirements to be completed before, during, and after the trip:

A. One thing to be completed before we leave for India (20% of the total)

 20%--Response to some factual questions (see below) about the Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh religious traditions (your answers should be based on the reading in the course packets). Send these to me as an email attachment by noon on Sunday, January 6th.

B. Things to be completed after departure for India (80% of the total grade)

 20%--“Class Stuff”—This will include being present for all required events (trips and meetings), and reading the guide book sections relevant to any sites before we go to them.  30%--Architectural Interpretation. You will interpret the religious architecture for two of the religious sites that the class visits, and show how the architectural form and structure expresses, reflects, and reinforces that community's religious assumptions. Each of these should be the equivalent of 2 typewritten pages. These will test both your powers of perception, and your assimilation of the background material for these communities. Possible sites for consideration are in Delhi (the Jama Masjid, Red Fort, Sisganj Gurudwara, or any of the other sites we see), Amritsar (the Harmandir and the Durgiana Temple), Haridwar (Har-ki-Pairi, Daksha Temple, or any of a number of smaller temples, including ones in homes), Agra (Taj Mahal, Fort), Ajmer’s Dargah Sharif, or the temples in Pushkar.  20 %--a personal journal describing/detailing/reflecting on your own experience as we travel (see attached rubric). I will read these periodically throughout the trip.  10%--a short synthetic final exam, in which you will be asked to reflect upon your experience, to draw together some of the trip's various themes. You can add pictures to your text for greater effect. This is due the Saturday after we return.

1. Readings for  “Indian Religion,” read the sections on Indian religion and on Hinduism.  “Seing The Sacred,” selections from Diana Eck’s Darshan  “Puja: Food of the Gods” from The Divine Hierarchy  Online reading on Hardwar's pilgrimage business and hereditary pilgrim guides.  Online reading on Puskar’s Pilgrim Guides  “The Guru as Pastoral Counselor,” by Raymond B. Williams, Journal of Pastoral Care, 40 (1986): 331-40. 2. Readings for Islam  “The Children of Abraham,” read the opening page (talking about Judeo- Christian-Islamic notions of divinity), and the brief section on Islam  “Sufism”  Christian Troll, “The Mystery of the Nizamuddin Dargah: The Accounts of Pilgrims”  Abdul Mackeem, “The Religious Practices of Muslims in Sri Lanka in Manifestation and Meaning.”  Two short readings on Qawwali (Sufi devotional music) 3. Readings for Sikhism  Selections from Guru Nanak’s Japji—verses 1-15, 20, 27.  Excerpt from “Four Centuries of Sikh History” (W.H. McLeod, The Sikhs)  "Worship, Ritual, and Distinctive Customs," (W. H. McLeod, Sikhism). 4. Reading for the Partition of India: Oral Histories of Partition 5. Tourism Readings  Siv Ellen Kraft, “Religion in Lonely Planet’s India,” Religion 37; 230-42  Drew Thomases, “Pushkar Tourism I,” “Pushkar Tourism II”

Questions to be Answered (January 2019)

Note: This assignment is really about making sure that you have read and understood the background information for each of these groups. A response written in bullet point format rather than full paragraphs will be just fine for this purpose.

Suggested Length: 12 double-spaced pages (2 pages for each for questions 1-6)

Due Date: By noon on Sunday 6 January. Please send this as an email attachment.

1. For Hindus: Tell me about the following:

 What are some fundamental Hindu assumptions about Reality? (that is, the structure of the universe, the purpose of human life, etc. etc.) [“Indian Religion”]  Hindu worship [“Seeing The Sacred,” and “Puja: Food of the Gods” ] o Purity (what is it, how is it lost and regained, why and when is it important?) o Pranam (How does showing respect cut across human and divine boundaries?) o Prasad (what is it, and why is important?) o Darsan (What is it, when and why is it important?)  Gurus (What important roles do they play?) [“Guru as Pastoral Counselor”]

2. For Muslims: Tell me about the following:  What are some fundamental Muslim assumptions about Reality? [“The Children of Abraham,” and “Islam”]  What are the 5 Pillars of Islam, and how does each of them promote community? [Abdul Mackeem]  How do Sufi ideas differ from those of mainstream Islam? [“Sufism,”]  Why do people still visit the graves of “long-dead” Sufi saints? What do they hope to receive at them, and why? [“The Mystery of the Nizamuddin Dargah”]  What is qawwali music, and how is a vehicle for religious experience? [Qawwali]

3. For Sikhs: Tell me about the following:

 What are some fundamental Sikh assumptions about Reality? [“Sikhism,” Japji,]  How is the Guru Granth Sahib (the scripture) the center of Sikh religious life? [“Sikhism”]  How does the formation of the Sikh community reflect opposition to persecution, and a vigorous defense of the faith? [“4 Centuries of Sikh History”]  What is the appropriate behavior when visiting any gurudwara? [“Worship, Ritual and Distinctive Customs”]

4. For the “Pilgrimage Business” tell me about the following: [online readings on Hardwar’s pilgrimage cycle, Hardwar’s the hereditary pilgrim guides, and Pushkar’s Pilgrim Guides ]  What is Hardwar’s annual pilgrimage cycle?  Why does Hardwar’s religious environment support all kinds of “beggars”?  Who are the pandas?  What sort of services do they perform for their pilgrim clients?

5. For the Partition narratives [online—oral histories of Partition], tell me only this:  When you were reading the oral histories of Partition, what story or report struck you most deeply?  How would this sort of conflict affect the historical relationship between India and Pakistan, and between Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims in India?

6. For the Tourism readings (Kraft, Thomases I and 2), tell me the following:  What is Lonely Planet's presumed difference between "tourists" and "travelers?" To what extent is this distinction valid, and what are some of its pitfalls? Which of these stereotypes will better describe our group, and why?  What kinds of conflicts (social, cultural, interpersonal) tensions can tourism promotion generate? How can differing attitudes between hosts and guests inflame these?