DOCUMENT RESUME ED 329 499 SO 030 346 AUTHOR Geils, Kenneth, Ed. TITLE Passages from India, Vol. 2. SPONS AGENCY Center for International Education (ED), Washington, DC.; United States Educational Foundation in India. PUB DATE 90 NOTE 299p.; For related document, see SO 030 347. PUB TYPE Guides - Classroom Use - Teaching Guides (For Teacher) (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC12 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Anthologies; *Cultural Education; Educational Resources; *Foreign Countries; Foreign Culture; Instructional Materials; Secondary Education; *Social Studies; World History IDENTIFIERS *India ABSTRACT This is compendium of readings designed for use in the secondary classroom to assist with the study of India. Thereare seventeen categories of readings: (1) introduction to the subcontinent; (2) description of society; (3) caste and its continuing impact; (4) leadership roles;(5) women in India;(6) role playing in society; (7) marriage; (8) children;(9) urban-rural: description of life;(10) the monsoon; (11) cultural interplay; (12) another cradle of religion; (13) history: coming to India; (14) history: background to freedom; (15) Gandhiji; (16) history:the road to independence; and (17) politics and poker. A 17-itembibliography is included. (DB) ******************W**************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best thatcan be made * * from the original document. * ***************t*********************************v********************* .it a 41Nsaa A91111 UX. DEPANTMENT Of EDUCATION (Ace of Educelional Research and improvement cUOCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) *4.1 his document has been reproduceid es received from the person or manization Originating it Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction Quality Points of view or Opinions stated in this docu- men! do not necescsnly represent official OERI position or policy "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MAT RIAL NAS BEEN GRANTED BY CrAlt\r\-1 C.:.)LtS TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERC1." BEST COPY AVAILABLE .2 SUBMITTED BY KENNETH GEILS PARTIAL FULFILLMENT ELMONT MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL FULBRIGHT AWARD PROGRAM 555 RIDGE ROAD SUMMER Or 1989 ELMONT, NEW YORK 1i003 INDIAN HISTORY & CULTURE 516 326-4729 IN I ) TABLE OF CONTENIS FOREWORD ii INTRODUCTION TO THE SUBCONTINENT 1 DESCRIPTION CF SOCIETY 4 CASTE PLUS 55 LEADERSHIP ROLES 76 WOMEN IN INDIA 82 ROLE PLAYING IN SOCIETY 100 MARRIAGE 109 CHILDREN 129 URBAN - RURAL: DESCRIPTION OF LIFE 144 THE MONSOON 176 CULTURAL INTERPLAY 181 ANOTHER CRADLE OF RELIGION 194 HISTORY: COMING TO INDIA 220 HISTORY: BACKGROUND TO FREEDOM 236 GANDHIJI 243 HISTORY: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE 248 POLITICS AND POKER 262 BIBLIOGRAPHY 279 1. India - pause for a moment, repeat thatname, let it roll off your lips and around your mind. Just.what does that word,that nation, that ancient civilization conjure up? Do you see the majestic marbleedifice built by Shah Jahan for his dying wife- the Taj Mahal? Cr is it the acrid smoke of burning flesh and smell - a cremation on the Ghats of Varanasioverlooking the beige to brown holy river- the Ganga? Is it the blindingmonsoon shower of mid- July pelting down on a central Indian village;a village of mud-brick hames and rutted roads now a river of mud, of surging brownwaters?Is it the leper with deformed limbs pleading with an outstretched hand fora coin, a /upee? Yes, it is all of this: andso, so very much more. India is a land which lives in part in its gloriouspast. There are plenty of monuments, palaces, cities that reflect theempires and emperors that ruled the nub-continent. once The names of Thmarlane,Alexander, Ashoka, Akbar- Harappan, GUpta, Mhurya, MUghal, Rajputs, Emperorsand Empires that years. span 5000 India lives firmly in itspast.But it stands astride the It has placed satellites 21st century. into orbit, has hada man in space on a joint venture with the Soviet Union. NUclear power plantsare being built throughout India; the atomic bomb was tested several years back.An ongoing green revolution made India agriculturally has self-sufficient; she is exportingfeed grains and wheat. It is a land that produces giants - Mother TEmesaof Calcutta; SatiyatRay, the award.-winning film director; V.J. Raman, theNobel Prize winning scientist who dealt with the refraction of light; and ofcourse, the literary giant, Rabindranth Tagore, and the spiritual one, Mbhandas K. Gandhi. A land ofgiants truly, as well as being a giant in its illiteracy, poverty, leprosy, slums, andpopulation growth. Let me offer a quote byMark TWain: "So far as I am able to judge, nothing has beenleft undone, either by man or nature, to make India themost extraordinary country that the sun visitson his round.Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothingoverlooked. Always when you think you have come to the end of her tremendousspecialities and have finished hanging tags upon her...another.speciality crops up and another tag is required. Perhaps it will be simplest to throw away the tags and generalize herwith one all comprehensivename, as the Land of Wbnders." 1896TWain I've broken this compendium of readings down intoa dozen plus categories. They are as follows: 1. Introduction to the SubContinent 2. Caste Plus 3. %omen in India 4. Role Playing in Society 5. Marriage 6. Leadership Roles 7. History: Coming to India 8. History: Background to Freedom 9. Gandhiji 10. History: The Road to Independence 11. Cultural Interplay 12. Politics and Poker 13. Another Ctadle of Religion 14. Urban and Rural: Description of Life Certainly they reflect my dhoice of reading duringny FUlbright Summer of studying in India. In no way is this offered as "the end all/be all"; it is merely a nice series of readings, some almosta chapter length in size; down to a terse meaty/cogent quotation. Aal have utility in the classroam. They could be used as lesson openers, closers, mid-lesson summaries, reinforcershomework assignments, you fill in the blank. I hope you and your students find then;as stimulating as I have. INTRODUCTION TO THESUBCONTINENT I have never found one amonehem [the Orientalists] whocould deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worththe whole native literature of India and Arabia. MACflidtlf"j 2 So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, eitherby man or Nature, to make India the Ma extraordinary counity that the OR visits on his round. NothingMIMI to have been forgotten, nothing over:ooked. Always, when you thinkyou have come S. the end of her tremendous specialities and have finished hangingtags upon her another speciality crops up and another tag is required. Perhaps it will be simplest to throw away the tags and generalize her with Ong all-Comprehensive Nalfttsas the Land of Wonders. Mark Twain 1396 f) DESCRIPTION OF SOCIETY THIS LENGTHY SECTICN CCNTAIN5 A MIXTURE CF MATMIALS AND TOPICS. SEVERAL PASSAGES ARE CF NEAR CHAPTER LENGTH, BUT MOST ARE TERSE QUCTATIONS OR PARAGRAPH SIZE DESCRIPTIONS CF INDIA. BROAD OVERVIEW PASSAGES ARE FOLLCWED BY MCRE SPECIFIC ITEMS THAT DETAIL THE PROBLEMS BESETTING INDIA TCDAY POVERTY, DISEASE, ILLITERACY, ABUNDANCE OF COWS, POPULATICN GRCWH RATE, TRANSPCRTATICN WOES. THE ROLE CF RELIGICN AND THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CN THE LIFE CF THE PEOPLEAREALSO INCLUDED. AS WELL, THERE ARE A SERIES OF MISCELLANECUS PASSAGES COVERING TOPICS LIKE INDIA'SROLE IN HISTCRY. Tien is One of the w-orld's greit dramas: an ancient, vast and crow-red iandcommitted to the most formidably chid- knging exercise in mass democracy.lt is a spectacle in which hope, pride, paradox and uncertaintymingle Lid struggle; it is conducted, on the whole, and to India'scredit, in the open. It has been fascinating to be a ckse witness.I cannot recall that the sun has ever set on a dull devil A nice motivating general quote that could be written on the blackboard. * #2 Preface dktions,ahssttzitrbalanc Ahhough in abets size t e iithertai if mighty, there is, as time unreels, less for all. The pie must be tranched into smaller edges. When midnight's children were born at the hour of independence in August 1947, there were 350 millioa Indians. '1'04la there are more than twice that numbera sixth of mankin on a fart' lanet's land There is uc or son igers and midwisesTn3swells inexorably towards a billion and beyond, its strength increasing b, more thana million kmonth. Agricuhural lriilin has been more than mIttfgerR huwiThcundir. India also has, incidentally,) million cattle glitIrte the *orld's cattle tign, avis ot P-cati-ntry it is muc r to get medicalirjaluuLcoliihalirir a ckgeed, the true Indian motif isnot the TO Mihal, the elephant or the patient peasant behind the ox-drswn plough. It isthe crowd, thc ocean of faces in the land ofmultitudes, endlessly stirring, pushing, moving: al teeming andvigorous and urgent as spermatozoa. It is in this itarnan circulation thatone sees India's colour, variety, and hive.... Susyness, and senses also itspower, vitality and grandeur, its near-inertia,its remorsekss gla% movement, as imperceptible and irrevocableu continental d . 41 I rt unrolls for 2,000 miles from the ramparts of the Himalaya tettedoffing palms of Comorin. It spreads its broad shoulders1,700 miles from the steamy spinach-per n edges of China and Burmain the east, across Ijburning pan of Rajasthan to the black nakedmudflats of kutchl India is *#2 p.2, 3 7 1 IOf my travels throughout India I can saythe same thing: wheftr weIndians mountains, or live in Arunachal Pradesh,in the shadow of the Gujarat close to in Rajasthan in proximityto the desert or in the sea, we live underthe same sky, fanned bythe same breezes, warmed by the sametropical sun. NVe sre one people. Nowhere, in all my travels,did : zwer feel a stranger.Punjabis Goans and Haryanvis, Arunachalisand Mizos, Gujaratis and I was received are brothersunder the skin. Wherever I went with the same warmthand the same affection andthe same touching hospitality that cried tobe written aboutandpraise1 change, plus ce'srla .