List of Courses at the YIF (2018-2019) · 2019. 1. 12. · List of Courses at the YIF (2018-2019)...

List of Courses at the YIF (2018-2019)

S. No. Course Faculty

1 Foundations of Leadership Prof. Dwight Jaggard

2 JM Financial Lectures on Reason and the Maker

of Modern India Prof. Rudrangshu Mukherjee

3 Political Economy of India’s Development Since

1947 Dr. Mihir Shah

4 Fundamentals of Law Prof. Apurv Mishra

5 Art Appreciation Prof. Anunaya Chaubey

6 Heart of Leadership Prof. Kenwyn Smith

7 Economic Reason and Public Policy: An

Introduction to Applied Microeconomics Prof. A.K. Shivakumar

8 Whose Heritage Is It? Prof. Shobita Punja

9 Kabir: The Poet of Vernacular Modernity Prof. Purushottam Agrawal

10 Indian Ecosophy Prof. Aseem Shrivastava

11 Mathematical Thinking Prof. Maya Saran


12 Problem Solving and Statistical Thinking in

Modern Life Prof. Santosh Venkatesh

13 Science as a Renaissance Activity Prof. Vijay Singh

14 Translating India Prof. Rita Kothari

15 Paradise Lost: A Text for Our Times Prof. Malabika Sarkar

16 Why is Globalization on Trial? Prof. Nayan Chanda

17 Making Sense of Indian Elections Prof. Gilles Verniers

18 Totalitarian Century? Prof. Dilip Simeon

19 Law and Economics Prof. Subhashish Gangopadhyay

20 India’s Economy – Past, Present and Near Future Prof. Omkar Goswami

21 The Historical Moment Dr. Patrick French & Dr. T.C.A.

Raghavan

22 Basic Group Dynamics Prof. Kenwyn Smith

24 The Arts of Communication Prof. Mihir Mankad


25 Women, Society and Changing India Prof. Urvashi Butalia

26 Gender and Culture in Bombay Cinema Prof. Geetanjali Chanda

27 Shakespeare and the World Prof. Gil Harris & Prof. Madhavi Menon

28 International Relations Prof. Devesh Kapur & Prof. E.

Sreedharan

29 India and the World – A Strategic History Since

1945 Prof. Rudra Chaudhuri

30 Deconstructing Select Indian Foreign Policy Challenges and Responses: A Practitioner’s

Perspective Prof. Arun Singh

31 Issues in Social Democracy and Social Justice in

India Prof. Narendra Jadhav

33 Ecology and Global Modernity Prof. Aseem Shrivastava

34 Philosophy and Cognitive Science Prof. Ritwik Agrawal

35 Evolution, Economics and Reasons Prof. William Scott Green


Course Title - Reasons and Makers of Modern India Faculty - Prof. Rudrangshu Mukherjee

The title of the course explains its purpose and its theme. What needs to be explicated

is the way it approaches this very broad subject. The lectures will look at the life and

career of certain individuals who used to reason to put forward their arguments and

also believed in the power of reason to transform society. It will place the individuals

in a specific historical context – this will also serve to introduce to the class the basic

contours of the making of modern India – and then analyse their careers in relation to

the context. This will serve to bring in to focus their impact as well as their

contradictions and slippages. A word of warning: it should not be assumed that these

were the only individuals to have pursued reason in modern India. In fact, the course

should provoke students to look at other stalwarts who were committed to the

advocacy of reason.

Course Title - Political Economy of India’s Development Faculty - Mihir Shah

The course will address the following: 1. Markets and Government: A Critical Look at Key Drivers of Change. 2. India’s Development Strategy: The First 33 Years (1947-1980).

3. India’s Development Strategy: The Last 33 Years (1980-2013).

4. Adivasi Predicament in India.

5. A Paradigm Shift in Water Management in India – Part I.

6. A Paradigm Shift in Water Management in India – Part II.

7. MGNREGA: An Instrument of Inclusive and Sustainable Growth.

8. Civil Society in India: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Strands.

9. Human Freedom: The Teachings of the Bhagavad Gita with Occasional References to those of the Buddha.

10. Pulling the Threads Together


Course Title - Problem Solving and Statistical Thinking in Modern Life

Faculty - Santosh S. Venkatesh This course deals with how to statistically analyze data and make decisions based on the data. Probability forms the mathematical framework on which statistics rests. Building on basic probabilistic concepts we will cover the following major topical themes in statistics with applications drawn from a welter of domains. Statistics is learnt best by coupling mathematical analysis with actual data manipulation on test cases. Computer-aided graphical analysis is highly recommended as it allows the discovery of patterns in complex data.

Course Title - Whose Heritage Is It?

Faculty - Shobita Punja

This course, spread over 10 classes will offer an introduction to the diverse and

complex nature of Indian art and culture (Natural, Tangible and Intangible heritage).

It will begin with understanding the relationship of cultural development and the

environment along with the threats facing our natural heritage. There will be visits to

important cultural institutions in Delhi such as the National Museum, the Sanskriti

museums and Humayun’s Tomb, a World Heritage Site to understand the contribution

made by different communities, historic periods and regions to the development of a

composite heritage. Experts, practitioners from associated fields that encompass

various genres of heritage and faiths will be invited to interact with students. This

exposure will also introduce students to the key players in the area of heritage

conservation and the innovations made in this field.

The purpose of this programme is to provide first-hand experience of different aspects

of heritage, so that students can decide for themselves what they consider their

heritage and what can be done, if anything, for its survival and continuity. The course

has been crafted specifically for the YIF by Dr. Shobita Punja, one of the most

renowned & respected figures in the field of Indian Culture & Heritage.


Course Title - Mathematical Thinking

Faculty - Maya Saran

Some of humankind’s most powerful and beautiful ideas live in Mathematics. This ancient and most human of disciplines also happens to be the ideal arena in which to gain experience in rigourous analytical thinking and creative problem solving with an emphasis on writing precisely and correctly. These twin aspects of Mathematics will drive this course, and the topics we will choose to work with will not require any

technical background – you will be given all the tools you need. During this course, you will: 1. Develop a set of broadly useful problem solving skills and strategies These include strategies such as first addressing a simplified version of the question, examining extreme cases, making conjectures in the absence of solutions and the like. More broadly, you will gain experience with struggling with an unyielding problem, treating mistakes and false starts as essential, and being flexible, creative and persistent.

2. Gain experience in critical and analytical thinking Mathematics trains us to always ask and answer the question, “How do we know that?” You will be expected to make clear arguments of your own, and to read and analyse the arguments of others.

3. Encounter some of history’s landmark ideas over the course of these 20 hours, we

will look at the existence of non-rational lengths, the foundation of calculus, and

Cantor’s set theory. We take all of these for granted today, but they were all

groundbreaking ideas in their time. This is a chance to get a sense of why.

Course title - The Historical Moment Faculty - Patrick French & T.C.A. Raghavan

The course is an accessible introduction to the humanities and to the history of ideas.

It is aimed at students interested in literature and history, and in the connections

between them. No previous knowledge of world history, philosophy or literature is

assumed on the part of the students. Some intense reading of extracts from books will

be required. By ‘the historical moment’, we refer to the social, cultural, political and

surrounding circumstances that create a text, in combination with its author’s talent

and imagination.


Course Title - Foundations of Leadership

Faculty - Dwight Jaggard The goal of Foundations of Leadership is to increase your capacity to effectively lead

throughout your career and wherever you find yourself. This involves understanding

and learning – through reflection on your experience and feedback from others –

about yourself and about working effectively with others. These abilities are essential

in meeting critical personal, interpersonal, and organizational challenges in India and

throughout the world. Here, topics include teamwork and team dynamics, decision

making, identifying and valuing life’s goals and dreams, being in “resonance” in our

work, knowing our core values, developing vision, understanding the fundamentals of

leadership, valuing differences, understanding the dynamics of influence, using power

with integrity, listening empathetically, given and receiving feedback, leading change,

exploring methods for achieving synergy between our personal, community and

professional lives, and discovering where we can make our contribution. The course

involves opportunities for feedback from both peers and faculty; it uses the classroom

as a learning laboratory, where in-class action is the basis for reflection and

knowledge.

Course Title - Art Appreciation

Faculty – Anunaya Chaubey

The course on Art Appreciation is based on the premise that all of us have sufficient

critical sense to read diverse experiences and expressions of life. While we celebrate

this ability freely in critiquing concepts, phenomena and expressions that are

scientific, political, social, economic or multiple other things in nature, we find

ourselves unsure and diffident about critiquing an artistic expression, or at least

talking about it with reasonable conviction. This is perhaps because we have grown

up thinking of art as something too intellectual, mysterious and arcane and not as an

expression that has experiential and pragmatic roots. Of course, we respond to art

but we find our response to be a subjective one and are unable to articulate it in

objective terms. This is because most of us are unaware about how art works- what

are the elements that one should look for, how they work individually and collectively

to create a complex and a harmonious whole that a work of art essentially is.


Course Title - Indian Ecosophy

Faculty - Aseem Shrivastava

Traditionally, Indian civilisation has had a very different relationship to nature when

compared with modern Western and Westernising cultures - including those of

‘modern’ India. Upanishadic notions like ‘vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ (the earth is one

family) have been integral to it. While metropolitan India modernises at an

accelerating pace, such beliefs continue to find their practical expression to this day

in the worship that ordinary Indians offer to rivers and Himalayan peaks, trees and

animals. This has no equivalent in the modern Western world. On the contrary, such

practices and beliefs have often been mocked by Western thinkers (for instance, by

Marx himself). It denotes a distinct eco-cultural inheritance, rooted in spirituality and

religious belief, that asks for systematic inquiry and research. Our forest-dwellers,

fishermen and farmers have long held and practised ecological beliefs and restraints,

today under huge developmental threats. Spendthrift, educated India has much to

learn from its poor, illiterate, but ecologically wiser citizens.

The aim of the course is to help students develop an understanding of the

uniqueness and depth of Indian ecological thought and practice, contrasting it with

modern Western approaches to our (default European Enlightenment-based) view

of the natural world. With the help of an understanding of the foundation laid by

Tagore and Gandhi, a critical as well as a creative Indian perspective on the

ecological crisis of modernity will emerge. An important goal of the course is to

relate an ecological outlook to its basis in authentic spiritual beliefs and practices.

Course Title - Women, Society and Changing India Faculty - Urvashi Butalia

Examining the women’s movement in India from the 19th century to the present day through texts, oral histories, visual sources, letters, etc., and a range of diverse methodologies so that students are encouraged to experience the political as personal (and vice versa) by engaging with and critically reflecting on their own and others’ lives and histories. The course will preserve the fluidity with which feminist movements have evolved in India

by allowing the students a space to focus on experience more than information. This will

enable students to utilize their own previous knowledge of events in history and

contemporary politics to develop a self-informed nuanced understanding of gender and

its relationship in society. Course assignments will also follow this format and mix the

practical with the theoretical and analytical.


Course Title: Making Sense of Indian Elections

Faculty – Gilles Verniers

The purpose of the course “Making Sense of Indian Elections” is to introduce Fellows

to the art of electoral analysis and to teach them to examine political trends, issues and

questions through empirical or factual evidence. The course insists on the necessity to

confront common or dominant narratives on electoral politics with data; to ground

analysis and reflection on empirical observations. It also insists on the necessity to

critically engage with data, or not to take political data at face value.

Thus, this course is not an exercise of commentary or a debate club about electoral

outcomes or governments’ actions. The course also aims to introduce Fellows to

political data analysis, through practical assignments involving quantitative and

qualitative methods, as well as political cartography.

Course Title – Totalitarian Century?

Faculty – Dilip Simeon

The late Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012) named the twentieth century ‘the age of

extremes’. With two world wars, acts of genocide, mass transfers of population; and

the spectre of nuclear annihilation, it is the period in which war is deemed to have

become ‘total’. What do the terms totality and extremism teach us, when applied to

history and politics? Do militarism and extremism have their roots in the revolutionary

upsurges and imperialist excursions of an earlier time? The course will study the war-

like aspect of modernity, through the history of conflict. The approach will be thematic,

and begin with the Napoleonic wars and major developments in the nineteenth

century.

We shall also examine ideas, and the emergence of ideologically driven movements in

Europe and Asia – including socialism, nationalism, militarism and their connection to

totalitarianism. We will cover historical events and philosophical issues, with the aim

of understanding totalitarian politics and provoking further study.


Course Title – Translating India

Faculty – Rita Kothari

If we believe that languages constitute worlds differently, it would appear that certain

narratives may differ, in say Telugu, from those in English. Knowledge in the vernacular

languages (which some also call bhashas), when brought into conversation with that

formed in English, throws up interesting questions with respect to power, class, and

ideas of India. This course hopes to examine different archives, especially stories in

print, cinema, and songs, in order to develop class discussions around comparisons

and contrasts of the ‘regional’ and ‘cosmopolitan,’ or the centre and periphery. In

doing so, it opens up for students knowledge systems that surround them in everyday

contexts, but remain confined within Indian languages. Students would have to

collaborate in this process of knowledge-making and disruption so that we begin to

think of cultures in translation, in the process of making sense to each other, both

linguistically and culturally.

Aims:

1. To make students take cognizance of and appreciate the linguistic and regional diversities they come from.

2. 2. To understand and appreciate the world of literature in India and learn how to read a literary text with respect to its own terms of history, sociology, and narrative-making.

3. To learn to read narratives in translation and understand the verbal and nonverbal devices that go into their making.

Course Title – India’s Economy: Past, Present and Near Future

Faculty – Omkar Goswami

The object of this course is to closely familiarise the students with several key features

of India’s economy, especially the macroeconomics, growth of the corporate sector

and the challenges that face us going forward. It is very largely contexed within the

disciplines of economics, finance and corporate law. The idea is that, after the course,

students will have a good understanding of several aspects of the economy, and be

well versed to interpret the realities that they see today.


Course Title – Fundamentals of Law

Faculty – Fundamentals of Law

The idea behind this course is to give Fellows a flavour of the most important

statutes that will cross their path in their life after YIF. In a series of 10 discussion

sessions, we cover the following 3 sets of laws:

1. Laws that you WILL HAVE TO KNOW ? Law of Contracts? Fundamentals of

Corporate Law? IPR Law- Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents

2. Laws that you SHOULD KNOW? Constitution of India? Consumer Protection

Act? Right to Information Act 3.

3. Laws that (I hope) you NEVER HAVE TO KNOW? Law of Dispute Resolution? Law

of Crimes? Law relating to Marriage, Divorce, Domestic Violence and Live-in

Relationships

At the end of this course, Fellows should be familiar with the most important laws

that they will have to engage with in their personal and professional lives. Being

aware of one's rights and duties under these statutes will allow them to:

(i) Engage in more informed debates on public issues dominating the

headlines today

(ii) Have an upper hand in negotiations with their employer/business

partner/client/investor/employee and

(iii) Become a better citizen of India

Course Title – Evolution, Econmics and Reasons

Faculty – William Scott Green

In this course we will examine three contemporary interdisciplinary works that

address three basic questions about human experience:

Where do we come from?

How do we flourish?

How do we think?


Course Title - Paradise Lost; A Text for Our Times

Faculty – Malabika Sarkar

Milton’s lifetime (1608-1674) can truly be called the age of revolution – the Puritan Revolution

that witnessed the assassination of a monarch and the Scientific Revolution that dismantled

centuries of belief in a concentric earth-centred cosmos. It was in this atmosphere of

questioning of authority that the radical poet, John Milton, conceived and composed his

magnificent epic, Paradise Lost.

Sometimes directly, but more often in subversive ways, Paradise Lost challenges

contemporary beliefs including gender stereotypes. These are the complex issues that the

course will examine with special attention to the Chaos and Cosmos of Paradise Lost, and the

characters of Adam, Eve, Satan and Milton’s angels. The power and the eloquence of some of

the most moving lines of poetry in the epic ensure the abiding relevance of some of the

profound questions Milton raises in the epic. Indeed, many of these deeply troubling issues

are not very different from those we face today. Paradise Lost is not only a classic. It is a text

for our times.

Course Title – Gender and Culture in Bombay Cinema

Faculty – Geetanjali Chanda

Popular culture is a backdrop to our daily lives. It is our first teacher and from it we

learn what it is to be a boy or a girl, a man or a woman; it guides us through gender

roles, social behaviours and relationships; each phase of our life-rituals – birth,

marriage and death are shaped by its hidden melody. Bollywood has shaped

language, fashion, music, dance and most of all social values. We will study the social

and political contexts that frame the production, dissemination and consumption of

these values.

This course aims to understand the role of popular culture and the ‘work’ it does in

nation building. It explores the hidden ideologies of gender and class that are

embedded in apparently innocent entertainment. The course will provide us with the

tools to read a text/film and it will empower us to challenge and change mainstream

norms.


Course Title - Heart of Leadership

Faculty – Kenwyn Smith

This course addresses a number of basic issues central to leadership: wealth creation,

innovation, cross-sector collaboration, birthing possibilities, wealth distribution and fostering

new futures. The course builds upon the earlier YIF leadership course and draws upon the

thinking found in psychology, anthropology, sociology, management, politics, economics and

philosophy. We start from the premise that all leadership acts require a form of thinking that

transcends the conventional, while simultaneously standing on the shoulders of the reasoning

processes used by organizational members and managers embroiled in every-day decisions

about both the mundane and the profound. In short, leadership thinking is done in concert

with, but is not captive to, the conventional.

We will focus on developing new reasoning capabilities about a wide variety of topics. Our

deliberations will be both highly theoretical and highly practical. Students will find they are

stretched to think in abstract and concrete ways simultaneously. No theory divorced from

reality will be seen as relevant; no questions of application (“what we could or should do in any

situation”) unattached to meaningful and robust theory will be entertained. All participants will

be asked to push the envelope of their reasoning powers.

Course Title – Deconstructing Select Indian Foreign Policy Challenges and

Responses: A Practitioner’s Perspective

Faculty – Arun Singh

The course will seek to elaborate on and discuss select foreign policy challenges in

which the Faculty member was personally involved. Based on their personal

experience, assessments and other reports and evaluations, the students will be

encouraged to make their own evaluations of the severity of the challenges and

adequacy of the responses.

The aim is to enable the students to understand the dynamics of competing

national interests, compulsions behind policy choices, time and other pressures

while choices are exercised, and consequences of such choices. When faced with

similar situations in the future they should be able to better analyze and anticipate

developments.


Course Title: Why is Globalization on Trial?

Faculty – Nayan Chanda

Over the past decades, especially since the outbreak of the 2008 global financial crisis,

popular discontent in the developed world has been focused on the ill-effects of

globalization. While globalization has lifted millions of people out of poverty in the

developing world both the extreme right and left leaning politicians in the west have

turned their anger against globalization. They accuse it for being responsible for the

economic and social problems of their societies. The most striking outcome of this

anger has been Brexit and the election of Donald Trump.

This course will explore the meaning of the term globalization, the history of the

phenomenon it describes, what exactly is globalization being held responsible for and

why. The course will assess if the accusations are justified and what is the future of

globalization. As part of the course one class will be devoted to holding a mock trial of

globalization. Students will write their individual verdict as their final paper.

Course Title – International Relations

Faculty – E. Sridharan & Devesh Kapur

This course covers the history, concepts and theories of International Relations and

will look at the international security landscape during the Cold War and post - Cold

War periods. It shall also cover India’s International Relations and Foreign Policies

during the Cold War and post-Cold War periods.

Multilateralism and India’s multilateral engagements will be examined and the course will

also look at the various international organizations at work in the world such as the WTO

and other International Financial Institutions.


Course Title - Science as a Renaissance Activity

Faculty – Vijay Singh

The aim of this course is to:

1. Provide a cultural exposure for those who have not had an exposure to science post high school. And to enrich the understanding of those who have had. Some 6 to 8 topics would be touched upon.

2. Suggest how the student could adopt a scientific perspective to make sense of the world around her.

3. Outline the history and the philosophical underpinnings of each topic. 4. Describe the current relevance of this topic. This may imply devices we use (e.g.

laptops), facilities we access (x-rays), current issues (nuclear power plants, environmental pollution).

The mathematical background will be very elementary and at the high school level:

numbers, ratios, simple algebra, simple geometry, reading and interpreting graphs, pie-

charts and bar charts. Trigonometry, if employed, is again at the high school level but will

be explained prior to using it.

Course Title - Shakespeare and the World

Faculty – Jonathan Gil Harris & Madhavi Menon

This course attempts to unearth important dimensions of nature and its changing

interface with human domains through an interdisciplinary socio-ecological as well as

historical perspective. The dynamics behind changing contextual conditions and the

resulting impact on natural spheres is particularly highlighted besides reviewing and

generating discourses on regional, national and global conservation concerns as well

as the feasibility of sustainable trajectories of development.

The course curriculum will be imparted through innovative audio-visual teaching

techniques and internal evaluation mechanisms to ensure the development of

analytical interdisciplinary skills and critical thinking for comprehending nature society

interactions that forms the core of critical debates pertaining to contemporary

environmental discourse. Exposure to case studies emanating from different

geographical domains will be an integral part of the course content particularly

mountain.


Course Title – The Arts of Communication

Faculty – Mihir Mankad

This course is intended to turn you into a more persuasive and effective public speaker

– someone who speaks with the ease, confidence, clarity, and modes of persuasion

that are critical in today’s corporate, nonprofit, policy and diplomacy worlds. We will

cover a range of speaking scenarios, including presentations, impromptu and prepared

podium speeches, elevator pitches, and simulations of press conferences or media

interviews on camera. The course helps you develop your own personal style by

deepening your understanding of the persuasive tools, recommendations, refutations,

modes of analysis, and variations in audiences that motivate listeners to turn business,

policy and diplomacy ideas into action.

The course is valuable both for students without strong public speaking backgrounds

who wish to develop a basic rhetorical foundation and sense of ease in delivering

public speeches and other presentations, and also for strong speakers who wish to

push their skill in this important area to the next level. This course is thus useful for

both novice and experienced speakers. It is not, however, designed to help with basic

issues of grammar, usage, and fluency, and it is not recommended for students who

are new to English or who seek remedial support. Instead, Arts of Communication

teaches you the strategies, techniques, and habits of skilled speakers, and provides a

rigorous, immersive environment in which to internalize them.

Course Title – India and the World: A Strategic History Since 1945

Faculty – Rudra Chaudhuri

This course aims to cover India’s strategic history in the world since 1945 by dividing

the period into 2 broad parts:

1. The first part will look at the Strategies, Ideas, History and the Cold War from

1945 till 1979;

2. The second part will look Diplomacy, Insurgency and Nuclear Weapons from

1979 till the 21st century.

The course should give students a clearer look at the events and ideas that have gone

into shaping India’s history particularly its strategic history since 1945.


Course Title – Law and Economics

Faculty – Subashish Gangopadhyay

While law tries to create a “just” society based on the principle of equality of all

individuals before the law, economists, want their society to maximize aggregate

welfare. The concept of what is ‘just’ is far removed from the concept of aggregate

welfare and, hence, economists cannot claim that they have a methodology that

is capable of answering questions posed in law. Wherever the two methodologies

give the same answer regarding what to do in a society, i.e., the objectives of the

law and the economics are both satisfied, we have no problem. Where they do

not, the two disciplines need to come together to resolve the conflicting answers.

This course will try and bring these two aspects to the fore.

At the end of the course, we hope that Fellows can:

Identify the economic issues in a legal problem

Formulate the economic issues as an economics problem

Apply the economics methodology to analyse and solve the reformulated problem

Assess whether the economic solution is in conformity with the legal solution

Hence, assess the economic costs and benefits of legal rules and policies

Course Title – Ecology and Global Modernity

Faculty – Aseem Shrivastava

The course offers students an ecological understanding of modernity, as distinct

from an environmental one. We will first discuss the idea of modernity, building in

the process a historical understanding of development and globalisation. Then we

will proceed to the clarification of key conceptual distinctions, such as that

between sustainability and renewal.

The aim will be to help students build an imaginative critical perspective on the

growing global ecological crisis.


Course Title – Philosophy and Cognitive Science

Faculty – Ritwik Agrawal

This course is centered on a philosophical question – is it possible to develop a

‘cognitive science’? That is, a branch of inquiry that will result in definitive and

universal knowledge about the human mind, an entity (for the want of a better

word) which has eluded such claims for millennia.

The significant advances made in the field of linguistics in the last seven decades

provide hope that our increasingly definite and technical knowledge of language will

yield insights into the ‘structure’ of the human mind. The philosophical foundation

for this claim can be traced back to Descartes, who identified our ability to use signs

as the surest indicator of ‘thoughts wrapped up in the body’. Apart from philosophy

and linguistics, we shall consider scholarly literature from psychology, animal

cognition, artificial intelligence, paleoanthropology and related domains in our quest

to understand the properties and special characteristics of the human mind.

Course Title – Religious Pluralism: Models from South Asia

Faculty – Neelima Shukla-Bhatt

In a world most corners of which are becoming increasingly multi-cultural and multi-

religious, turning religious diversity into vibrant pluralism is both a challenge and an

urgent need. People work daily in contexts of diversity. Countries take pride in their

growing diversity. Yet the mere fact of diversity does not create a pluralistic society.

Creation of a pluralistic ethos requires consistent striving for constructive

engagement with diversity by individuals, communities, and institutions of

governance. It requires philosophical thought, cultural traditions, and supportive

policies of the state. With a long history of religious diversity, South Asia has a rich

repertoire of resources for strategies of turning it into pluralism.

This course will explore philosophical/religious concepts, cultural forms, and models

of governance in the history of South Asia that may offer helpful insights for building

pluralistic and harmonious societies in our own times.


Course Title - Kabir: The Poet of Vernacular Modernity

Faculty - Purushottam Agrawal

In this course, we will study Kabir as a major voice of vernacular modernity and rational

enquiry. The question naturally rises—what does modernity means, why is it important? And,

what is meant by vernacular modernity?

Kabir was a bhakta poet. But, was he born to weaver parents or merely brought up by them?

Why he chose the path, he chose? Was it a kind of compulsive choice determined by his social

identity? Or was it a thinking and discriminating individual’s choice? And, what is the kind of

bhakti Kabir and others like him propounded? Was it a mere reaffirmation of old Vaishnava

Dharma? Or it was something rather new, specific to early modern India?

Then, there is the question of Kabir coming out as a misogynist on one hand and himself

adopting the female persona in his poetry on the other. How do we explain it historically and

aesthetically? No prior training in reading early modern texts is expected on part of the

students. The only pre-condition is an open, sensitive and inquisitive mind.

We will be studying following themes.

1. What is vernacular modernity?

2. Who was Kabir?

3. What is Bhakti? (or Bhakti as participation)

4. The feminine and Kabir 5. The poetry: Spirituality beyond religious denominations.

Course Title - Issues in Social Democracy and Social Justice in India

Faculty – Narendra Jadhav

This course aims to take a broad and inclusive look at the various components that

effect the workings of social democracy and social justice in India.

This will be done by examining issues such as the caste system, economic growth and

development, gender, senior citizens, the Indian Constitution and so on, and the

impact and effect of these issues on social democracy and social justice.

List of Courses at the YIF (2018-2019) · 2019. 1. 12. · List of Courses at the YIF (2018-2019)...

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